Once common 'domestic' skills that are dying out

[Sasaferrato]

I remember having a wheel nut that had been done up so tightly that I bent the wheel brace getting it undone. It ended up being a recovery call-out.

When I get new tyres I won't let them use an air wrench.

 

[Mumbles274]

Polishing brass door furniture. Who's doing that these days, once a very common sight.

And while not domestic, do kids do their distance badges when they learn to swim?

See also being able to string a conker with a bootlace

And for adults, making a hash pipe out of a carrot/spud/tin can. See also homemade bongs, buckets and being able to delicately ping the side of a milk bottle at the bottom so you could make a solo hot knife bottle

 

[rubbershoes]

I've never written a cheque ever and I'm 40 lol. Just annoyed me when I got one and had to locate a bank.

Was that before banks allowed you to pay them in on the app?

 

[og ogilby]

I suppose no one would attempt to take a pair of trousers up now or let them down as the case may be.

I don't suppose many kids have their necks cleaned with spit and a hanky either.

Another long lost domestic skill - getting rid of the smell of a fart by striking a match.

 

[WouldBe]

Polishing brass door furniture. Who's doing that these days, once a very common sight.

It's all lacquered these days so no need.

 

[WouldBe]

Should I ever be promoted from from being a chief scout badge holder to being chief scout, I will instigate the “I sew my own damned badges on” badge and make it a prerequisite of all other badges…when did parents sewing on badges become a thing?

Sewing badge should be the first badge. Can't get that you can't get any of the others.

 

[WouldBe]

Not read all the pages but tin openers, I had to use one last night and it reminded me of when daughter let her oldest(11 at the time) try it out, she didn't have a clue

If that's hard god knows what they would make if one of those tins with a key to unwind the lid.

 

[Mumbles274]

It's all lacquered these days so no need.

Exactly.. Which is a shame as I believe brass is naturally good at not harbouring bacteria

 

[Dystopiary]

During rationing, pale skinned girls and women would use gravy browning to paint their legs to make it look like they had tights on. Some women would use a black pen or eyeliner to draw a line down the back for a visible "seam" as used to be the fashion. Because tights and stockings were too expensive to keep replacing.

I found that out from reading one of the sequels to "Twopence to Cross the Mersey."

 

[Sue]

During rationing, pale skinned girls and women would use gravy browning to paint their legs to make look like they had tights on. Some women would use a black pen or eyeliner to draw a line down the back for a visible "seam" as used to be the fashion. Because tights and stockings were too expensive to keep replacing.

I found that out from reading one of the sequels to "Twopence to Cross the Mersey."

Not just pale skinned women. Apparently drawing your seams straight was v tricky so you'd get your friends/family to do it for you.

 

[existentialist]

It's all lacquered these days so no need.

Until the useless lacquer wears out

 

[Dystopiary]

Not just pale skinned women. Apparently drawing your seams straight was v tricky so you'd get your friends/family to do it for you.

I'd never attempt the seam bit myself. It'd be a disaster!

 

[Sue]

I'd never attempt the seam bit myself. It'd be a disaster!

I know, right? (Used to hear these stories from my great auntie. Who looked like a film star and married a Canadian airman she met during WW2 wearing a dress made of parachute silk.)

 

[WouldBe]

During rationing, pale skinned girls and women would use gravy browning to paint their legs to make look like they had tights on.

And suddenly be best friends with every dog in the area.

 

[Dystopiary]

And suddenly be best friends with every dog in the area.

I'll bet!

 

[May Kasahara]

Not just pale skinned women. Apparently drawing your seams straight was v tricky so you'd get your friends/family to do it for you.

As immortalised in Hope and Glory, when the protagonist's teenage sister ends up falling out with her GI beau as he takes the piss out of her - "I've never seen stockings that go all the way up!"

 

[Epona]

And suddenly be best friends with every dog in the area.

No meat in it, it was made from molasses - more likely to be followed around by horses

 

[WouldBe]

No meat in it, it was made from molasses - more likely to be followed around by horses

That might be worse.

 

[Spymaster]

And suddenly be best friends with every dog in the area.

There weren't many dogs around in the days of rationing as millions of pets were put down during the war to conserve food resources.

Apparently, 750,000 were killed in just one week of the early stages of WW2.

 

[Epona]

There weren't many dogs around in the days of rationing as millions of pets were put down during the war to conserve food resources.

Apparently, 750,000 were killed in just one week of the early stages of WW2.

A lot more would have been turned loose to fend for themselves if they couldn't be fed (which was the main impetus for people having them put down) though, even pet dogs were allowed to roam unsupervised back then - I don't think the streets of any major city would have been free of dogs and cats as a result of this, even though a lot of people sadly did make that decision.

 

[Spymaster]

A lot more would have been turned loose to fend for themselves if they couldn't be fed (which was the main impetus for people having them put down) though, even pet dogs were allowed to roam unsupervised back then - I don't think the streets of any major city would have been free of dogs and cats as a result of this, even though a lot of people sadly did make that decision.

Not sure that was the case. Maybe in the country they'd survive turned loose but the reason I knew about it was because my mum told me that you'd see very few dogs or cats in London during the war.

 

[cesare]

Not sure that was the case. Maybe in the country they'd survive turned loose but the reason I knew about it was because my mum told me that you'd see very few dogs or cats in London during the war.

Was your mam a war baby? I thought you were quite a bit younger than me (that's not to say she wasn't obv)

 

[spitfire]

roof rabbit

 

[Spymaster]

Was your mam a war baby? I thought you were quite a bit younger than me (that's not to say she wasn't obv)

She was born in 1927. I think there's only 3 or 4 years between you and me.

 

[StoneRoad]

When I get new tyres I won't let them use an air wrench.

same here - the local [non-chain] chap I buy from will do that, he's quite good at wheel-balancing.

 

[Saunders]

I changed a tyre this year (on my driveway), first time after passing my test 13 years ago. Felt like I should give it a go. Turns out I couldn't even lift the spare out of the boot without help, and also couldn't loosen the wheel nuts Guess it's back to calling the AA next time I get a flat on my own.

I also changed a tyre on my own for the first time last year, on the side of the road, and it was so much more difficult than when I’d done it with someone. As you say, getting the spare out, getting the punctured one back in. Also forgetting to loosen all the nuts first so I jacked it up and back down three times, getting the nuts back on with the wheel spinning round, jacking it down and up. Having to bounce up and down on the spanner thingy and nothing happening and having to believe that I could do it, I was on my way back from work and knackered and nearly in tears. But it was immensely satisfying to finally have done it, I sent a photo to my son

 

[BassJunkie]

I had some instruction from a member of the dry stone walling association

I was reading this without my glasses. Twice I read it as Dry Stone Wailing Association.

So that's now the name of my new band. We'll cover Bob Marley and Rolling Stones tunes.

 

[jontz01]

Polishing brass door furniture. Who's doing that these days, once a very common sight.

And while not domestic, do kids do their distance badges when they learn to swim?

See also being able to string a conker with a bootlace

And for adults, making a hash pipe out of a carrot/spud/tin can. See also homemade bongs, buckets and being able to delicately ping the side of a milk bottle at the bottom so you could make a solo hot knife bottle

You're not a real stoner if you haven't smoked hash out of a carrot

 

[AnnaKarpik]

During rationing, pale skinned girls and women would use gravy browning to paint their legs to make it look like they had tights on. Some women would use a black pen or eyeliner to draw a line down the back for a visible "seam" as used to be the fashion. Because tights and stockings were too expensive to keep replacing.

I found that out from reading one of the sequels to "Twopence to Cross the Mersey."

Tights - as an alternative to stockings - didn't become a thing until many years after rationing finished, roughly mid to late sixties if memory serves.

 

[Saunders]

Not a domestic skill but a domestic practise, I don’t imagine there are many people scrubbing their front step any more. We moved into a house in a street many years ago and were confused about the noise we’d hear every morning (maybe every Monday, can’t remember) and it was the older women who lived opposite and a few doors down scrubbing their steps and having a morning chat