Baby Boomer Life Skills, That Are Useless Today

UNfolding a paper map is fine... REfolding a map is the real test of skill!

There is no such thing as a useless skill. The more skills you possess, the better person you’ll become.

Being polite to each other is a lost art that I miss.

Am 74, RN, worked until 72. Had computer glitch n the clinic one day. I reverted back to the “olden times” and informed the staff how to continue operating. The “kids” were amazed not only could we keep going but I did it with the ease. Live tech but we need to use our critical thinking skills and keep going.

I am a "boomer" and almost all of the skills I learned as a child have had application throughout my life. I grew up working on farms, learning to drive trucks, tractors, and combines, weld, maintain the vehicles and implements, build houses, and work cattle. At 17, I joined the US Army. This was normal for most farming-community boys my age. Now, it amazes me how immature and unskilled even college-age people are. At a time when they should be adults, many people still have the mentality and abilities of children.

As a teacher, I used to amuse my students by looking at them while I typed on the computer keyboard. They were shocked that I didn't need to look at the keys. I learned touch typing in high school, and it stuck with me. Remember carbon paper?😅

For boomers and senior citizens, the current market and economy are unnecessarily harder. I'm used to simply purchasing and holding assets, which doesn't seem applicable to the current volatile market, and inflation is catching up with my portfolio. My biggest concern is whether I'll survive after retirement.

We were taught to smile at everyone. No one was allowed to be cranky or rude. Courtesy was huge.

You forgot the most important life skill missing today. ETIQUETTE. We were taught in school and mostly at home from Emily Post's book about how to behave in public. We learned proper speaking, attire, dining, dating and gifting. The phone skills were also part of this.

Map reading, especially knowing N, S, E, W directions is still essential, don't kid yourself!! Also, sewing is always very useful, especially machine sewing!!

Do you remember the smell of mimeographed copies? I always jumped up when the teacher would ask for a volunteer to crank paper through the machine.

Skills we were taught that are useless today? I can think of 2 right off: courtesy and respect.

By the time I was 10 years old, I knew how to sew, crochet clean our home, cook, iron, proper manners (much younger actually). I started working in high school to hel myself get through college and assist my parents financially, as their income was quite low. Our family was united and took every opportunity to share and support each other. Values, which unfortunately, have been lost. No complaints here. We did whatever needed to get done. I am currently 65 years of age and everything that I learned gave me the tools to overcome adversities in life.

My grandmother was born in 1900. She could fix any clothing or even make it on her sewing machine. She was fast and played that machine like a maestro. People have lost their hearts and their brains. People have no patience today.

When I was in college, I took a class called IT464, obsolete educational technology, and it was the last time the class was offered. We were taught how to use it all, and we practiced mounting posters on foamboard, using carbon paper, etc. Some years later, I was working at a school where our principal had limited the number of copies each teacher could make. Each of us had a code, and that was it. There was no limit on paper. In storage, I found an old mimeograph machine and I was the only person in the school who knew how to use it. And I did. I can't say the principal was happy. LOL

Cooking from scratch, often using handed down family recipes. How many of us used and/or still have, the Betty Crocker Cooky Book with the red cover? Remember mom making Christmas cookies from that book, to store our in decorative round tins, for our teachers?

When I was 18 years old, I drove across the country in my old beater '71 Mustang for the first time. I didn't even take a map with me. I just learned the roads that I needed to turn on and made it in three days. I listened to whatever radio stations I could dial into, slept in rest areas, and paid for my gas in cash. Roughly 40 years later I was on virtually the same drive when my iPhone died in Boise, ID. Suddenly I had no way to make calls, listen to music, or navigate with my GPS. So, I just did what I'd done before in 1981... Studied a highway map to make sure of my exits, tuned in whatever radio station I could find, and pointed my truck west. I knew that I was headed west because the highway signs told me what route I was on and the sun was on my left-hand side in the afternoon. I did manage to use my iPad to message my wife that I was offline while in the vehicle when I stopped for lunch at McDonalds. And since I was running a bit late that day I decided to stop for the night rather than push it and drive the last few hours in the mountains while tired. Did I stop at a five star hotel with a jacuzzi tub to soak away my troubles? Nope. I slept soundly in the front seat of my truck at a highway rest stop. Who wants to waste $150 or more for a few hours of sleep? 🤣

I still go inside the bank to the teller window. I still use a typewriter for some things, not just a computer keyboard. I still write in cursive. I still eat inside restaurants, and I know how to balance a checkbook! Oh, and I know how to count back change too! All of these are still very useful in my book.

There used to be a certain social decorum that seems to have largely disappeared. I saw a guy in a grocery store with only the F word on it in large letters. In my day he’d have been thrown out of the store and generally shunned. Today nobody cares.

A couple of years ago I took my then 22yo son on a road trip to see some art silos with only a paper map. It was his job to get up to the next silo. He also had to factor in how far the next stop was and work out a place to spend the night. He had strict instructions I was not driving after dusk. Too many kangaroos and foxes. He lost our way just once during 5 days and about 3000kms. Along the way he found other stop off points. We got back home and I received a hand written thank you note.