We are the last generation that will...

donegal_man wrote: »

Remember making hay, threshing corn, going to the bog to save turf. The above all mean nothing to my own children who are growing up in an urban environment. When I talk to them of walking to the village shop/post office to make a telephone call to my auntie in England for Christmas they look at me as if a character from Dickens has taken my place. The horror when I told them our school had outside toilets and we used to spend a day unloading a load of turf for the open fires was something to behold and as for the idea that we had only two television stations!

And of course when you got to school there was every chance of getting a hiding from the teacher, unless of course you came from a well off family.

El Tarangu wrote: »

Being able to read a clock will soon (if not already) be about as useful as being able to use a rotary telephone or read a sundial.

Have to disagree with that, clocks are everywhere and still widely used, its an important skill to have

izzyflusky wrote: »

How is that possible? They are thought in primary school. My 6 year old can tell the time on a regular clock and I would say all his classmates.

I am guessing it is a skill that they don't use enough (as they rely on phones) and if you don't use a skill you use it, either that or the very large cohort of teenagers I am with did not pay attention in school

have access to affordable air travel for the masses.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I can easily see handwriting dying out which would be a shame. Along with several species.

A +1 to this.

Last year I visited my late mothers old school in the midlands,shortly to close down.
In the course of my visit one of the older ex teaching sisters was able to get the Official School Ledger ( a VERY big book) in which the details of all pupils were recorded. The book spanned some 40 years from mid 1930's.

The individual class registers (clár) were then transcribed from this master list.

What struck me was the steady decline of the handwriting through the decades,as the Pen & Ink of the 30's and 40's gave way to biro in the 1950's.
The entries for my Mothers era were absolutely crystal clear,with bold copperplate strokes and fully legible to any reader....sadly towards the end of the book,the readibility was average at best.

Also of interest were the red-inked notations of the Inspector,who usually arrived from Dublin to check these records and would pick-up on any discrepencies in spelling or grammar in the ledgers.

Definitely a dying art....we may yet end up painting images on cave walls.....again !!

greenttc wrote: »

Have to disagree with that, clocks are everywhere and still widely used, its an important skill to have

They're still everywhere now, for sure. But I can't see them building many new ones that are only analog.

Boredstiff666 wrote: »

Yeah why was that?

From eating bones, apparently - people don't give bones to dogs any more due to the risk of choking.

Miss something on the TV because you're not physically sitting there right at the time of transmission

El Tarangu wrote: »

From eating bones, apparently - people don't give bones to dogs any more due to the risk of choking.

It still turns white if left long enough. Discovered a few at the back of my garden last summer and my dogs never ate bones. I'd imagine we don't see it these days because dogs don't roam around so much and if they sh*t in public, its cleaned up.