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Holiday cottage owners had left us a pint of milk in the fridge - proper retro glass milk bottle with the foil lid. I had to show LittleMissMC how to open it.
To be fair, she's never had to deal with one before.
Gold top?
But how did you open it, pressure from the thumb on it or the heathen way of picking the edge of the cap like the wife does?
I used to just thump the top with the palm of my hand and lift off the lid, I'd forgotten about that.
Sometimes they used to have been pierced by birds.
We got one the other day from a farm shop vending machine. Quite a nice thing really.
Yup, the blue tits around here have long since forgotten how to do that. My silvertop bottles don't get attacked any more
I used to just thump the top with the palm
Ooh, i like that. Must try it in the morning
Tomorrow's thread; got half a broken milk bottle in my palm; NHS111 or A&E?
Ours hadn’t either but then we started using the local milkman in lockdown. I don’t know, but assume, that apart from the sustainability benefits (offset by the rattly ancient Mercedes Vito milk float) it pays the farmers better than supermarket milk?
We got one the other day from a farm shop vending machine. Quite a nice thing really.
That sounds excellent - where was it?
No need to take the top off in the early 60s Winters, it was standing on spout of frozen milk. I haven't bought milk in years.
They don't even know how to sew leather onto wood nowadays!
But neither does anyone else alive today
Applying a stamp to a handwritten envelope and dropping it in a post box was an astonishing revelation. They LIDWRALLY had no idea any element of that was possible
Carefully fishing an audio tape out of a car stereo and using a pen to wind it back in. While lurching around in a car driven by a teenage idiot who has fantasies of being Nigel Mansell.
Putting a thick blade of grass between your thumbs and blowing to make it whistle.
My Gran used her elbow to press down on the foil top. I've always done it like that once she showed me as I had a habit of putting my thumb through it .
They've completely lost the art of taking a bowie knife into the woods, finding a nice stick, sharpening it into a spear - then chucking it at a mate! Great days! 😀
Applying a stamp to a handwritten envelope and dropping it in a post box was an astonishing revelation. They LIDWRALLY had no idea any element of that was possible
We had a 20 something in our shop with her dad. She was buying a card for her grandad. After writing the card ,dad gave her the address and a stamp. She asked where the stamp went.
We've never not had a milk delivery. The local dairy started a milk vending machine, churning out all sorts of products, most popular are the milk shakes. It sold out in hours.
Sewing, knitting, crotchet, weaving, darning (mend and re-purpose) are all things that granny taught us and no longer seem to be hobbies that youngsters want to do or know how to do.
My dad once mildly mocked my offspring for not knowing how a rotary phone worked, and that they had to wait for a dial tone.
We've not had a landline for about a decade, so they've literally never ever needed to use one.
I did point out that dad struggled to work an iPad, or use voice recognition, but I think the ironing was lost on him 😁
We too have milk delivered in bottles from the local dairy, by ancient milk float. So my lot can now deal with the heinous task of deflowering them.
using a pen to wind it back in.
I hope you mean 'holding the pen and spinning the cassette'?
Yup, the blue tits around here have long since forgotten how to do that.
And, as most milk is homogenised now, there'd be no point in them trying. No nice layer of cream on the top anymore 😣
I used to do a milk round from the age of 14 to 16. Nice pocket money but the 4:30 am starts did have me falling asleep at the desk in school more than once. It did keep me fit too, we had to run everywhere to keep up with the float and hurdle garden fences with 5 pint bottles of milk in each hand! 4 between the fingers and one in the palm of each hand. God knows how I used to manage that!
And, as most milk is homogenised now, there'd be no point in them trying.
Silver top pasteurised from the Milk and More operation is definitely not homogenised, I regularly get a proper plug of cream on my Rice Krispies. So they're missing out on that little treat.
Young people not knowing how to do stuff that is now irrelevant versus old people who don't know how to do stuff that is very important in 2025. I would say the problems are going to be felt by the old people who haven't kept up..
My daughters have no idea how to knap an arrowhead out of flint. Kids these days eh?
I had a filling yesterday, without painkillers or anaesthetic!
Escape Rooms are my jam. There is a concept here where Outside Knowledge shouldn't be required because if you're faced with a puzzle and - say - don't know what the capital of Egypt is then you're knackered, there's no way of deducing that.
This has led to industry conversations around what exactly is "outside knowledge." There has to be a degree where common sense offsets the absurd, right? Do we assume that we can't use words in case there's an illiterate / foreign player? Some people are bad at maths. Others present accessibility issues, scent-based puzzles are a non-starter for those with anosmia.
What's been interesting in the discussions here is how much "obvious" knowledge is actually dead. Like, why would a Gen Z innately understand how to operate a landline? A game I played last week had a VCR in it. Wildly, the ability to read an analogue clock is now considered a lost skill, because when would a teenager ever need to do that? Right between calculating using a slide rule and wiring a plug?
What we grew up with no longer exists. Dry Stone Walling went out with my grandparents. Today a SNES is the realm of TikTok reaction videos. The old "3D printed save icon" floppy disk gag is... hey wait, some people still save things manually rather than it just happening automatically? You'll be telling me next that you once had to hurry home to catch a TV programme.
It is by turns exciting, fascinating and terrifying. Or maybe that's just what A.I. wanted me to say.
My daughters have no idea how to knap an arrowhead out of flint. Kids these days eh?
I blame the parents.
Not bad.. .but the example I thought of was sewing a leather handle/strap onto a wooden walking stick. I did once see a list of things noone knew how to do anymore
Dry Stone Walling went out with my grandparents.
Really? They still exist and are repaired. I'll bet there is plenty of work out there for people with these skills.
Dry Stone Walling went out with my grandparents.
Very much alive in Derbyshire and Lancashire and Yorkshire any other county with lots of dry stone wall! 🙂
I would say the problems are going to be felt by the old people who haven't kept up..
This is true, but there are genuine cognitive and physiological reasons why many people struggle to cope with technological change as they reach old age. It's not an affectation or done to wind young people up.
This is true, but there are genuine cognitive and physiological reasons why many people struggle to cope with technological change as they reach old age.
There's also the 'can't be arsed' factor. I'm 57 and there are certain things I swerve now - not through lack of skill but because I don't have the same drive to learn something new.
Like now - I know I should learn more about AI for my job (print trade), but it's so fast moving I'm hoping it goes away(!) or I manage to get out of the trade before it destroys it! 🙂
Yup, the blue tits around here have long since forgotten how to do that.
That's because birds are lactose intolerant and homogenised milk made them stop. They only wanted the cream!
This is true, but there are genuine cognitive and physiological reasons why many people struggle to cope with technological change as they reach old age. It's not an affectation or done to wind young people up.
Maybe if you are 90 but not many people are 9 are they. A 75 year old who doesn't have the internet, email address etc,. or know how to use it was only 55 when it was very widely used so what were they doing at 55, getting their excuses ready?
This is true, but there are genuine cognitive and physiological reasons why many people struggle to cope with technological change as they reach old age.
There's also the 'can't be arsed' factor. I'm 57 and there are certain things I swerve now - not through lack of skill but because I don't have the same drive to learn something new.
Like now - I know I should learn more about AI for my job (print trade), but it's so fast moving I'm hoping it goes away(!) or I manage to get out of the trade and retire before it destroys it! 🙂
^^^ Why has my edit created a duplicate post!! 🤷♂️
^^^ Why has my edit created a duplicate post!!
Irony?
Applying a stamp to a handwritten envelope and dropping it in a post box was an astonishing revelation. They LIDWRALLY had no idea any element of that was possible
When was the last time anyone actually put a stamp on an envelope and posted it though? It must be a good decade since I’ve done that.
Mrs Binners had to do so recently and told me how much a first class stamp cost. £1.70!!! Bloody hell! It’s no wonder nobody is posting anything any more! 😳
The idea of a bloke walking around every day, on his round, delivering letters to every house, must surely be going the same way as walking round lighting the gas lamps in the evening?
going the same way as walking round lighting the gas lamps in the evening?
I bumped into the guy servicing the sewer gas lamp in Carting Lane, London last year, so it's still a thing... just.
We quite often cycle under the "Great Train Robbery Bridge" was quite gob smacked when one of my 30yr + old kids asked me what the great train robbery was?
Automatic cars getting harder to find becos new drivers cant change gear
What happens when computers do everything so we cant use our brains anymore? Do we all get entertained for ever?
Our neighbours were round recently for a cup of tea. As is decent, we put the milk bottle on the table for self-service. This was a new bottle, lid untouched. Neighbour is a 40-something lady from a farming background - saw her poking the lid, trying to peel it off. "You alright there?" I asked. "How does this come off?" she said.
Flabbergasted.
Double post
Wiring a plug , setting points TDC 😉, whacking the starter motor with a spanner when it jammed, crawling under to undo the sump nut , removing the oil filter great fun , clambering over a pile of scrap cars for spare parts , ah the good old days 😜
Holiday cottage owners had left us a pint of milk in the fridge - proper retro glass milk bottle with the foil lid. I had to show LittleMissMC how to open it.
To be fair, she's never had to deal with one before.
We get the in the office. About three people can open them properly.
I have presented a lunchtime cpd on the matter.
We quite often cycle under the "Great Train Robbery Bridge" was quite gob smacked when one of my 30yr + old kids asked me what the great train robbery was?
I hope you told them that was where they stole a whole train including 15 carriages and still no one knows how they did it to this day
What we grew up with no longer exists. Dry Stone Walling went out with my grandparents. Today
Perhaps where you live but my mates son is undergoing training by a local dyker and is also attending college for same thing.
Quite a demand for it up here in Galloway
Without needed to get into specifics and hand wringing too hard about lost skills, what I find fascinating is I can't imagine there has been a time in history with people two generations apart where the younger generation has lost skills the older generation take for granted and and the older generation been been so inadequately and ill prepared for current essential skills.
And yet, we are expecting people to have a longer working life than at any time in history.
This is true, but there are genuine cognitive and physiological reasons why many people struggle to cope with technological change as they reach old age. It's not an affectation or done to wind young people up.
Maybe if you are 90 but not many people are 9 are they. A 75 year old who doesn't have the internet, email address etc,. or know how to use it was only 55 when it was very widely used so what were they doing at 55, getting their excuses ready?
My mum is 69 this year yet she has no idea how to send an email nor really use the internet etc. She does use an iPad/iPhone and can use messenger/facebook/Whats app but that’s it, doesn’t use iPlayer or suchlike.
I do most of the online stuff for her
She can strip a chainsaw and replace piston/rings, chop logs/kindlers. Mix concrete, lay a dead square brick course. Frame a wall, skim plaster. Change a tyre. Bake/cook whatever you like from memory, curse you in fluent Gaelic
I'm often surprised at some of the comments on STW but then again I take a step back and realise it’s STW and it’s a rather amusing insular crowd that is not really representative of much
I can't imagine there has been a time in history with people two generations apart where the younger generation has lost skills the older generation take for granted and and the older generation been been so inadequately and ill prepared for current essential skills.
Oh I disagree. For most of human history the lives of the parents were pretty much exactly the same as those of the children. The stone age lasted for over three million years - where the main technology was stone tools.
She can strip a chainsaw and replace piston/rings, chop logs/kindlers. Mix concrete, lay a dead square brick course. Frame a wall, skim plaster. Change a tyre. Bake/cook whatever you like from memory, curse you in fluent Gaelic
The post wasn't about doing things, it was about learning things. How many genuinely new unrelated skills has your mum learned in the last 20 years?
Oh I disagree. For most of human history the lives of the parents were pretty much exactly the same as those of the children. The stone age lasted for over three million years - where the main technology was stone tools.
I'm often surprised at some of the comments on STW but then again I take a step back and realise it’s STW and it’s a rather amusing insular crowd that is not really representative of much
Same. It comes across as a hard faced contempt for anyone who struggles with stuff others find easy. An absence of empathy or compassion.
Thankfully people, (including those commenters probably) are generally kinder in real life.
The post wasn't about doing things, it was about learning things. How many genuinely new unrelated skills has your mum learned in the last 20 years?
I’ve been teaching her how to grind weed to a suitable consistency and roll a decent 3 skinner joint, she’s quite good at it now but still rolls a bit tight. Admittedly she’s had previous experiences with this back in the 70’s.
Also teaching her how to make a decent espresso/cappuccino as I’m going to lose the ability at some point. She’s learned how to prime machine/heat cup/portafilter. Use my grinder and declump the grinds with a needle tool for consistency, tamp down and brew for the correct extraction, steam milk to ensure a decent micro foam
She’s learning and can make a decent cappuccino, certainly up the standards of any cafe in town.
She’ll be picking me some mushrooms next month, I’ll be showing her how to make a decent long steeped brew 😉
She’ll be picking me some mushrooms next month, I’ll be showing her how to make a decent long steeped brew
Can you run a webinar?
When was the last time anyone actually put a stamp on an envelope and posted it though?
It kinda blew my mind that I could wipe a tiny bit of shit on a tiny little plastic stick, pop it in a bottle in a sealed bag and post that in the letterbox.
No stamp required as prepaid by NHS.
Feel for the postman though, they'll know what it is, hoping the person posting it had good hygiene standards.
Escape Rooms are my jam. There is a concept here where Outside Knowledge shouldn't be required because if you're faced with a puzzle and - say - don't know what the capital of Egypt is then you're knackered, there's no way of deducing that.
This has led to industry conversations around what exactly is "outside knowledge." There has to be a degree where common sense offsets the absurd, right? Do we assume that we can't use words in case there's an illiterate / foreign player? Some people are bad at maths. Others present accessibility issues, scent-based puzzles are a non-starter for those with anosmia.
What's been interesting in the discussions here is how much "obvious" knowledge is actually dead. Like, why would a Gen Z innately understand how to operate a landline? A game I played last week had a VCR in it. Wildly, the ability to read an analogue clock is now considered a lost skill, because when would a teenager ever need to do that? Right between calculating using a slide rule and wiring a plug?
What we grew up with no longer exists. Dry Stone Walling went out with my grandparents. Today a SNES is the realm of TikTok reaction videos. The old "3D printed save icon" floppy disk gag is... hey wait, some people still save things manually rather than it just happening automatically? You'll be telling me next that you once had to hurry home to catch a TV programme.
It is by turns exciting, fascinating and terrifying. Or maybe that's just what A.I. wanted me to say.
This is sort of adjacent to the conversations about what to write on the door of a bunker full of nuclear waste - when the contents are destined to remain dangerous for longer than the existence of any current written language or our ideas of nations and governments and regulation. Even the idea of putting a skull and crossbones on the door doesn't work - it used to denote 'poison' at the start of the 20th Century - but you now get little pirate themed onesies for toddlers with the same symbol on them now - and they're not poisonous, even if you eat a whole one. Even then, it was originally it was a symbol of resurrection rather than death so has already done a complete 180 in terms of meaning. Personally I'm tending towards Ray Cats as the best solution.
Unless the lost learning we are talking about is the art of English comprehension
Ah no, I have lost the art of reading properly 🙂 I concede.
Very good 👍🏻edit - I appear to have lost the ability to left align.
That tends to happen as people get older
Really? They still exist and are repaired. I'll bet there is plenty of work out there for people with these skills.
It was a random example. They do still exist of course, there was a course being run near me not so long ago. I would have signed up but for calendar clashes. Point was, it's not something I would expect to be common knowledge (which is why I wanted to do the course, I don't like not knowing things).
Maybe if you are 90 but not many people are 9 are they. A 75 year old who doesn't have the internet, email address etc,. or know how to use it was only 55 when it was very widely used so what were they doing at 55, getting their excuses ready?
I overheard a conversation with my pensioner neighbour discussing a guttering repair, the tradesman said "I can only buy gutters in 5m lengths" and he replied "I don't know what that is."
I get that change is scary, but christ. Even if we bounce over the notion that metres and yards are broadly interchangeable, you've had half a century to grasp this. There has to be a point where you're just being wilfully ignorant.
I have presented a lunchtime cpd on the matter.
A what now?
No one under 55 gets to touch my Rega
No-one under 55 wants to.
when the contents are destined to remain dangerous for longer than the existence of any current written language or our ideas of nations and governments and regulation.
If you put it in a steel and concrete vault 100m underground in solid rock and seal it with concrete, anyone with the technology to dig it up should be able to figure out that they need to be very cautious about opening it.
They've completely lost the art of taking a bowie knife into the woods, finding a nice stick, sharpening it into a spear - then chucking it at a mate! Great days!
We used to go one better than that, we’d cut a small groove about 2/3 of the way along, tie a knot in a piece of string, wrap the string around the groove and over the knot and use it like an aboriginal Woomera or throwing stick - we’d also cut cross slits in the end and fold square bits of card and slide them down into the slits for flights. We could get a fair distance from those, a basic arrow, but without a bow. Great fun!
^^ We used to do similar, it was called a Dutch Arrow down here in Kent anyway.
Those things used to go a bloody long way! Ridiculous the stupid things were used to do with them such as throwing them vertically and trying to dodge them as they came down. Harder said than done on a bright summer's day with a tiny cross section to try and make out. 😁
I overheard a conversation with my pensioner neighbour discussing a guttering repair, the tradesman said "I can only buy gutters in 5m lengths" and he replied "I don't know what that is."
I get that change is scary, but christ. Even if we bounce over the notion that metres and yards are broadly interchangeable, you've had half a century to grasp this. There has to be a point where you're just being wilfully ignorant.
This. We formally adopted the metric system in 1968. The fact that we didn’t finish the job is a national embarrassment.
Even if he doesn’t know what a metre is (and frankly how hard is it to know it’s 40”) then he should know it’s a bit more than a yard. No sympathy.
We definitely found an age cutoff at work where you did / didn't know what a 3 speed bicycle hub gear was.
Why would kids know how to do things when their parents won't let them. Did/does anyone on here let their kids out of the house with a dirty big knife. Many of my mates' parents did (but not mine). Do you let your five-years old out of the house after breakfast and not expect to see or hear of them till lunch time? (mine did). Were you given saws, planes, screws, lumps of wood at 7 and left to it? I was. By 8 I had explored just about everywhere within 5 miles of home - still exploring the same way today but walking and cycling further.
As for childhod memories I enjoyed this Guardian article till the final photo - that's not the same stone, not from any angle:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/sep/11/standing-stone-childhood-photo-scottish-island-islay
Putting a thick blade of grass between your thumbs and blowing to make it whistle.
^^It should be part of the national curriculum, these things need to be passed on.
Along with :-
Making an owl noise.
Whistling with fingers ( extra marks if using only one hand).
Armpit fart noises.
😉 😜
The thrill of playing knock and run...
"Putting a thick blade of grass between your thumbs and blowing to make it whistle"
My boy was the epi-centre of the school playing field, for an after this past summer term, as he showed his class mates the above.
Proud moment.
Him being name school y10 rugby captain, yday, is almost as good .... 🙂
A song I wrote (about the joys of being a kid in the 60s and 70s) includes the line "you'd often find a Fiesta in a hedge". Blokes my age would smile, everyone else thinks it's about a car crash.
Oh, and I had to post a letter at the weekend. Most odd, and I found there was a letter box at the bottom of our road that I hadn't spotted before in the 3 years we've lived here.
^^ We used to do similar, it was called a Dutch Arrow down here in Kent anyway.
Those things used to go a bloody long way!
We used to make "scotch arrows" from real arrows. They could easily clear a football pitch.
when the contents are destined to remain dangerous for longer than the existence of any current written language or our ideas of nations and governments and regulation.
If you put it in a steel and concrete vault 100m underground in solid rock and seal it with concrete, anyone with the technology to dig it up should be able to figure out that they need to be very cautious about opening it.
Putting it like that you make it sound like an Egyptian pryramid - there must be treasure in there - we'll be rich beyond our wildest dreams... if only we can get the this door with open!
But when they do finally prise the door open they find the desiccated remains of Cougar - turns out it was actually his ultimate and final escape room