Old crafts dying out

[saddad]

We still bake...  :)

[saddad]

[Borlotti]

saddad, I didn't mean to be rude, it is just your allotment name 'saddad', just made me think of an old granddad.  Don't know why,  I am almost old enought to be your mother so I can shut up.

[pippy]

I don't worry too much about knitting and corn dollies, but it does concern me that the ability to mend anything is disappearing.  Take bicycles for example - how many young lads have top range bikes but can't even repair a puncture?  It is a bit worrying.

My main irritation at the moment is the great British cuppa.  Why is it that just about everywhere you go it has to come out of a machine, hot water from a machine, and those blasted mini plastic containers of UHT milk.  I have two small children who like to drink tea (complete with teapot, milk jug, cups and saucers!) and everywhere it is dumbed down, despite being over £1 per person. >:(  Okay - rant over.  We need (as a society) to start to care about these details, mend things, look after each other and be PROUD OF OUR TEA RITUALS  ;D ;D ;D !

[saddad]

saddad, I didn't mean to be rude, it is just your allotment name 'saddad', just made me think of an old granddad.

It's what my eldest son said I was when he saw me looking at another (ie this) allotment site on the net... said I should use it as my Username so I did...  ;D

[Deb P]

I don't worry too much about knitting and corn dollies, but it does concern me that the ability to mend anything is disappearing.  Take bicycles for example - how many young lads have top range bikes but can't even repair a puncture?  It is a bit worrying.quote]

I am the only one of my friends who possesses a sewing machine.....and they are amazed that I can put together simple items like curtains and soft furnishings that they would not dream of trying to make themselves. Some truly would not know how to repair a small rip in a pair of kids trousers or sew a button on, they just buy more stuff! I was lucky, my mum taught me to sew and I am trying to pass it on to my kids.

My daughter recently finished her GCSE textiles, mostly completed on our sewing machine and she now has a grudging respect that her aged parent knows how to use a pattern and can construct a complicated garment.

OH knows the bike stuff, and taught our son how to maintain his bike as we can't afford new wheels every time he has a puncture! ;D

[pippy]

Good to hear that Debs. :)

I don't have a sewing machine, but have hand sewn curtains, mended clothes and especially patched trousers (small boys).  Intersestingly some of the younger mums look disgusted when they see you have patched trouser knees ... obviously its not the done thing anymore  ::).

Have just baked a scrummy apple cake .... soup tomorrow ?! ;D ;D

[lewic]

This?

[lewic]

These are my Mum's creations! You can't move in her house for toilet roll middles and boxes of buttons..

[tonybloke]

love the high - level cistern in the left image!! ;)

[Larkshall]

My dad was a smallholder in the 1930's, gave it up in 1936 and started building airfields. He cycled 25 miles each way and did a twelve hour day. He bought a second-hand  motor cycle for 12s 6d (62.5p)at the end of the first week.

[Tinkie_Bear]

There's a lot of old crafts in our house!

I bake, make jam and soup, make wine, sew, make curtains and soft furnishings, cross stitch, knit (although I am crap at it) sew buttons on, mend stuff etc. etc.

Hubby is just as good, he mends all sorts of things and we have taught his son all sorts of stuff that he currently thinks are daft but hopefully he will remember in years to come when he has a family of his own and is skint.

It amuses me to see the confused looks on my neighbours faces when they see me over the road gathering blackberries and sloes - they haven't a clue, mind you all the more for me!  Another thing that isn't what it once was is chestnutting, something I do every year.  People are also afraid to gather mushrooms, crazy when there are such excelent ways to make sure you don't poison yourself online.

Helen aged 35 1/4 !!

[Eristic]

If we were to have 20 years of austerity the current teens to thirties group are likely to die out or when absolutely starving concede defeat and start working. If they were hungry long enough they would even start to think.

As for the 50p jar of jam, It's not JAM, and in austerity it would not be 50p either.

It's not all teenagers that are in the can't cook won't cook category, just the lower classes. These skills will not die out, if fact I think there is already a national movement by most with a decent education to take their health more seriously.

Some old crafts are simply no longer needed as innovation improves but they are still archived in books and Google to be resurrected should the need occur.

[glow777]

As for the 50p jar of jam, It's not JAM,

says Jam on the label, looks like Jam and tastes like Jam ;D

joking aside there is a shop in Macclesfield that sells army surplus and you can by a catering size tub of strawberry jam for £2 and its the best jam ive ever tasted, no wonder we have the best army in the world. Who needs body armer when we have strawberry

[Hector]

Not a class thing necessarily....I worked with a very bright person who was from a well padded background who brought up a family of 4 on M&S ready meals...as busy and had "never learned to cook".

[manicscousers]

my daughter(30) still bakes and cooks from fresh on her days off, my son in law(30) has now taken over cooking when she's working, he makes a mean pan of soup...my grandson (10) has just started cooking(admittedly from a jamie oliver book) and my niece, also 10, loves cooking so it's not all bad  ;D