posted
And watch them laugh at you for being so ridiculous.
Do you know your pike drills? How's your skill with a longbow? Can you plow a field with an ox? Know how to drive a steam locomotive?
Posts: 891 | Registered: Feb 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Everyone needs at least one old timey skill mastered and at the ready if they want to be of use in the post-apocalyptic new world order when Z Day comes.
Dead weight takes on a new meaning when you're useless to the group.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
Have them insert a cassette tape correctly into a player and then play it. Have them fix said cassette if it gets unwound a little.
Have them find a location the old-fashioned way: without GPS.
Have them load a film camera, take a whole roll of pictures without a screen to help, and then get those pictures developed.
Have them write a letter to someone, prepare it for mailing, and then put it in the mailbox and lift the flag.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by advice for robots: Have them load a film camera, take a whole roll of pictures without a screen to help, and then get those pictures developed.
Have them develop the film themselves.
Posts: 1357 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by advice for robots: Have them load a film camera, take a whole roll of pictures without a screen to help, and then get those pictures developed.
Have them develop the film themselves.
Not sure it's worth the argument, but that's beyond the scope of this thread. I'd say among the general population in the 80s, where I was pulling that from, few knew how to develop their own film. Everyone knew how to drop it off at the Fotomat, however.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Everyone needs at least one old timey skill mastered and at the ready if they want to be of use in the post-apocalyptic new world order when Z Day comes.
Dead weight takes on a new meaning when you're useless to the group.
This worries me. I'm not sure how useful I would be to the group. I can do basic sewing/mending by hand and I am a decent cook, but I think my biggest asset would be my husband, he of the emergency-medically trained, Eagle Scout, familiar with wilderness survival, good at any basic home construction including plumbing. So I'll just stick next to him, I suppose.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
My basic chemistry and mechanical skills would come in handy. I could make a still for alcohol, make black powder, possibly a few other explosives if I could find the needed ingredients and maybe even a pharmaceutical or two.
Posts: 891 | Registered: Feb 2010
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Darth_Mauve: Open a capped bottle using a bottle opener.
That's a skill that hasn't quite vanished thanks to craft brews that occasionally still come without a twist off cap.
Posts: 891 | Registered: Feb 2010
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Darth_Mauve: Change the channel on a TV without using a remote, but using a dial, and when that fell off, using a vice grips or flat-head screwdriver.
We only had one of those TVs, but I do recall my mom shrieking at me for ramming the dial over to a higher channel.
quote: Pick up a TV channel using rabbit-ear antenna, where one of the rabbit ears has been replaced with a wire coat-hanger.
Not possible anymore- no one is broadcasting in those frequencies. Sad?
quote: Work the doors on a walk-in pay telephone.
Believe it or not, they still have these in Czech Republic. Saw one the other day.
quote: Open a capped bottle using a bottle opener.
Also still the norm in Europe. A fact I have to be reminded of when I visit home. Of course, any competent European can open a bottle with a variety of handy objects: keys, lighters, a lamp-post, etc.
Come to think, I have one: ask someone for a lighter.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: [QUOTE] [QUOTE] Pick up a TV channel using rabbit-ear antenna, where one of the rabbit ears has been replaced with a wire coat-hanger.
Not possible anymore- no one is broadcasting in those frequencies. Sad?
If you have a digital ready TV, you can still pick up lots of channels with nothing but a coat hanger antenna. For an old TV, you need a digital converter to go with it.
Posts: 891 | Registered: Feb 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
and to think, that's how we got to the moon! Interesting thread, with links to how slide rules work
Posts: 121 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
