Things old ladies do...

[Captain Ice]

I never see anyone leaving out fancy glass candy dishes full of ribbon candy, Werther's Originals, and after-dinner mints on their coffee tables for the grandkids to raid any more, which gives me a sad. That's like Grandma-ing 101.

With my grandma it has always been Hershey's Kisses, though in recent years she has taken to doing those little bite-size Dove bars.

With mine, it was always candied walnuts. She had a walnut farm not far from her house when i was growing up and the owner would let her, my Mom, and my aunt come over and pick through the leavings on the ground once all the nuts had been picked from the trees. So she was always making walnut dishes and candying them as well.

And putting IKEA furniture together is fun for me

I think putting together IKEA furniture should be a 400 level university course sometimes, but I also enjoy assembling TKD (Total Knock Down) furniture myself. There is something about being able to look at the finished product and know that you assembled it yourself that cannot be described.

Pretty much, if the young ones get interested in something - they'll figure it out and do it. I don't think crocheting and knitting will ever die out. I do worry about sewing. Many more seem to knit/crochet than sew.

Agreed. Even if every grandparent in the world sat their grandkids down and taught them all the different things they know (like whittling, baking, or car repair), these things would not stick with the grandkid unless there is a genuine interest in doing it. And if the young person is interested, these days there are places like Michael's where you can go and take classes.

For me, it's cooking/baking. A few years ago, I realized that one of the things that made holidays and special occasions truly special for us was my Grandma's cheesecake. So, with her getting older and less able to travel to attend a lot of these occasions, I sat down with her and asked her to share her recipes with us.

 

[trekkiedane]

(No smoking, though - I live in an appartment building and my neighbours might complain)

While smoking, indeed, originally was done to preserve foods, these days smoking is mostly done for taste.

A 'grill starter' can actually be used as a smoker! (for smaller portions of course).

You light some charcoal in the bottom of it, add the moistened hay, place the things you need to smoke in a sieve on top and cover with a wet tea-towel... a couple of minutes later you have delicious smoked something-or-other AND it can be done on the parking lot of an apartment-building

 

[ladyheather69]

My daughter, 19, can knit, but hasn't for a couple years. She was taught in middle school by one of her teachers who thought it would be nice to teach anyone who wanted to know. SEveral of her friends also learned. She is too busy to keep at it now, being in college, but she was getting good at making scarves
Both my grandmothers made afghans as well, and I still use them to this day. I wish I had learned how to do that and maybe I will in the future.
My mother-in-law can crochet/knit really, blankets and has done so for her grandchildren and other babies in the family .
She makes a great spaghetti and meatball dinner,but I can't get the sauce the same as hers....I do ok, but not quite the same
My grandmother used to make homemade fruit pies from scratch-ah so flaky and delish!!! She also used to make chicken and noodles, not soup, just chicken and noodles, but no matter how hard I try, I can't get the noodles right.
Love my mom, but she really never did the sewing, knitting, baking thing, so unfortunately I don't bake cookies from scratch. I can, but they are just ok...I do make fudge during the holidays, chocolate, peppermint, white, but that's about it(I ususally just buy the cookie dough already make and plop them on the cookie sheet and voila! done )
I don't think these 'arts' are dying off yet, but with technology and the need for instant gratification, younger people don't seem to want to spend time learning anything that takes time away from their phones, tablets, tvs, etc.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Captain Ice, my mom made chocolate covered walnuts this year. Absolutely awesome, especially the ones with white chocolate! And really easy to make. She used whole walnuts (shelled, of course, but not split in 2 halves) and put them on a toothprick before covering them with chocolate. Walnuts on a stick =)

I'll make candied ones next month (gotta visit my parents first and replenish my walnut store. We have a big walnut tree that brought a record harvest last fall.)

Trekkiedane, thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I have no parking lot only a subterranean garage with a very sensitive fire alarm system. (I live in one of a row of penthouses on top of a shopping mall - it's like a small village on the roof). I could maybe do it on my terrace, but I'd hav eto give the neighbours a warning. It'd be unfortunate if they'd hang the laundry out the minute I start to smoke something.
It's interesting that you use wet hay to smoke things. We use sawdust from different trees. Beech and juniper are best.

 

[trekkiedane]

Trekkiedane, thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I have no parking lot only a subterranean garage with a very sensitive fire alarm system. (I live in one of a row of penthouses on top of a shopping mall - it's like a small village on the roof).

That sounds great

I could maybe do it on my terrace, but I'd hav eto give the neighbours a warning. /.../
It's interesting that you use wet hay to smoke things. We use sawdust from different trees. Beech and juniper are best.

If dry it catches fire, so you give it a dip in a bucket of water and it is perfect for smoking, it is used Here on Fyn to smoke a (very) fresh cheesy thing called rygeost ~smoke-cheese. Some are particular about it and harvest stinging-nettles for this

A friend has an allotment kinda garden-place with a house where she lives half the year, when I call on her there she likes me to bring something we can either grill or smoke -and, yes, some sawdust

 

[rhubarbodendron]

those nettles and a bit of ricotta, garlic and nutmeg also make a yummy filling for ravioli

The village on the roof is pretty cool indeed Only the moving stairs down in the shopping center are a bit loud and create a very low frequency hum (borderline to a vibration) that can be rather unnerving. Coincidentially, I have a tinnitus at almost the same frequenc so that I have 30 years of training in ignoring that hum/vibration
My penthouse is on top of the delivery area and the waste press, so that it's a bit loud during the day, but between 21:30 and 6:00 it is very quiet. And right under my terrace there's a sweets and tea shop
My neighbours are very nice, too. There's a student community to my left - they give me a 48 hour warning when they party and actually do turn the noise down when I ask them to! - and a gay guy in his late 30s to my right who is an absolute darling. Around the corner, facing my terrace, live an elderly lady and an old couple who all are very quiet and friendly.
Beyond them are two courtyards with students, an Asian family who runs a restaurant in the mall, two young families with small children and a rather nice young couple. All together we are about 30 people.

Fünen as we call Fyn sounds interesting. I've always wanted to go there and to the Dutch islands. Maybe I can combine both one day. What time of the year do you have the least tourists?

 

[Mary Ann]

*points to blog link in sig*

I'm from a long line of needlewomen on my mother's side of the family, though I stick mostly to knitting and crocheting, along with cross-stitch. I have a sewing machine, but I can only do basic stuff with it. As others have mentioned, making your own clothes is no longer as frugal, as good-quality materials and yarns are expensive, so I'm reluctant to buy material only to destroy it. Still, if I want to improve my sewing skills I must take the plunge.

I took up cooking in earnest once my children were old enough not to need constant supervision and I could withdraw to the kitchen. My mother was an excellent cook, but she wasn't always keen on cooking. A few years ago I started making my own bread, and I'm about to try making marmalade for the first time. One of my brothers is a professional chef, and I've learned from him over the years as well. I'm adventurous in the kitchen, which means there have been several times when I've spent hours on a dish only for us to end up eating peanut butter sandwiches because something went horribly, horribly wrong.

My daughter's been knitting a garter stitch scarf for the past five years (!), but neither of my sons are interested in learning any needlework skills. Still, I'm going to make sure that every one of my kids can cook a meal, darn a sock and sew on a button before they leave home. I'll happily knit afghans and socks for them for as long as I can, but they can do their own basic sewing repairs, thankyouverymuch.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

thanks for pointing the link out to me. I love your current avatar!

In my family we all are rather multi-talented: my mom (formerly a teacher for domestic economy, cooking and needlework) is a very good mason, my brother is a wizzard with the sewing machine and recently develpoped a talent for plumbing, my sister is an excellent motorbike mechanic and is famous for her Panna Cotta while I repair TVs, knit my own sweaters and occasionally sew a blouse or tat a nice collar or a few yards of lace. When my mom was in hospital for a few months, my dad took cooing lessons with a friend of his who owns an Italian restaurant. He's also a pretty good gardener and electrician.
We keep joking that apart from gravedigging and midwifing our clan is pretty independent.

The trick is that when we were small, our parents wouldn't repair things for us but say: there's the tool box / the sewing kit - give it a try. When it wouldn't work first time, they'd help us but we'd still do most of the work ourselves. This way we developed a certain confidence and started trying out other things as well.

For my 18th birthday I got a soldering iron =) I still have it and use it quite regularly (like tonight: my radio alarm clock needs a new antenna wire)


Repairing things is not exactly something old ladies would do, but it's also a dying art.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

Actually, I know a lot of people in the local science fiction community who sew or knit. And they're not even all costumers, though a large number are.

Baking and preserving is also not uncommon in fandom. Maybe we geeks are more prone to trying unusual hobbies?

Bridge.

ORLY? Take a look at the bottom right hand corner of page 2 of this PDF - you might see a name that belongs to, oh, me.

73rd Summer North American Bridge Championships daily newsletter, issue #7

There are plenty of clubs around, and tournaments pretty much every weekend. I doubt that newspapers would continue to run a daily column if it weren't reasonably popular - they could sell the space for advertising, after all. Also, the Toronto Star used to (I don't know if they still do) print a list of all the local tournament winners every week. It took up about half a page.

Now, sure, the average age of bridge players tends to skew to somewhere above 50, but every so often there's an influx of younger players. (I was part of one such influx in the early 90s, when I moved back to Toronto from university. I'd learned the game there, as it was impossible to walk into the lounge in the Math building and not find a game going on.)

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Maybe we geeks are more prone to trying unusual hobbies?

Or maybe we spend so much money on cons and fan stuff that we have to save up a bit on other things.

 

[Mary Ann]

Perhaps a love of sci-fi is linked with an active imagination and/or broad-mindedness, which, in turn, is linked to creativity.

 

[KimMH]

*points to blog link in sig*

I'm from a long line of needlewomen on my mother's side of the family, though I stick mostly to knitting and crocheting, along with cross-stitch. I have a sewing machine, but I can only do basic stuff with it. As others have mentioned, making your own clothes is no longer as frugal, as good-quality materials and yarns are expensive, so I'm reluctant to buy material only to destroy it. Still, if I want to improve my sewing skills I must take the plunge.

I took up cooking in earnest once my children were old enough not to need constant supervision and I could withdraw to the kitchen. My mother was an excellent cook, but she wasn't always keen on cooking. A few years ago I started making my own bread, and I'm about to try making marmalade for the first time. One of my brothers is a professional chef, and I've learned from him over the years as well. I'm adventurous in the kitchen, which means there have been several times when I've spent hours on a dish only for us to end up eating peanut butter sandwiches because something went horribly, horribly wrong.

My daughter's been knitting a garter stitch scarf for the past five years (!), but neither of my sons are interested in learning any needlework skills. Still, I'm going to make sure that every one of my kids can cook a meal, darn a sock and sew on a button before they leave home. I'll happily knit afghans and socks for them for as long as I can, but they can do their own basic sewing repairs, thankyouverymuch.

Perhaps a love of sci-fi is linked with an active imagination and/or broad-mindedness, which, in turn, is linked to creativity.

How do I love thee? Above are only two reasons!

I knit andsew, crochet not so much, but I'm hopeless in the kitchen. Always a new frontier( after guitar and karate lessons)!

 

[RAMA]

This doesnt bother me that much, because though I would personally miss certain things from past, as human civilization(s) lose old skills they tend to acquire new ones, and usually things the old generations wouldn't dream of being able to do.

RAMA

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Rama, is that you in your avatar? You have an incredible resemblance to my brother!

I agree about many new things being exciting and previousely unimaginable, the problem is just that many of the really good old things get lost in that process. It'd be perfect if we could have both.
For example: I have a 100 year old item that you put on top of a pot's lid and clamp it down under the handles. It holds the lid closed very tightly and thus shortens the cooking duration considerably. It's the predecessor of those modern steam pots with the valve in the lid (of which I am always a bit scared). It's such a handy device and nobody makes them anymore
I'll take a photo tonight and post it here.

 

[KimMH]

I think culture is an organic thing that is capable of expanding to fit everything we think of. Why not keep all the good elements and do our best to whittle away the worst? Hand made articles that express love will never go out of style or no longer have a place. Those things may change over time is all. Your Bubbe knits you a sweater? Reciprocate and help her set up her email so she can keep in touch with you and her friends.

I guess handmade or hand crafted things are an investment of time which is an element of all healthy relationship building.

 

[wissaboo]

Years ago I forced myself to knit for this very reason. I tried to crochet but could never get the knack. My father has these table cloths that were tatted. It's a skill that has all but died out. These table clothes reach the floor of a rather big imposing old dining room table. I can't even fathom how long it took to make them.

My sister in law is Croatian and it used to be whenever we went to a Croatian event in town there would be these tiny little intricate cake pastries made of many layers of chocolate and vanilla cake. The "ladies at the church" used to make them. I always asked the younger generations if they knew how to make them and none of them did. Last time I went to a Croatian wedding there were none of those little cakes

 

[propita]

Rama, is that you in your avatar? You have an incredible resemblance to my brother!

I agree about many new things being exciting and previousely unimaginable, the problem is just that many of the really good old things get lost in that process. It'd be perfect if we could have both.
For example: I have a 100 year old item that you put on top of a pot's lid and clamp it down under the handles. It holds the lid closed very tightly and thus shortens the cooking duration considerably. It's the predecessor of those modern steam pots with the valve in the lid (of which I am always a bit scared). It's such a handy device and nobody makes them anymore
I'll take a photo tonight and post it here.

So it's similar to a pressure cooker, but not a pressure cooker?

One could buy a cast iron pot with lid. Saw it on amazon just today. People use it for cooking, stewing, braising, and baking. If I didn't have a ceramic range top, I'd get one. Gotta be careful with those ceramic tops. Next time, I'll get a gas range with electric oven combo--heavy pots are no problem.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I learned to crochet on my own while Grandma was still around. I learned to quilt when I had no great-grandmother to teach me (they were long gone by the time I was old enough to learn). Cooking was one thing my dad's mom was glad to teach me, though she didn't want me to learn certain recipes. Grandma was rather vain about her cooking skills.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

So it's similar to a pressure cooker, but not a pressure cooker?

Not exactly. The effect is similar to a pressure cooker, but the device itself is something completely different. It's basically just a heavy clamp that holds the lid on a pot down extremely tightly. This way the pressure builds up much higher than in a normal pot and that in turn gets a cooking result similar to a pressure cooker.

 

[T'Bonz]

This old lady is trying to become a better sewer. My first shirt, made after a pattern-fitting class was taken. (I can sew and would consider myself at an intermediate level, but I wanted to learn how to make nicer things.)