I was once a member of an organization. This organiziation refuses to take payment that isn’t in the form of money order or check. One of the join memeber asked to see my check. :eek: I asked why. She told me she didn’t know how to write one. So, I helped her.
To be fair, for anyone younger than say 30, I don’t think writing checks is a part of daily life or has ever been. So many things can be paid online.
Yeah, my college had a Rathskeller. They served alcohol only to those 21 or over, but there were a lot of older students there.
This has nothing to do with the thread, but if someone has poor cleaning habbits (their house or their body), I refuse to eat any food they’ve cooked or prepapred.
OT continued: so no restaurants for you, ever? 
lol Someone that I know. If I ever a resturant is dirty or something not right, I don’t eat there.
Another topic, but I’ve walked out of salons my friends regularly go to because they’re filthy. Then, they get nail/foot fungus and wonder why.
Yes, but I always burst the yoke, and pretend that I don’t like eggs over easy…:smack:
OH!
I also can’t tie a tie. I’ve tried to learn since high school, to no avail. My mum bought me some paisley ties as a graduation present from a posh clothing store, and they’re just…sitting in that box…mocking me. 
Except when I goto university, and ML55.61 is nowhere NEAR ML55.611, and I felt like Dewey done let me down, lol…
Ah yes, there’s another one I can’t do. It’s seems physically impossible for me, because people have tried showing me, and I make the moves, but no sound. I’ve read it may have something to do with oily skin, or dry skin or something like that.
Now I’m wondering if I’ve been doing it wrong. What’s to know?
It’s like I’m living on a different planet. When I was young parents taught their kids basic life skills like how to budget money, cook, and fix stuff. I had to pay for my car and fix it (or go without) which meant buying a manual and figuring it out. I knew how to ride a bike at age 4, swim at age 7, and drive a stick by age 15. My dad taught me how to negotiate a car purchase as a teenager and also how to establish credit. By the time I left home I could rebuild a car engine or build a house.
I never thought of “the greatest generation” as being particularly special, just normal folks who were relatively self sufficient. It sure doesn’t seem like skills are getting passed down.
I was amazed to discover that a lot of people need the map to be oriented the same as reality. So when you make a left turn, you have to turn the map 90 degrees. It would never occur to me to do such a thing . . . or need to.
Another thing: A friend of mine worked in a mail-order company, and there were customers who mailed in their actual credit cards with their order!
And then there are people who don’t know the 2-letter abbreviation for their own state. I can understand someone else getting AR, AL and AK confused, but not the people who actually live there.
I also can’t drive or swim.
I can do most of the other things listed here, though, if not very competently.
One thing I wish I could do, that isn’t very common but is a skill that amazes me, is the way some people can roll a thread into a seemingly randomized ball between two fingers, but are actually tying it into a knot.
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Can you find a video or picture of what you mean? I tie knots in sewing thread by wetting my index finger, wrapping the end of the thread around the finger and using my thumb to roll the thread off my finger and into a knot. If that’s what you’re referring to, it just takes practice.
Maybe. I dunno what they’re doing, all I see is thread, finger rub, then knot.
It’s really weird, and I don’t know how it works but somehow rolling the thread off your wet finger makes it knot, hand to god.
It never really occurred to me how much basic training I got by being a Girl Scout, having family who hunted and fished, and who had a big garden in the back yard growing up. I may not grow my own veg or eat meat these days, but I certainly know how to do all these things if I needed to. Including making the fire to cook them. I do think these things are basic skills, that I guess I assume everybody knows until they tell me otherwise.
I grew up in the US and moved to a new state every few years. Every school I ever attended had a pool with weekly swimming classes. (Actually, I take that back, one school didn’t have a pool; however, we were all bussed once a week to another school that did.) High school and college both required students to pass a swim test for graduation. I assumed this was pretty common but I guess not.
I can barely stay on a bike. Never learnt as a kid, as we lived in the middle of nowhere, next to a busy road, and my brother had a few too many close calls on it so my parents decided not to get me a bike unless I really pushed for one. Which I didn’t. I learnt to drive (a stick shift 
) and bought a car as soon as I could instead.
My housemate cannot operate a cigarette lighter- though neither of us smoke, we have a lot of candles around the house, and I bought some lighters to make sure there was one handy for each ‘candle station’. I’ve shown her how to do it many times, but no…
I doubt it’s generational. This thread wouldn’t be interesting if the lack of these skills wasn’t rare. I’m Gen X and of my circle of friends few of them lacked even one of the life skills mentioned in this thread. My kids are Gen QQ but I’ve taught them everything you mentioned (and how to write cursive when the schools stopped doing it to tie in with another thread). Well, they’re too young to negotiate for a car but the oldest, who is 11, is learning to fly a plane so I think that makes up for it.
It’s really not a big deal once you get used to it. Think about how many Jeeps and what not that go out 4 wheeling/off road that are manuals.