I would imagine most over the age of 50 built a bogey , wee wheels from the dump, some wood working skills and steered it with their feet while their hands were under the seat ps possibly in posher areas called a Carrie
Stilts that made you 7'2" from a couple of lengths of 4"X2" with foot rests nailed on
How to climb trees safely and how to climb a rope. Both good skills. Also how to tie knots that don't come undone when you are climbing a rope.
And how to splint a broken leg. See above.
Burning plastic bags.
Ok Boomers.
How to make and throw a Dutch Arrow.
Empty Corona lemonade pop bottles (with the top screwed on) chucked into fire - hours of explody fun! 🙂
Before Skateboards we had Sitboards.
Can't find an image,but it was a single rollerskate ...
with a plank of wood (7"x 24") attached sideways,knuckleskuffingtastic 🙂
Learning how to spell?
Beat me too it...😛
Learning to wheelie
Duelling with airbombs. No? Just me then....
Burning things with a maginfiying glass.
The hand slap game 🙃
How to make a bow & arrow out of willow and/or cane & fishing line. Usually the bow would be taller than me!
How to make a catapult out of stiff wire and lots of elastic bands.
How to bunny hop.
Missed out on how to climb trees safely, although never fell from high up enough to break anything.
Failed to grasp the lessons on tying knots.
How to make a
catapultCattie out ofstiff wire and lots of elastic bandsa branch and Guttie.
At age about 13 (so around 1980) I built a chopper - a standard bike frame with lengths of 'borrowed' scaffold brayed over the fork with a smaller wheel on the front. I sprayed it up red faded into silver butts (of course it had obligatory cow-horn handlebars).
I then helped my mate build one as he didn't have the skills (his sprayed black with matching style fade into gold) and we would ride around the town centre like a pair of easy riders.
Eventually I chopped my fork back down and put the original wheel back on and made it into some kind of quasi-mtb with the really stiff (and straight) fork long before MTBs were a thing in the UK.
I still get pangs of pity that we never took any pictures of them.
How to make a slung out of a branch, the tongue of an old shoe and cahootchie.
How to make and throw a Dutch Arrow.
How to make and throw a Scotch Arrow. Can't imagine why you didn't call them that in Scotland... (-:
In fact, I say 'make', my starting point was a real arrow rather than a bit of garden cane.
Oh, making real arrows. That's a skill I acquired at a young age.
Duelling with airbombs.
^This.
In the subways for extra acoustics!
Tiggy Gat gun.
Burning things with a maginfiying glass.
Happy days
Judging the right range to shoot* your mates with an air rifle ,so that it was just a 'sting'
* no head shots 😉
Yeah, I still have a scar in my back from that. Too short a range as it turns out.
Digging huge holes in my parents garden for no apparent reason. I could have used the experience to get a job in one of the utilities firms who dig big holes. Also was pretty good at building enormous bonfires for Bonfire Night on a local bit of wasteground. Making water bombs out of folded paper was always a fun pastime, but I sadly never developed the interest into more aesthetic origami creations.
Burning things with a maginfiying glass.
Happy days
Ahhhhh – agreed
Riding singlespeed rigid everywhere
1) clearing your nose, cleanly and effectively, with a quick blast on each nostril
2) not sure what you call it, but 'finger whistling' - either 2 fingers from both hands, or thumb and forefinger from one hand
From what I've observed, if not learned in childhood, your position as an adult is highly questionable
Gobbing properly. A right proper big phlegmy one. A gobbing competition was always a school lunchtime favourite. 🙂
I seem to have lost this skill though and it mostly ends up down my front.
Before Skateboards we had Sitboards.
Can’t find an image,but it was a single rollerskate …
Or an Action Man Tank or armoured car with any tracks taken off..
I got shot in the back with a Diana SP50 when I was 9. It hurt like ****.
Me and my equally nerdy mate built a Sinclair ZX81 from the £49.95 kit.
We were only 12.
Say wut! 🙂
Me and my equally nerdy mate built a Sinclair ZX81 from the £49.95 kit.
I may have been part involved in selling you that. 😳
Errrm...
Riding a bike? (bit controversial on here, I know...)
Say wut! 🙂
And the turret!
(I had the half track - minus tracks. My brother had the tank - minus tracks, turret and big pointy gun! I can't remember who was quicker down the street. They were rubbish over jumps.)
Bolt-bombs?
(I had the half track – minus tracks. My brother had the tank – minus tracks, turret and big pointy gun! I can’t remember who was quicker down the street. They were rubbish over jumps.)
That so needs to be done on Red Bull Soapbox 👍🤣
I keep finding random skills that I learned from just getting in my grandad's way as he fought his Cortina's inevitable decline. First time i ever wanted to do fibreglass, all the skills were just there in the cold storage part of the brain (and so was the smell!)
Going on any journey over, say, 50 miles with a feeling of trepidation that you'll break down at least once en route.
Youngsters these days have no idea how unreliable 1970s cars were (usually BL) or the wonderous world that is the nettley grassy bank of a motorway.
My dad's 1.3 Marina saloon (Brooklands green) ruined several holidays and day trips.
Fixing two stroke engines:
Basically a collection of holes, so not that difficult.
Adjusting the 'monkey chain' to get a Sturmey Archer 3 speed to work properly.
Siphoning petrol.
Adjusting the ‘monkey chain’ to get a Sturmey Archer 3 speed to work properly.
I once dismantled a hub (using a six inch nail as a drift to remove the cover), cleaned and put back together – and it worked. My mum wasn't too pleased as in did it in the dining room in front of the fire to keep warm and I didn't exactly do a good job of protecting the carpet from the mess.
Edit: Just watched a YouTube tutorial and I have no idea how I did that as a kid :-O
1.3 Marina saloon (Brooklands green)
1.3 Marina saloon - Burgundy
1.8 Marina estate - Harvest Gold
Edit: neither of them a stranger to the hard shoulder
We had a Maxi 1750HLS in Brooklands Green. I believe it was one of the most powerful family saloons around at the time (twin SU carbs IIRC) and a few years later I knew a lad who managed to put that spec engine into a Mini :-O
Youngsters these days have no idea how unreliable 1970s cars were (usually BL) or the wonderous world that is the nettley grassy bank of a motorway.
My oldest daughter is 17 and has started to learn to drive. She reported back a few weeks ago how a similar aged friend of hers had trouble knowing how to start a car. (Do you press the button with foot on brake, or clutch or both, or use a key.) I pointed out that keys were far simpler when I was learning, but we had the dreaded CHOKE. If you could master the choke, and get a couple of cylinders popping then you might need to spray some random, magical fluid onto a part of the engine in the hope that a couple more cylinders might start popping. Then you'd mutter something about the points needing sharpening, or something, and hope that you could complete ypur journey.
I'm so glad that I learned to drive cars that didn't need double declutching!
We had a Maxi 1750HLS in Brooklands Green.
So did we. It didn't feel remotely powerful.