forgotten skills

[imaginethat]

What's a skill people had 40 or 50 years ago, that was fairly common, that has all but disappeared?

[CaliforniaNow]

The traveling tinker.  And, no, I don't know how he fixed pots and pans but one of my mother's old enamel (?) pans sprung a leak the other day and we tossed it.   I'm pretty sure that that's one of the things tinkers could fix.  There are all kinds of products for stuff like that, but who knows if they work??

[Lifesighs]

Darning sox

[Karin M Fichtner]

I can still darn sox.....but it ain't real purty!

[CaliforniaNow]

I know, right?  No one ever told me how but I just do a whole bunch of those crisscross stitches.  Is that the way?  And, if not, then how?  I had 3 or 4 pairs of J.C. Penney socks that I've never seen any comparable ones and the brown ones got a hole, so I "darned" it.  At least, I think that may be what I did.  I know I can look this stuff up, but I hate looking stuff up on the computer.  I'm still a book person and I'm pretty sure the encyclopedia doesn't cover darning.

[P.A.]

Easiest why to darn a sock is to put a light bulb inside the sock and then do the cris/cross stitches.

[Karin M Fichtner]

I use a ball.....but it works the same. And, yes, it's criss-cross stitches woven together tight enough to "build" fabric where there was none.  It's not as easy with today's manufactured fabrics, though, as it was when socks were wool or cotton.