Traditional Activities/Tool?

[Millay]

Some of this has been an eye opener for me, like sweeping the path rather than using a blower, ive never seen anyone using a blower, I use a broom. All my garden tools date back decades the occasional handle replacment on a few and thats it.

I use stainless steel pans and have a cast iron skillet for when the occasion arrises.

I must admit to loving my gadgets, but they are purley that gadgets, I also like to think i could survive if somone stole my electricity

 

[Wendy]

We haven't had a television set for 5 years. We take the dog out for a long walk after dinner and then read good books out loud until it's time to go to bed. We did all of Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" (reading something else as a break between volumes) in about 2 years. We are taking a German class two evenings a week. It's amazing the interesting things you can learn when you're not rotting mind and body in front of the TV. Every once and a while we go out to the movies.

That is great. We have many TV's but do not really watch at all. The kids get a few minutes in the morning while I am getting their breakfest ready but other than that I may catch the news once a week. I also do the nightly walk it has a much higher payoff than watching TV.

 

[Stubblefield]

+1 on the automatic watches. I just bought one in October.

That will be my next purchase. I figure with all the money I save not having TV, I can afford one.

Let see, other anachronisms . . .

I don't go to a gym, but lift weights at home. Real weights (Barbell & Dumbells) and no machines. And I jump rope.

I read, on average, two books a week for pleasure (not including work-related reading).

 

[fidjit]

No ones mentioned Zippos yet ?????

Have three of them.

None of these horrible disposable gas lighters for me.

Much rather have a stinky liquid Zippo in me pocket. Love the way it burns the skin on your thigh through your pocket if your over fill it.

Of course you have to keep a better eye on your zippo for when ya mates reef it to use and pocket it.

I could go really retro and use matches ( or really retro with two rocks ? ) but it's not quite the same ......

( Oh and I still roll my own cigarettes....yes I know, it's a disgusting habit....the kids remind me all the time )

 

[matt0852]

Using hand tools rather than power tools. Also taking a walk tot he store instead of getting in the car.

 

[D.Irving79]

fountain pens
automatic watches
stove top coffee pot
strike anywhere matches
amber cigarette holder
arrow collars
straw boaters
NOS union suits
cap toe oxfords

and sometimes razors.

 

[RazorDingo]

An interesting topic.

I think there can be made a distinction between using an older, more traditional tool because it is, in certain respects, better than a more modern alternative - and using old tools out of sheer stubborness.

For instance, I do a fair amount of cabinetmaking. There are many, many operations that power tools make things not only easier - they also make for a better result. I defy anyone to prove how doing long rip cuts with a hand saw is in any way inferior to using a tablesaw. But, with that said, there are some processes in which a hand tool is superior. A steel cabinet scraper provides a far superior finish than any powered sanding machine. And a well tuned handplane is ideal for removing a thousandth or so of wood from the side of a drawer.

I write a lot. And again, I find benefits from both the traditional (pen and ink in a Moleskine journal) as well as the more technological. A five-thousand word report, complete with footnotes and charts, is far easier to put together on a computer. But the hand-written journal has its uses too: writing in ink enforces a mental discpline (you have to think how your are going to finish a sentence before you start it) as well as a "permanence" that electronic writing somehow lacks. Writing online or with the computer, it is all too easy to just hit the "delete" button, to erase a half-finished essay. And yet I look at notes or paragraphs I wrote in my Moleskines two or three years ago - I am often struck at how much I like what I wrote, and how glad I am that I preserved those thoughts in hardcopy format.

One area where the "traditional" method is still far superior is that of archival images. To this date, the standard way of recording photographic images for later generations is with high-silver content black and white film, printed on acid-free paper. Such images will be accessible long after any colored print has faded to obscurity, and most likely long after our digital images are erased, or are no long readable by current generation machines.

 

[kzoo1]

Wow! Great replies.

 

[tg16]

I hang the laundry on a line outside. We started that when Gustav hit and we had no electricity for awhile. The habit carried on even after power was restored.

I don't use a PDA. I write everything on a calendar.

 

[Monkeydad]

I sleep naked.

Can't get any more "traditional" than that.

 

[Kratos]

I wear an automatic watch. I also squat, dead lift, do standing overhead presses, all foreign concepts in today's "boutique" gyms.

 

[Legion]

I sometimes ride a bike with no gears, no freewheel... and no breaks.

 

[GarageBoy]

Legion, that just makes you a hipster
I play with fountain pens (Love my Vacumatics), I still photograph on film (even though digital, IMHO has surpassed 35mm), listen to audio on my dad's open reel and LP systems

 

[blantyre]

I use a paper diary (Letts 33E leather in burgundy every year). I could probably tell you where I was on some abitrary date in 1994 from an old diary.
Do kitchen work such as dicing, slicing and trimming with knives rather than a food processor.
Don't watch much if any TV.
Mostly mechanical watches.

Otherwise I am glad to embrace technology to the full - computers, GPS, cell phones, internet...