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Other than traditional shaving, what other "old school" things do you do?

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
AM radio has mostly been shut down here in Europe. The same goes for shortwave. What a shame! I also possess radios that could receive AM, but it doesn't bring me anything anymore. I used to enjoy listening to stations from the other countries. In the middle of the night, one can sometimes get in China.
I remember lying in bed up in the garret in my granny's house in Ireland hearing "This is Radio Moscow, broadcasting to Great Britain and Ireland" on my little transistor radio.

AM radio is sadly and slowly on its way out in America as well.
 

shoelessjoe

"I took out a Chihuahua!"
I flyfish with vintage split-cane rods & fly reels, some of which are more than a century old ... in the cave, where I tie flies & reload for various early-to-mid 20th-C firearms, entertainment & climate control often comes via a 1938 Howard Radio Co. radio & my grandfather’s 1936 GE pedestal fan ... both of which, like me, were made in Chicago.
 
  • Heat the house with wood (mostly), all split by hand
  • Cook over fire (charcoal grill, firepit, woodstove) most nights
  • Roast my own coffee
  • Bake naturally leavened bread
  • Grow my own vegetables
  • Use wooden pencils sharpened with a pocket knife
  • My bike is a bicycle; my boat is a sailboat
My motto: There's got to be a harder way!
 

never-stop-learning

Demoted To Moderator
Staff member
Vacuum Tube Audio and Vinyl Records.
No "Smart House" crap (my refrigerator is NOT on the Internet).
Grill, BBQ and Smoke over coals and wood.
Water my lawn with hoses and by hand (no sprinkler system).

Not too bad. ;)
 
1. Listen to music on vinyl and cassette tape on a semi-high end stereo system
2. Read paper books only
3. Rake my leaves, even though I own a leaf blower
4. Avoid social media like the plague
5. Believe in God
6. Believe there are only two genders
7. Hold doors for people - not just women
8. Stand up when meeting someone if I'm seated when I'm introduced
9. Spend as much time as humanly possible outside
10. Believe in civil debate with people who think differently than I do
11. Cook at home and avoid fast food unless it's absolutely necessary
12. Avoid TV and streaming platforms - we own a small and specifically curated DVD collection and rent from the library
13. Avoid things like the Ring doorbell, Alexa, and all of that home automation nonsense
14. I use a "dumb" phone with no GPS, music service, apps, or internet access

Maybe some of these things aren't considered "old school" in the traditional sense, but they're all things I see going by the wayside in the younger generation.
 
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Navigate in the wilds with map & compass instead of GPS.

What's the point of adventure sports if you remove all the risks? The challenge is to understand the environment you're in, to learn new skills, and then have the discipline to apply these skills - no matter how exhausted you are, or how hungry you are, or how keen you are to bag the next summit - and thus manage the risks down to whatever level you're comfortable with.
 
Other than shaving and working on my own cars, nothing. I like to eat out (can't cook), can't grow stuff, don't hunt or fish or camp, don't woodwork. I like technology. I read (or listen to) e-books. Usually have a tablet computer with me everywhere I go. Android auto in all of my cars. Listen to music over the internet. I'm a preacher and I use a table to prepare my sermons. I sharpen my knives on a power sharpener. I wear a smartwatch most of the time. I guess I'm not very old school.
 
AM radio has mostly been shut down here in Europe. The same goes for shortwave. What a shame! I also possess radios that could receive AM, but it doesn't bring me anything anymore. I used to enjoy listening to stations from the other countries. In the middle of the night, one can sometimes get in China.


I think shortwave still exists? Its genius was it bounced off the ionosphere so effectively global ?

 
Play a Precision bass through an all tube amp. Wear Alden shoes. Dry age beef at home. Hold the door open for a lady. Say “please” and “thank you.”
 
I use mechanical watches, write with a fountain pen and always have cash on me when I’m out of the house. I often leave my phone at home when I’m out and about, much to the annoyance of SWMBO. It’s quite liberating to be uncontactable, untraceable and independent of battery backup.

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I hang our clothes out to dry when the weather permits. My neighbor once asked why I hang out the clothes. I replied "To Dry them".
I didn’t realise that hanging clothes out was old school. I thought the solar clothes drier was a modern, environmentally friendly solution to an everyday task. It’s also better for your clothes.
 
Hang clothes to dry
Split firewood with maul and wedge
Kindling with axe and hatchet
Grub out acres of scotch broom with 2 1/2 lb cutter mattock
Plant trees with a hodad
Wear caulked boots, clean and grease them
Cut water bars with a grub hoe and shovel
Repair my long handled tools
Cut our Christmas tree with a hand saw
Garden, prune, weed by hand
Shovel snow
Cook meals
Make pumpkin and squash pies from scratch
Eat oatmeal
Make granola
Woodturning
Make leather sheaths for sharp tools
Reuse old lumber and fencing
Play chess over the (wooden) board with wood pieces
Ride, maintain, and repair steel framed bikes
Walk to get where I'm going
Use a privy I built myself
Go to vintage stores to hunt razors and see things I use on a daily basis sold as antiques

I no longer brew my own beer, knead bread, press tortillas, heat with wood, tune up my own vehicles, change my oil, coach any youth sports, or diaper any babies with cloth diapers (or any other diapers).
 
I cook, home brew, use a old-fashioned coffee percolator, grow my own weed, listen to LPs, make stovetop popcorn in a corn popper, finger pluck my bass guitar... lots of stuff that l do can be considered "old school", eh?
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
The more I read this thread the more I'm reminded of other old school things in addition to the few I posted above. I have an M1 Garand rifle at the ready (though ammo is increasingly difficult to find), I use 50 year old wooden Northland XC skis and bamboo poles with leather ski boots that actually lace up, and I have Army surplus wooden bear claw snowshoes from the 1940s or 50s.
 
Seriously, many of us appreciate how people figured out how to do things in earlier times. I sang in a church choir as a young man and stood near an older man who was a great singer. He grew up in in Missouri after school at his Dad's garage, Dick would tell stories about how they would rewind the armature of motors, car generators, and alternators.
 

Chandu

I Waxed The Badger.
Lots of great stuff on this thread. Some I do, some I want to do and some I never thought of.

We hand wash our dishes.
Wish we had a clothes line.
Listen to actual radio sometimes.
Listen to old time radio - a lot - more than TV
Sharpen anything I can by hand.
Wear a mechanical watch much of the time.
Play chess on a board.
Bought a Spencerian book to work on my nearly illegible cursive.
Use wood pencils and a Fountain pen (love me the blue black ink), not exclusively, but much of the time.
Probably the most fun traditional thing I do is carve wood. A work in progress to be sure, but had I discovered this in my teen years, I would have moved to Europe somewhere and apprenticed.

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