If you had a time machine and traveled back to the early 1900s, you’d be confused for a bunch of reasons. The food, the air—everything would be different. And one of those biggest differences would be the skills that they considered everyday essentials. Here are ten skills that were all the rage 100 years ago. Trust us—some of these will make you appreciate your fridge & smartphone quite a bit more.
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Ice Cutting
Back before you could just get some ice cubes out of your fridge, people had to literally cut their ice from frozen lakes & rivers during the winter. They’d gear up in the coldest part of the year to saw through thick ice. Then, they’d haul these massive blocks back home to keep their food cold. You had to know where & how to cut—without ending up in a cold bath!
Morse Code Operation
Long before texting, people relied on Morse code to talk across long distances. Operators had to be quick to turn messages into a series of dots & dashes. It was particularly important during emergencies or for coordinating things like train schedules. Essentially, you’d have to learn a whole new language that came with the added pressure of getting messages across accurately. Thank goodness we can just text people now.
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Deciphering Telegrams
Similarly, people also used telegrams to communicate in the past. However, they often came in a jumbled mess of codes or shorthand to cut down on sending costs so you had to understand how to decrypt them. This involved piecing together what all those letters & numbers actually meant. Such a skill kept you in the know although we’re happy we don’t have to do this anymore.
Horse Care and Driving
A hundred years ago, people’s vehicles needed to eat, drink & rest—because they were horses! You had to know how to take care of your horses, which included feeding & fixing a horseshoe. Then there was the hassle of knowing how to drive a horse-drawn carriage which was the equivalent of today’s driving license. At least you don’t have to deal with your car being in a bad mood!
Lantern Lighting and Maintenance
Electricity wasn’t always around to light up our nights because people relied on kerosene lanterns in the past. As such, they had to know how to fill them & trim the wick. They also needed to keep them burning bright without setting anything on fire. Each day, you’d have to make sure you weren’t left in the dark, literally. And let’s not even start on the soot!
Manual Calculations and Bookkeeping
In the past, people ran their businesses without Excel or calculators meaning they needed to have good arithmetic skills. How else would they keep their books balanced and manage their budgets? It involved a lot of pencil work & eraser dust. Beyond the numbers, they’d also need to keep their livelihoods in check—without the digital tools we have today.
Operating Manual Exchange Telephone Systems
Since dialing a number wasn’t a thing in the past, making a phone call involved talking to an operator. They would manually connect you by plugging in cables at a switchboard. To do this job, you had to be quick, efficient & have a great memory. It was certainly a high-pressure job! Of course, those skills do exist today but we don’t use them anywhere near as much.
Basic Blacksmithing
Those who needed a new tool or something fixed couldn’t just hop online in those days. Instead, they’d need to know how to heat up metal & hammer it into something useful. You had to know your way around an anvil, whether you were patching up a broken wagon wheel or making some household essentials.
Using a Washboard and Wringer
If you think doing laundry is a drag now, just imagine scrubbing your clothes on a washboard—and then wrestling them through a wringer to get the water out. It was hard on your arms and even harder on your clothes if you weren’t careful. Back then, doing laundry was practically a full-body workout back then. Somehow, we’ve become much more grateful for the washing machines we have today!
Operate a Phonograph
Forget streaming tunes—back in the day, cranking up a phonograph was how you got the party started. That didn’t mean simply hitting play, though. You had to know your way around the machine, including swapping out needles without damaging your records & controlling the speed. It was all to make sure the music sounded just right!
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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