The Traveler said:
...b.t.w. I'm really curious about the old former and his tricks and simple tools, do you have some examples?
Actually one of the main things were all the clever ways of using leverage (as the man in the video) to be able to easily handle items that were larger than a single person would be expected to handle. Very often his work would involve logs/wood/axes/wedges, etc., and I learned from him how to manuever those sorts of things to easily do things I would have earlier thought impossible.
Another fascinating talent of his was working with work horses--and there were occasions when he could use his horses to free an automobile stuck in a ditch that would have been impossible or difficult to do with a truck or even a tractor.
He also knew the name of EVERY bird, animal, and plant around him (and which bird was singing which bird song, too). Coming from the city, that REALLY amazed me!
I wish I could think of some practical examaples--they seemed to come up EVERY DAY! Even down to such simple things as carrying heavy loads, the proper way to use a shovel to dig in the ground, etc. He taught me how to use a scythe, how to put a shoe on a horse....it was never-ending. He even taught me how to roll cigarettes, which I happily did for him!
On the other hand, it was ALSO interesting too hear the occasional FALLACY that he had stuck in his mind. He knew an AMAZING amount about animals and their habits...but he also had the strange idea that the opposum mated through its NOSE! I half believed him, because he was so certain about it, but even a schoolboy's education in biology suggested to me that a mammal would be VERY unlikely to have such an ENORMOUSLY different reproductive system. Years later I discovered that in fact opposums engage in a "mating ritual" that involves repeatedly touching noses--and that is no doubt where he got his idea.
Ah...this takes me back. I DO remember when I showed HIM something that HE didn't know (which probably most all adolescent boys of my age did know): I once bragged to him that I knew how to make gunpowder, if only he had sulfur and "salpeter" (potassium nitrate). Wasn't I surprised when he went into his root cellar and came up with a jar of yellow sulfur and one of salpeter! (the salpeter was used to make pickles, as I recall). I make a huge impression on him by taking some charcoal from his stove, grinding it together with some sulfur and salpeter, and making it flare when I lighted it! City boys know some things, too!
