stuff old people know

 Yesterday, at work, one of the young girls that is a cashier was cleaning the glass. She was using windex and a paper towel. Naturally the paper towel was falling apart and leaving streaks on the glass. I remarked to her, use a piece of newspaper. She gave me the funniest look, as though she thought I was nuts. I said, no really, newspaper works the best on glass. She tried that and was amazed. She then asks, how did you know that ? I laughed and replied, it is just something old people know. 

 I'm not the oldest person working there, the store manager, a lady named Sherry, is a few years my senior. She heard me say that and was laughing too. She said something to those " kids " as we call them about listening to us old folks and you might learn a thing or two. The " kids " just laughed and continued doing whatever they were doing. That is the way it is with kids. And it can be frustrating at times. I try to remember what it was like to be 17 and know it all, but sometimes I forget. That's what happens with age, you begin to run on instinct. They say you don't learn instinct, you are born with it, but I'm not so sure about that. At the very least not all of of us are born with great instincts and judging by this younger generation I think that trait is getting pretty thin. Call it a genetic mutation if you will but something has changed. Instinct is related to common sense, cousins I think. Well let's just say the two may have gotten too close somewhere along the line. Common sense is fading fast.

 All of that did cause me to think about the things I learned from the old folks. Everyday things that you didn't learn in school. Nowadays they call them " hacks. " There are whole websites devoted to these hacks. We mostly called them " tricks of the trade. " The trade we were often referring to was life. We learned how to start a fire, iron our clothes, plant a garden and other things like that. The " tricks ", use dry tinder, dampen the clothes before ironing to get the wrinkles out, leave enough room between plants. After a while those things became " common sense " to us. Got a wood screw that won't tighten up in the hole anymore ? Grandma showed me what to do, remove the screw, stick a piece of wood in there, like a toothpick or splinter of firewood, put some glue on the screw and turn it back in. There it is, good and tight and will last a good while. Pull a piece of straw off the broom, makes a great cake tester. Wet your finger and tap the iron, the sizzle will tell you if it is hot enough. You get what I'm talking about. 

 You just never know what you might learn from an old person. That's because those folks have been around a while, that's why they are old. There is no telling what they might have done in the past and picked up on. It may seem to the young folk that old people feel like they know it all, I understand that. The truth is, mostly we do ! At least we have years of experience, the ones we remember anyway. Many of the things we do we do by habit now. It is only when called upon that we remember these little tricks of the trade. Yes, it is just stuff that old people know.