What Did Your Father Teach You When You Were 10 That Most Adults Don't Know Today...?

[Averageman]

We rebuilt my grandfathers 410 and I earned about cold bluing metal and refinishing wood.
We found Grandpa's old hunting licence under the buttstock.

[markm]

Not to be a late to work/school piece of shit.

[gaijin]

How to bait a hook.
Load a revolver.
Cut down a tree.
Start a fire.
Cut a dogs toenails.
You know.

[SomeOtherGuy]

Some basics of woodworking and car repairs, and how to NOT get injured while working with heavy or dangerous tools.

Pretty basic stuff by 60's and even 70's standards but was becoming rare by the late 80's, at least where I lived (midwestern US in a UAW town, go figure). My best friend's dad was a much bigger car guy but I can't tell that he taught his son much about how to work on them. So many of us gen X'ers are largely self-taught in the things that used to be taught by parents, or we just never learned them at all.

[Adrenaline_6]

I was 9, my brother was 7 and cousin was 5. We would flip the Sears Roebuck, Ted Williams fiberglass rowboat over and drag it into the river, then go get and carry a 7.5HP outboard engine from it's storage shed about an 1/8 of a mile over a hill to the river.

My grandpa taught us to throw a folded oiled canvas tarp over the back of the boat to help protect the boat from the outboard clamps.

We would get the engine on the back and tighten up the clamps. We would go back to the storage shed and carry the 5 gallon metal gas can with the built in QD line and primer bulb, put it in the back of the boat and hook it up to the engine.

I was taught how to prime it, put the engine on choke, and would have to stand on the rear built in seat for height, put one leg on the outboard motor for leverage and pull the starter. It would start and off we would go, no supervision.

Parents would get in trouble for doing that in certain parts these days, but the life experiences, freedom of exploration, and just the opportunity to have to "free think" that this provided, I think, was priceless and immeasurable.

[flenna]

I actually thought of this one the other day, even if I haven’t done it in a while: hammer a screw driver through a stuck oil filter to get leverage to turn it.

[Alex V]

My father taught my young self that Communists should be thrown from helicopters.

Seems like a lot of “adults” don’t know this simple fact.

[SteyrAUG]

Not my biological father, but my grandfather: Self-esteem is EARNED, between the quality of your workmanship in what you do and trying to make somebody's day a little better than it was before you crossed paths.

No disrespect to your grandfather, but he was actually meaning self respect.

Self esteem is accepting yourself without any attempt at improvement.
Self respect is working to be the kind of person you'd respect.

[henri]

Nothing. He worked basically 8a to 8p six days /week, sundays off, and two weeks vacation /year. All I learned was that there is no phucking way in hell I was following this example.
Unfortunately he passed when I got to the point where I made in less than week what he made in a year.

[utahjeepr]

It was actually my best friend's dad.

He taught us how to set ignition points and adjust a carburetor.

He also taught us a lot about being decent human beings and acting like responsible men.

All of those things seem obsolete and outdated now.