Useless skills we are secretly proud of

What, all Latin grammar ?

You know Latin grammar by heart? What, ALL of it? That’s a lot.

I can recite yards of poetry. Actually I find this quite comforting, so not really useless. I also know the names of the most of the steps in ballet.

In my mother’s day it was expected, but my daughters are still surprised that I can darn
Middle D had a Victoria Beckham sweater she wore a lot until the moths got at it - cue Mum to do some (although I say so myself) nifty repair work. I also excelled darning some holes in an expensive (designer gift) hand knitted baby coat. Now that saving the planet by make do and mend has become trendy I am enjoying the brownie points!

I have never forgotten all my former telephone numbers from when I was a child, but when asked for my DH new mobile, my mind went blank.
MawB I also have some darning on the go but it's not skilled despite my lovely mushroom.
I would argue that Latin is an excellent and useful aide to understanding our own language and also comes in handy for translating old inscriptions.

I also darn, but I don't count that as a useless skill, because it is very much in demand in my family. I do "a stitch in time" ... all the time.

I will try and think of a useless skill!

I can build websites, but not much opportunity to use that
skill these days!

I can whistle by curling my tongue, is that useless enough for you? Not very ladylike, I know.

I can waggle my ears.

Oh how I wish I could do that piercing whistle!

I can wriggle my shoulder blades in an apparently gross manner!

I can knit mushrooms and peas.

Darning and Latin are useful skills.

I can do that piercing whistle. Handy when the children were young and handy now for the dog.
I can recite all the books of the Old Testament , a Sunday school requirement ?

Isn’t a useless skill an oxymoron?

A skill implies some effort has been expended in acquiring it. That discipline in itself has a benefit to the skill acquirer.
Most skills are transferable and the basic skill to do one thing can often be applied to a different situation.

True Jane but some skills are not useful enough for the younger generation to want to acquire them -not if Mum/Granny can do it for them.

Knitting mushrooms and peas sounds messy ?

Until I was over 60 I could bend my right leg up until my foot covered my ear - it was something of a party piece when I was young, and as I grew older, every now and then in the privacy of my bedroom, I would try to see if I could still do it. Now I am having trouble with my said hip it was a skill I wish I hadn’t had. You could say that pride has come before a fall!

Our sunday school choir used to sing the Books of the Bible, ginster, both Testaments. We were invited to Derby Catherdral once to perform. Just tried to do it and I can't!

I'm a mine of useless information and surprise people, especially our children, with the amount of rubbish I know. The latest was that Leslie Crowther was Phil Lynotts father in law!

Mine is prevarication. I’m a genius at it.

Whitewavemark2 made me smile!

I can darn, but I would swap one of you to be able to a piercing whistle! I never could learn how to do that! Would come in handy when my two dogs disappear at the park after squirrels.

I recently impressed my GS by being able to list twenty three Native American tribes (well, I used to watch a lot of Westerns!). I am envious of anyone who can curl their tongue and whistle. I can also play the spoons!

Lucca not all of it It works only for those parts that were taught in my university and DD's. She had troubles with Latin and I gained all my knowledge once again to help her and even knew some things I didn't learn before.

Oh, and I can identify a lot of toadstools!

I went to a Catholic boarding school- we had to attend Mass daily so I can recite the vast majority of it in Latin. Ditto with hymns- little was in English.

I know random words from different languages even though I don't speak these languages fluently. Also I can think of a smartshow 3d template for every family gatherings (and make the presentation!). People say, I'm good at writing speeches for family gatherings, too, but I'm not so sure.