A few years ago, I came across an old photo of my great-grandmother. She’s standing on the rickety, wooden porch of what could only be described as a decrepit shack, holding a bucket of milk and pouring it into a contraption to separate milk from the cream. Also on the porch with her are two young boys, and you have to know that spending time with Grandma included lessons on how to milk a cow and then process that through a cream separator.
My dad and his brothers had a rich childhood, gleaning ages-old wisdom and skills from grandparents who were ready and eager to teach them. In a world of slick smartphones and addictive video games, that wisdom and those skills might be lost forever if grandparents and other adults don’t step up and actively teach them.