Obsolete Skills in Yakima: Top 10 You May Still Know

What skills do Yakima residents have that are considered obsolete? That was the question I posed to our listening and reading audience, and the response back was both amusing and, in some ways, kind of sad.

Why Do Skills Become Obsolete in Yakima and Beyond?

Thanks to the creation of modern marvels through science and technology, life has been improved in more ways than I can count. But some things that we once loved and even prided ourselves on being able to do are now skills that are no longer required.

Marco Jimenez via Unsplash

Pop Culture's Take on Obsolete Skills

This idea is nothing new. In 1961, the second season of The Twilight Zone featured a story that really stuck with me (when I watched it as a rerun in the late 80s) called The Obsolete Man.

Without giving any spoilers away to a 64-year-old TV show, the episode showed a future where the government would decide if you were worth living based on your profession, and Librarian, Romney Wordsworth, was deemed obsolete and was condemned to death.

In another (not so dark) nudge to an obsolete skill, the cartoon series American Dad! Had an episode called Spelling Bee My Baby in 2013, where two spelling bee contestants fall in love but each refuses to win the competition. During one of the competitions, the school’s principal congratulates Steve on having a skill that computers have made obsolete (2-minute mark on the video below).