Auto mechanics and welding you got in shop classes, not home ec. I was likewise tracked away from both, on the idea that I was too smart to need to know such things, and I haven't yet stopped resenting it.

Not too late to teach yourself those skills! I didn't start getting into auto-mechanics until I was well past college.

Planning on buying a cheap welder soon and teaching myself how to weld in the next 6 months (at age 50).

Oh, I've acquired most of those skills on my own in the interim. I just haven't stopped being annoyed that I was denied the opportunity to do so as part of my formal education, on the basis of an incorrect assumption that I was college bound and a wrongheaded idea that such people should not have dirt under their fingernails.

I've come to understand that I'm a downtown living, college educated, hipster. Wanting to change my own oil and do my own repair I found a garage that charges $140/day to rent a bay and tools. Can't exactly be a shade tree mechanic at the dog park.

Yeah. I HAVE done major auto repair in an apartment complexes parking lot, but a lot of buildings do not tolerate that sort of thing.

I have also done an oil change in the parking lot of a local auto parts store, and they were totally cool with it.

$140/day seems steep but kudos for taking the initiative.

I feel like it'd be weird to find an auto parts store that wasn't OK with doing repairs in the parking lot. On the one hand, you're going to get a lot of people coming in to buy parts for ad hoc stuff. And on the other, if somebody finds halfway through a battery swap or whatever that they're short a tool they need, where are they going to go to get it?

$140/day seems steep to me as well. But if the tools are proper I can be in and out before the sun sets. If I do it in my parking lot I'm still spending $3-400 in tools. And I'll still need an air compressor.

They have a special rate for oil changes, $40. But you only get an hour on the lift. Just enough time to refill, replace filters, and rotate tires.

I do all my work on the street because I don't have a garage or driveway. I live in an upscale neighborhood ($2m homes average). There's not much of an issue with it. People look but that's about it.

Doing work in the parking lot of an auto parts store is very normal.

If you're teaching yourself to weld buy the cheapest 220v DC stick welder you can find. MIG sucks for beginners because it doesn't teach you anything except how to pull a trigger.

That was the plan. Got to get the 220v run done first though. :-) Or find a cheap generator that will do 220.

I wanna be like you, I'm at 29 but continue learning and being curious.

I learned how to weld at my local community college for less than $500 (course fees, all of the books are very inexpensive). Highly recommend the experience if you have a community college close by.

I've often wondered how much it would cost to learn HVAC stuff myself and then set up a "business" so I could purchase the the necessary items to DIY AC fixes.

You can get books from my local library that can lead towards getting a license in hvac.

Without a license, you can learn to safely change capacitors, contactors, 24v transformers, and thermostats.

The only knowledge I distinctly remember gaining in high school was from a class called "consumer auto". I learned to change my oil, replace the brakes and flush the lines, check the fluids, etc.

As a broke college student DIY auto repair was a great way to save money. As someone with a job, it's more of a hobby.

But learning how to fix a basic machine is an amazing lesson in design: you see how mature technology is made to be maintainable, which isn't something you get from a lot of modern electronics.

Where I went to school everything you just said was a mandatory class from middle school on. They taught you how to make snacks on your own and do the basics of cooking, sewing, and cleaning for a middle school age kid. They also had budgeting classes or a portion of a class, can’t remember. Home EC and typing was 100% mandatory in middle school.

Shop and welding was long gone by the early 2000s but my school had a big greenhouse so I took Horticulture.

Aka the "be a good wife" classes for girls.

My recollection of home ec was it was majority boys and mostly athletes. Most of the girls felt they didn't need the class (already had the life skills those courses covered) or were college-bound and didn't have time in the schedule for it.

A good friend of mine, who later went to the NFL, was so excited he learned to bake cookies. He also learned to read the stocks section and was super excited to try investing.

* He's doing quite well now. Football paid for college, NFL paid for law school.

It was when I went to school in the UK especially in the lower streams i.e. those expected to leave at 16.

It was considered a bit advanced that some boys took it don't think girls shop classes.