I LOVE YOU, A BUSHEL AND A PECK

Really?  A bushel and a peck?  So what? How many of you remember whether a peck is more than a bushel or vice-versa?  How many of you remember that when we were in school back many years ago we had to memorize all of this stuff because it is very important?  I had to look it up because I read the information on the gas pump as I was waiting for my tank to fill.  It said that the pump is calibrated to deliver gasoline in the standard gallon of 231 cubic inches.  Really, NOW!?  No stercus?  I'm so happy to know that.  At that moment I wanted to shoved it down sister Imelda of the Child Jesus' throat.  I would bet my place in purgatory that even SHE didn't know that.   But then my mind wandered and I realized that I could not remember how many pecks are in a bushel.  Can you?
I found all the old information online and I was stupefied to see how much of it I had left behind in the dark, musty corners of my mind.  Then, I left Google and I really started to test myself.  So I came up with some stuff that I actually remembered.
For instance:  Furlong = 220 yards or 1/8 of a mile.
I know that because I am somewhat of a horse racing lover.  I love horse racing because horses don't have a union and they don't have agents.  When they break a leg, as the saying goes, they also get the ground broken for them.  I also remembered a fathom, used for measuring depth = 6 feet.  I also remembered that a land mile is shorter than a nautical mile, but because I could care less,  I know that a land mile is 5,280 feet and a nautical mile is all wet.  I do know that a barrel of beer is 31 gallons or 124 quarts.  Just enough for about four Dions and 2 Thibaults.  A barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons and I know that a drum of pig slop is 55 gallons and sloshing all over the streets as the truck goes down the road.  I know that there are four pints to the quart, four quarts to the gallon and that a gallon of water weighs something like 8.3 pounds.  I know that a ream of paper is 500 sheets.  Finally I remembered that what used to be a 12 foot long 2" x 4" piece of lumber is now 1.5" x 3.5" by about 11.75'.  That's because Abraham Lincoln is no longer president so there is no one around to enforce the "Honesty is the best policy" rule.
This has been a round-about way to get to the question that I and many others have asked themselves over the years, "Why do I have to learn this?"  I remember that we spent at least a week or more being taught how to calculate "board feet."  Why?  When is the last time you had to calculate board feet?  You know, I had an analogous experience before the gas pump episode, so I guess that's why I'm back to 1944.  The analogous experience was a question on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, or some such rag, that read like this, "Why should we learn cursive?"  [You know, handwriting?  The Palmer method?  Remember?]  Think of that a second or two.  True enough.  If you're not an artist, and you're not a professional archivist who has to know how to read the stuff, who really cares?  Just because in 1950 it was considered to be less than respectful to send a letter to someone in type face, you might want to think that even type face letters are pretty rare these days.  Go one farther.  I know that I am going to get electronic birthday cards soon.  All I can say is, Bring 'em on, I won't be offended.  And just to be old fashioned about it, my checking account number is 73xx00yyyy.  That may be funny now, but by Christmas I'll have my PayPal operating.
The times they are a changin'.  We still have pecks and bushels, quarts and gallons, acres and arpents, fathoms and leagues as well as barrels and kegs.  We also have the wisdom to know where to look for their detailed properties if we need to have them for some esoteric exercise in Eastern Spirituality.

I DO LOVE YA, BABY, I DO