Guest 713- Registered: 19 Mar 2011
- Posts: 342
Lost Words from our childhood:
Words gone as fast as the buggy whip! Sad really!
Murgatroyd!...
Do you remember that word? Would you believe the email spell checker did not recognize the word Murgatroyd?
Heavens to Murgatroyd!
The other day a not so elderly 65 yo (I say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy and he looked at
her quizzically and said "What the heck is a Jalopy?"
He never heard of the word jalopy!! She knew she was old ... but not that old.
Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after
you read this and chuckle.
About a month ago, I illuminated some old e_xpressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology.
These phrases included "Don't touch that dial," "Carbon copy," "You sound like a broken record" and "Hung out to dry."
Back in the olden days we had a lot of 'moxie.' We'd put on our best 'bib and tucker' to 'straighten up and fly right'.
Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping Jehoshaphat! Holy moley!
We were 'in like Flynn' and 'living the life of Riley'', and even a regular guy couldn't accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea in China!
Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but when's the last time anything was swell?
Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes and pedal pushers ... AND DON'T FORGET ... Saddle Stitched Pants.
Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.
We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!' Or, This is a 'fine kettle of fish'! We discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent, as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards.
Poof, go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone.
Where have all those great phrases gone? My Favorite "Let's all go to the beach Saturday"...
Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It's your nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper.
Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses.
It turns out there are more of these lost words and e_xpressions than Carter has liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! ("Carter's Little Liver Pills" are gone too!) D on’t remember these? Bex powders and Aspros. Cod Liver Oil – yuk!
We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable times. For a child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy that has no age. We at the other end of the chronological arc have the advantage of remembering there are words that once did not exist and there were words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no more, except in our collective memory. It's one of the greatest advantages of aging.
Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth ...
See ya later, alligator! In a while crocodile! At the Zoo kangaroo!
Oki - doki
WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE FABULOUS 40's, 50'S and 60’s ... NO ONE WILL EVER HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY AGAIN ... WE WERE GIVEN ONE OF OUR MOST PRECIOUS GIFTS: OUR MEMORIES ...
Maybe some of us still have them .
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,886
The train was quite crowded, so a U.S. Marine walked the entire length looking for a seat, but the only seat left was taken by a well dressed, middle-aged, French woman’s poodle. The war-weary Marine asked, ‘Ma’am, may I have that seat?’ The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in particular ‘Americans are so rude. My little Fifi is using that seat.’
The Marine walked the entire train again, but the only seat left was under that dog. ‘Please, ma’am. May I sit down? I’m very tired. She snorted, ‘Not only are you Americans rude, you are also arrogant!’ This time the Marine didn’t say a word; he just picked up the little dog, threw it out of the train window, and sat down.
The woman shrieked, ‘Someone must defend my honour! This American should be put in his place!’ An English gentleman sitting nearby spoke up, ‘Sir, you Americans often seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You hold the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your cars on the wrong side of the road. And now, sir, you seem to have thrown the wrong bitch out of the window.’
Brian Dixon and Reginald Barrington like this
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Arte et Marte