EVER WONDER: Lost Words from Our Childhood

Started by walkstall, February 02, 2019, 06:06:31 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

walkstall

By Jacque Scott

Ever wonder about all of the sayings or words that seem to be lost as we grew older?  Lets look at a few of these words...

Do you remember the word 'Mergatroyd'?  Spell checkers don't even recognize that word.  Our computers are confused...  Heavens to Mergatroyd!

The other day a not-so-old 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.

Some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the march of technology.  They include  phrases such as "Don't touch that dial," "Carbon copy," "You sound like a broken record" and "Hung out to dry."

Remember when we had lots of  'moxie' and 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!

Way back, 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...

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 have vanished.

Poof, go the words of our youth. The words have been left behind.  We blink, and they're gone.

Long gone are words and phrases like: 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 seems that there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills. This is disturbing!

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.

We are left to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth...  But just consider that no one will ever have the opportunity again for such a great change in wording and phrases.  We, at least most of us, are children of the fabulous 50's.  We have been given one of life's most precious gifts...our memories...

I still call the fridge an ice-box from time to time.  That's what mama called it, so that's what I call it.

The lost Words from our childhood are gone as fast as the buggy whip! Sad really!  Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and chuckle.

See ya later, alligator! Okey-Dokey...  God bless you all.
A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.- James Freeman Clarke

Always remember "Feelings Aren't Facts."

Solar

Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

SueAnn

I understand everything on this except. "Going like sixty."  What does that mean?

walkstall

Quote from: SueAnn on February 03, 2019, 02:58:13 AM
I understand everything on this except. "Going like sixty."  What does that mean?


In my younger days it was doing thing very fast.  Back then sixty was very fast for a car.  In this day and age someone may call someone Ricochet Rabbit. 
A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.- James Freeman Clarke

Always remember "Feelings Aren't Facts."

Solar

Quote from: walkstall on February 03, 2019, 05:48:30 AM

In my younger days it was doing thing very fast.  Back then sixty was very fast for a car.  In this day and age someone may call someone Ricochet Rabbit.
Exactly, the freeway system had yet to be built, and doing 60 MPH was kind of the max anyone did on county roads.
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

SueAnn

Thank you, Walks and Solar.  Makes perfect sense to me.

I remember Richochet Rabbit very well. 

Solar

Quote from: SueAnn on February 04, 2019, 03:38:53 AM
Thank you, Walks and Solar.  Makes perfect sense to me.

I remember Richochet Rabbit very well.
:thumbsup:
I loved that cartoon.
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

midcan5

More information on 'like sixty'.

http://www.word-detective.com/2009/08/like-sixty/

Lots of phrases in link below, I still use many in family letters and communications.

https://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-idioms/




Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, P-type: Advocate INFJ-A, liberal - conservative.

Solar

Quote from: midcan5 on July 11, 2019, 10:16:18 AM
More information on 'like sixty'.

http://www.word-detective.com/2009/08/like-sixty/

Lots of phrases in link below, I still use many in family letters and communications.

https://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-idioms/
If you think about it, what most of us assumed to be inimitable or ever lasting, but today's generation? Many of these no longer make sense. E.g "Bite the bullet" "A penny saved is a penny earned" "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

https://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-idioms/
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

supsalemgr

Quote from: Solar on July 11, 2019, 10:32:27 AM
If you think about it, what most of us assumed to be inimitable or ever lasting, but today's generation? Many of these no longer make sense. E.g "Bite the bullet" "A penny saved is a penny earned" "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

https://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-idioms/

"Bite the bullet" is foreign to snowfllakes.
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"

Solar

Quote from: supsalemgr on July 11, 2019, 12:45:27 PM
"Bite the bullet" is foreign to snowfllakes.
Yep, they're Snowflakes that hate the Nation because they were never taught our history.
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

walkstall

Quote from: Solar on July 11, 2019, 10:32:27 AM
If you think about it, what most of us assumed to be inimitable or ever lasting, but today's generation? Many of these no longer make sense. E.g "Bite the bullet" "A penny saved is a penny earned" "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

https://www.ef.edu/english-resources/english-idioms/

I don't think there a one that I have not used many time in my life time.  Up to the last 20 years.   :lol:   

Now I use "You get what you pay for" a lot in my old age.  :thumbsup:
A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.- James Freeman Clarke

Always remember "Feelings Aren't Facts."

Sick Of Silence

With all these lawyers with cameras on the street i'm shocked we have so much crime in the world.

There is constitutional law and there is law and order. This challenge to law and order is always the start to loosing our constitutional rights.

Frauditors are a waste of life.

midcan5

Re:  Bite the bullet.

I agree but I'd extend it to many Americans today. My father would pummel the hell out of me when I did something wrong. My brother still laughs at how he beat me one night coming home drunk. Weird thing is I hardly remember it and obviously survived. Today you'd worry about jail. The Nuns would hit us too which is kinda funny. Oh how this has changed. But did it work? Maybe but there are other worst punishments like being made to stay in the house.  That was real torture.

Ironically I think we should bring some of those idioms back. lol

'You can say that again'    

'Your guess is as good as mine'

Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, P-type: Advocate INFJ-A, liberal - conservative.

Solar

Quote from: midcan5 on July 12, 2019, 06:03:35 AM
Re:  Bite the bullet.

I agree but I'd extend it to many Americans today. My father would pummel the hell out of me when I did something wrong. My brother still laughs at how he beat me one night coming home drunk. Weird thing is I hardly remember it and obviously survived. Today you'd worry about jail. The Nuns would hit us too which is kinda funny. Oh how this has changed. But did it work? Maybe but there are other worst punishments like being made to stay in the house.  That was real torture.

Ironically I think we should bring some of those idioms back. lol

'You can say that again'    

'Your guess is as good as mine'
I too had an abusive alcoholic father, same experience, yet managed to grow from his failures regardless. (or were they?). Life did come with consequences, actions equaled results.
Be it talking back or late to school, some form of punishment followed, that was the rules to life, the ones that kept you safe later.
Not today, kids are snowflakes that think they are somehow immune to correction, be it bad behavior or demanding we change to fit their Utopian world view.

The way I see it, an entire, maybe two, are lost and headed for a lifetime of failure and disillusionment because the rules to life were always different from those they were being taught. (you're special, you deserve safe spaces, you are protected from bad words or actions).
This is not reality/life, life is a total bitch, every step of the way is a hurdle to over come, and that's by design, but that's not what they were taught.
You simply can't go against Gods law and not pay a price for it.

I have a Civil war ball with teeth marks in it where someone had to bite the bullet, probably some poor young teenager having a limb amputated without pain killer.
Kids today have no freakin clue.
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!