Lost Words from our childhood: Words gone as fast as the buggy whip! Sad really!
The other day, a not so elderly (65) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy and he looked at her quizzically and said what the heck is a Jalopy? OMG (new phrase!) - he had 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.
These are some old expressions 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.
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!/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 phrases gone?
Long gone:
Pshaw
The milkman did it
Hey! It's your nickel
Don't forget to pull the chain
Knee high to a grasshopper3
Well, Fiddlesticks!
Going like sixty.
I'll see you in the funny papers.
Don't take any wooden nickels
Heavens to Murgatroyd!
It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills.
This can be disturbing stuff!
We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeful 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.
See ya later, alligator!
I haven’t used all of these but have heard most of them, at one time or another, used by my parents, grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles.
LoL Cat, I'm familiar with many of these and use a few. The number of times I have uttered a word or phrase and my younger colleagues have looked at me sideways lol
ReplyDeleteHugs
Roz
LOL Roz...same here. I can really confusee mynon-US co-workers.;)
DeleteHugs and blessings...Cat
Oh Golly gosh! I know all these and I still use fiddlesticks all the time. I must be old, :(
ReplyDeletelove Jan, xx
We all have a favorite phrase or two, Jan...that does NOT make us old. ;)
DeleteHugs and blessings...Cat
Shiver me timbers:) Familiar with most of these these and have used a few. Never heard of Jumping Jehoshaphat though. Thanks Cat.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Ronnie
xx
LOL Ronnie, used to hear jumping jehoshaphat on Saturday morning cartoons. ;)
DeleteHugs and blessings...Cat
Oh no! I know a lot of these, though some of the American sayings haven't crossed the Pond. I never did find out who Murgatroyd was.
ReplyDeleteRosie xx
LOL Rosie, I'm sure there are a lot of sayings from your side of the pond that I haven't heard. I never found out who that stinker was either. ;)
DeleteHugs and blessings...Cat
I've heard and used many of those sayings. Truth is they still pop up in my head and sometimes out of my mouth and the younger generation look at me strangely, like "what the heck are you talking about."
ReplyDeleteLOL Sunny...a lot of the younger generation don't understand any word with more than one syllable. ;)
DeleteHugs and blessings...Cat
some of these are new to me but some I have heard and even used. my dad's favorite was always "for crying out loud" :-) Hugs
ReplyDeleteLOL Terps...I grew up in a neighborhood with a ton of kids so sometimes it was hard to know which mother was yelling but there was one we always knew because she prefaced everything with "for crying out loud..." ;)
DeleteHugs and blessings...Cat