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Lost Words From our Childhood
The Association of Mature American Citizens ^ | 5/11/2016 | Richard Lederer

Posted on 01/08/2019 3:57:41 AM PST by sodpoodle

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 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 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! 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 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 grasshopper. 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, after a while crocodile!


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS: memories
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To: Candor7

Petting


101 posted on 01/08/2019 7:08:24 AM PST by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: sodpoodle
Whippersnapper (not whipersnaper) is a young and inexperienced person considered to be presumptuous or overconfident.

See the source image

“I know her better than you do, you young whippersnapper!”

102 posted on 01/08/2019 7:11:22 AM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: lysie

Believe it or not I heard that expression, the creek don’t rise, referred to the Creek Indians uprising...It made sense because what cowboy on a horse worth his salt can’t cross creek?


103 posted on 01/08/2019 7:27:22 AM PST by KierkegaardMAN (This is the sort of stuff up with which I shall not put!)
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To: Concentrate

It’s “bats in the belfry”: referring to someone who acts as though he has bats careering around his head.


104 posted on 01/08/2019 7:30:20 AM PST by fritzthecat (I only regret my economies)
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To: bill1952

Whippersnapper:

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/whipper-snapper.html

The meaning of ‘whipper snapper’ has altered over the years, originally referring to a young man with no apparent get up and go, to be applied to a youngster with an excess of both ambition and impudence.


105 posted on 01/08/2019 7:33:38 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: fritzthecat

Makes me laugh.

“Living high on the hog”

“High Falooten” sp?


106 posted on 01/08/2019 7:36:07 AM PST by Concentrate (ex-texan was right and Always Right was wrong, which is why we lost the election. Podesta the molest)
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To: BlueLancer

“If you’ve never seen the Bruce Willis movie “Hudson Hawk”...”

Am I the only person in the world who ENJOYED “Hudson Hawk”?


107 posted on 01/08/2019 7:36:32 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: A_perfect_lady

Yes, that’s an old one, too.


108 posted on 01/08/2019 7:36:49 AM PST by Tax-chick (What can I do to fight entropy today?)
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To: deweyfrank

““People in hell want snowballs too!”.

I heard it as them wanting spring water. Well, I’m REALLY country.


109 posted on 01/08/2019 7:40:26 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: reed13k

Whippersnapper

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/whipper-snapper.html


110 posted on 01/08/2019 7:43:27 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: Tucker39

Not even close.
Whippersnapper
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/whipper-snapper.html


111 posted on 01/08/2019 7:45:06 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: PeteePie

Usually when “your father” is mentioned the brat replies “who dat mofo be?”


112 posted on 01/08/2019 7:49:38 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: Tax-chick

it refers to when a guy’s jalopy ( LOL ) broke down or ran out of gas.


113 posted on 01/08/2019 7:50:00 AM PST by matchgirl (Can you hear the people sing!)
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To: matchgirl

Oh, that’s not something I would have considered.

Car enthusiasts still use “jalopy.” A marketing site for classic and unusual cars is called “Jalopnik.” A number of the FR North Carolina page participants are into cars.


114 posted on 01/08/2019 7:52:48 AM PST by Tax-chick (What can I do to fight entropy today?)
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To: oldvirginian
Am I the only person in the world who ENJOYED “Hudson Hawk”?

Nope, I always felt that "Hudson Hawk" was one of the great recent slapstick comedies produced...

...the scene of the Mona Lisa model smiling was hysterical ... and ...

"Bunny ... ball ... ball".

115 posted on 01/08/2019 7:55:06 AM PST by BlueLancer (Orchides Forum Trahite - Cordes Et Mentes Veniant)
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To: KierkegaardMAN

“It made sense because what cowboy on a horse worth his salt can’t cross creek?”

Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise was used by country folks, especially in Appalachia, for generations.
It meant that if the Lord saw fit to let you live to the day/event in question and the creek wasn’t too rain swollen to wade across then you would be at the place/event in question. Most country folks walked where they needed to go. Horses weren’t commonly ridden by farmers.

http://appalachianmagazine.com/2017/04/23/appalachian-language-lord-willing-and-the-creek-dont-rise/

Most researchers disagree that the saying had anything to do with the Creek Nation.


116 posted on 01/08/2019 8:07:27 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: Tax-chick

about his rape charges.


117 posted on 01/08/2019 8:09:15 AM PST by Chickensoup (Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: bill1952
What the Hell is a whipersnaper? Never figured that out. _____________ Whatever he was he was always young. whippersnapper (hwĭpˈər-snăpˌər, wĭpˈ-)► n. A person regarded as insignificant and pretentious.
118 posted on 01/08/2019 8:11:24 AM PST by Chickensoup (Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: sodpoodle

The phone is ringing off the hook.

Fresh! I’m not that kind of a girl!

I have a visit from Aunt Flo.

NOW you’re cookin’ with gas.

Mad money. Carfare.


119 posted on 01/08/2019 8:17:36 AM PST by Nea Wood
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To: sodpoodle

Sock it to me on the flipside daddy-o, I’m 23 skiddoo.


120 posted on 01/08/2019 8:20:09 AM PST by Boogieman
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