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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: sodpoodle

Not to worry ..I won’t drop a dime on you.


121 posted on 01/08/2019 8:20:10 AM PST by Leep (Leftist are neither liberal or democratic. Neither are they pro American.)
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To: sodpoodle

Stop lollygagging and get it into gear.
Get a grip...get a handle on yourself..
Tonight we are hobnobbing with the upper crust.
Just a stone’s throw away.


122 posted on 01/08/2019 8:28:22 AM PST by Leep (Leftist are neither liberal or democratic. Neither are they pro American.)
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To: bill1952

You’ve never snapped a whip?


123 posted on 01/08/2019 8:29:20 AM PST by AFreeBird
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To: wally_bert

Most people today couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.


124 posted on 01/08/2019 8:30:49 AM PST by Leep (Leftist are neither liberal or democratic. Neither are they pro American.)
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To: sodpoodle

I always liked, “that’s about as useful as hen shit on a pump handle.”


125 posted on 01/08/2019 8:32:01 AM PST by thefactor (yes, as a matter of fact, i DID only read the excerpt)
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To: Chickensoup

Not just that. He was well known for consensual activity as well.


126 posted on 01/08/2019 8:32:12 AM PST by Tax-chick (What can I do to fight entropy today?)
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To: thefactor

At least he’s not afraid of work.
He stands right next to it.


127 posted on 01/08/2019 8:35:03 AM PST by Leep (Leftist are neither liberal or democratic. Neither are they pro American.)
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To: sparklite2

Mud Flaps!


128 posted on 01/08/2019 9:22:45 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: null and void

OH man.....you are so right!! Mr. & Mrs. are in jeopardy also!


129 posted on 01/08/2019 9:27:45 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: BlueLancer

Glad to know theres two of us!


130 posted on 01/08/2019 9:27:53 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: Tax-chick

true!


131 posted on 01/08/2019 9:36:44 AM PST by Chickensoup (Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: sodpoodle

Anyone remember “cozy wing”??


132 posted on 01/08/2019 9:42:08 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

” I’m gonna split”

“Don’t let the door hit ya where the Lord split ya!”


133 posted on 01/08/2019 9:52:04 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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“He’s/ she’s got cooties”

What does that mean? Lice? Bad vibes?


134 posted on 01/08/2019 9:59:47 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: Tax-chick

Cat’s pajamas?
My dad used to say “I’m gonna cloud up and rain all over you” which meant don’t even think about doing that again.


135 posted on 01/08/2019 11:22:09 AM PST by faturism (faturismbut'ty////////)
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To: deweyfrank

My grandma would say “want in one hand and sh.. in the other and see which fills up faster”


136 posted on 01/08/2019 11:29:46 AM PST by faturism (faturismbut'ty////////)
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To: matchgirl

No such thing as a rust bucket anymore since cars are made of plastic


137 posted on 01/08/2019 11:36:09 AM PST by faturism (faturismbut'ty////////)
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To: Tax-chick
When one of us was in a bad mood my grandpa used to say, "well, who licked all the red off your candy?"
138 posted on 01/08/2019 11:59:13 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea is getting cold.)
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To: sonofagun
Shotgun wedding!

What's a wedding?

139 posted on 01/08/2019 1:05:37 PM PST by Albion Wilde (Without God and religion you donÂ’t have moral truth, you have moral opinion. --Dennis Prager)
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To: Tucker39
where we moved to when i was a kid, the folks were Scotch-Irish. Mostly Presbyterians or Methodist. They still used colloquialisms from the olde country.

One of my old relatives whose parents were born in Scotland used the idiom "a-" before a verb to mean someone was in the process of doing something.

"He was a-goin' to the racetrack, when..."

"She was a-whoopin' an' a-hollerin' when she saw that polecat..."

140 posted on 01/08/2019 1:13:35 PM PST by Albion Wilde (Without God and religion you donÂ’t have moral truth, you have moral opinion. --Dennis Prager)
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