Posted on 02/01/2019 9:26:57 PM PST by vannrox
I grew up with lots of "older folks" ( great grandmother, grandparents, great grand aunts & uncles, great aunts & uncles, and a slew of very much older cousins ), but I was really talking about location/ village/town/city/state.
I still use some rather "old fashioned" words/terms/phrases because I was extremely close to my grandparents and just learned them whilst learning how to talk; not to mention the fact that all the adults I grew up around had HUGE vocabularies, used them, and never talked down to me.
How about a "running board"; do you know what that was? I loved looking at old family photos, so saw cars with with them, in many albums.
Millennials, even those who go/went to the very best schools, have VERY lacking verbal skills/vocabularies; sadly.
“but I was really talking about location/ village/town/city/state.”
Location does make a difference.
“not to mention the fact that all the adults I grew up around had HUGE vocabularies, used them, and never talked down to me.”
I can never remember my family talking down to any of us kids. They explained things so we could understand and expected us to learn.
“How about a “running board”; do you know what that was? I loved looking at old family photos, so saw cars with with them, in many albums.”
Of course I know what running boards are. The first car I saw with running boards was my dads second cousin’s 1932 Ford sedan. He parked it in the barn in 1947 and bought a new Ford Super Deluxe. They used the 32 around the farm as a wagon puller until it died in the 60’s.
All the pickup trucks were step sides and had running boards. I never liked the looks of fleet side trucks. Still don’t.
“Millennials, even those who go/went to the very best schools, have VERY lacking verbal skills/vocabularies; sadly.”
The schools have been dumbed down and young people aren’t pushed anymore. I hear so many young people, black and white, using words and they have no idea of the meaning or proper use of the words.
What do we expect of people who were rewarded just for showing up?
They were in old movies ( especially old ANDY HARDY and early ones ), so even big city people knew what they were, once upon a time. Neither were "hot rods" in the '50s.
Re dumbed down kids...this has sadly been going on for many decades now...even in the most ELITE schools and many parents and yes, I fear grandparents don't talk much to their children any more. Nobody writes snailmail, fewer and fewer people read books and the required books, in all schools, are CRAP!
Nursery rhymes, the old fairy tales, myths, great children's lit? How many kids get these read to them/read these themselves anymore?
Lyrics to "songs" today? REALLY? LOL
Once upon a time the likes of Cole Porter, the Gershwins, W.S. Gilbert, etc. were clever, witty, complex, and beautiful. Even the lower classes had a better vocabulary, whether they actually used it or not, and they understood the words used.
It's all quite disquieting, if not utterly heartbrteaking!
Kind of ironic we mostly heard these words in the cartoons of the day..
BTTT
“It’s all quite disquieting, if not utterly heartbrteaking!”
Yes it is.
My favorite song is What A Wonderful World written by Bob Thiele, George Weiss and recorded by Louis Armstrong. Simple yet eloquent and full of optimism and happiness.
Today so called “artists” throw together as many curse words as possible and call it “music”. Not for me.
Movies? Forget it.
Good movies no longer do well at the box office. Audiences want explosions, nudity, simulated sex and a large body count. Character development? Who has time for that because audiences have the attention span of goldfish.
My favorite movie is The Ten Commandments. Beautiful and biblical.
And how about The African Queen?
Bogart and Hepburn delivering great dialogue with a true happy ending.
Young people have no idea what they’re missing.
And then there were books that kids read in school and just for fun...TARZAN, THE RAILWAY CHILDREN, KING SOLOMON'S MINES, SHE, THE WIZARD OF OZ series, THE SECRET GARDEN, and on and on.
We’re on the same page and I bet we could just go on and on in the same vein for hours, re this topic.
I think you’re right.
“God I hate the 20th century. World grew up into a hell of a place”.
General George S Patton Jr
As the automobile liberated youth from front parlors, the rumble seat became scandalized as ‘portable bedrooms.’
Soon auto manufacturers reduced the width of rumble seats to make it less possible to lie down in them.
“not to mention the fact that all the adults I grew up around had HUGE vocabularies, used them, and never talked down to me.”
There was a Betty Boop cartoon where Betty uses a pay phone to make a call, something kids might or might not recognize.
She made her call, hung up, and left the scene. A few seconds later she rushed back in and hurriedly fingered the coin return slot before leaving again.
That hilarious little vignette would be lost on modern audiences.
“Apparently the seemingly hyped vocabularies of the characters in the TV series “Deadwood” weren’t all that hyped. I’ve read that the vocabulary of the time was richer than we use today.”
I’ve read the reason for that was twofold.
1. There was a scarcity of books. Books took up space and were costly to transport. For that reason only the best books made the trip west. With books so scarce people would read them over and over until they memorized them and understood every word in them. Lonely cowboys even reportedly memorized the labels on cans and the tags on clothes.
2. Teachers, when available, were paid directly by the parents of the students. The parents demanded excellence and didn’t pay if the student wasn’t properly taught. Real teacher accountability at work.
No time or era is "perfect"; however, there has been so much WRONG with the late 20th century and all of the 21rst, thus far, vis-a-vis the destruction of culture, civility, humor, imagination, language, and yes intelligence, it appears that mankind is devolving.
Back then, people read...if nothing else, they read the Bible, so yes, the vast majority of people, alive back then, had extensive vocabularies and used them, or at the least, if they didn't speak that way, understood the meanings of words far fewer today understand or even know.
Correct on both counts!
Wait they’re actually calling the Duck and Cover era peaceful and comfortable?! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA what a freaking moron. We were teaching our kids that the world WOULD be destroyed, any day now, make sure your parents keep the shelter stocked. Peaceful my rear end.
Yep. Folks tend to elide that.
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