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Lost Words from our Childhood
The Most Important News ^ | FR post 2FEB19 | unattributed

Posted on 02/01/2019 9:26:57 PM PST by vannrox

Lost Words from our childhood:

Mergatroyd!…

Do you remember that word? Would you believe the spell-checker did not recognize the word Mergatroyd? Heavens to Mergatroyd!

The other day a not so elderly (I say 75) 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.

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 great 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. Wake up and smell the roses.

It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! (Carter’s Little Liver Pills are gone too!)

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.

Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth…

See ya later, alligator! Oki-doki

WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE FABULOUS 50’S..NO ONE WILL EVER HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY AGAIN…WE WERE GIVEN ONE OF OUR MOST PRECIOUS GIFTS: LIVING IN THE PEACEFUL AND COMFORTABLE TIMES, CREATED FOR US BY THE “GREATEST GENERATION!”


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: chat; culture; funny; notnews; saying; wob; words
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To: vannrox

“He’s got more (blank) than you can shake a stick at!” :)


41 posted on 02/02/2019 1:27:01 AM PST by ResisTyr (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God " ~Thomas Jefferson)
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To: vannrox
"Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!" (That one might just survive, in this world of legalized weed. 😁)
42 posted on 02/02/2019 1:33:04 AM PST by ResisTyr (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God " ~Thomas Jefferson)
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To: nopardons
"Holy Moley" I still use "Holy Mackerel" in place of "Holy $#!T" sometimes. Seems the latter may NEVER go out of style! 😂
43 posted on 02/02/2019 1:41:52 AM PST by ResisTyr (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God " ~Thomas Jefferson)
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To: vannrox

Tell that to the Marines.


44 posted on 02/02/2019 1:51:20 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: Windflier
My dad would refer to blacks as "colored" & he didn't have a racist bone in his body. It's my opinion that all this "word policing" nowadays is pretty ridiculous. With all due respect, why do young blacks refer to each as the "N" word, but it's almost thought to be criminal, shoukd anyone else utter that word White people don't go around calling each ither "Crackers," so why do blacks "N" with each other? Is it meant to be demeaning, offensive or endearing. Just curious. 😉
45 posted on 02/02/2019 1:53:00 AM PST by ResisTyr (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God " ~Thomas Jefferson)
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To: ResisTyr
My dad would refer to blacks as "colored" & he didn't have a racist bone in his body.

I believe you. We once called ourselves 'colored', as well, but the term is long out of favor.

...why do young blacks refer to each as the "N" word, but it's almost thought to be criminal, shoukd anyone else utter that word

It's kind of a case of 'when life hands you lemons...'. Blacks turned the term around to make fun of each other, but it still stung when whites used it.

For the record, most blacks seldom, if ever, use the word.

46 posted on 02/02/2019 2:16:07 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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To: vannrox

Egads and Gadzooks!


47 posted on 02/02/2019 4:11:16 AM PST by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
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To: vannrox
When we did something stupid my dad would say 'that'll learn ya. 😃
48 posted on 02/02/2019 4:29:42 AM PST by just me (God bless President Trump and the USA)
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To: ResisTyr

My Mom still says, “Well, doesn’t that just rot your socks!” (make you mad). Also, “My stars and garters!” when she was surprised.


49 posted on 02/02/2019 4:44:46 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed thee ... I knew thee.")
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To: dfwgator
Made In Japan is my all-time favorite live album (and I'm a big Zep fan)...
50 posted on 02/02/2019 4:59:42 AM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: Windflier

Never discriminate against race.

But always discrimnate against Democrats.


51 posted on 02/02/2019 5:13:10 AM PST by TheNext (Participation Award Winner = CoC)
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To: nopardons

“Cute, but NO 75 year old would know what a jalopy was, nor use that term today, unless she watched old movies from the 1930s!”

I’m a decade younger than that and grew up hearing jalopy used regularly. I still use it.
Heck, my spell check even recognized it!

I saw “Kilroy was here” on many of the old WW2 movies that were made in the 50’s and 60’s. I never knew about the hands and nose drawing until I read about it long after I reached adulthood.


52 posted on 02/02/2019 5:14:10 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: Envisioning

Catty-corner is one I miss.


53 posted on 02/02/2019 5:15:39 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

“We aren’t allowed to say colored people, but people of color is acceptable.”

Redd Foxx used to do a bit that was pretty funny.
“For over a hundred years we were naggers. Then people started calling us colored. Then it changed to black. Now people want to call us African Americans. People need to slow down. I’m just getting used to being colored”.


54 posted on 02/02/2019 5:20:52 AM PST by oldvirginian ( Buckle up kids, rough road ahead.)
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To: weston

That post is ‘the bee’s knees’


55 posted on 02/02/2019 5:41:12 AM PST by SueRae (An administration like no other.)
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To: vannrox

I can contribute- Hunkydory and Hoosegow


56 posted on 02/02/2019 5:42:24 AM PST by MomwithHope (IMO Patrick McGoohan - Inventor of the Red Pill)
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To: vannrox

Dude, 75 is old to anyone not 80.


57 posted on 02/02/2019 5:48:47 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: oldvirginian

Hahaha.... I use catty corner. Y husband is from Minnesota. They say kitty corner!

Spinnng a car around the snow ( back in the days of rear wheel drive) was called ‘doing doughnuts’
He calls I sing cookies. :)


58 posted on 02/02/2019 5:51:05 AM PST by SueRae (An administration like no other.)
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To: SueRae

Auto spell really messed me up there. In Minnesota my husband called spinning a car around in the snow ‘doing cookies’


59 posted on 02/02/2019 5:53:10 AM PST by SueRae (An administration like no other.)
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To: TheNext
Never discriminate against race. But always discrimnate against Democrats.

I like that. It's what they already do to me.

60 posted on 02/02/2019 6:08:34 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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