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A
term I haven't heard in a long time and thinking about "fender skirts" started me
thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language
with hardly a notice like "curb feelers"
And "steering knobs." (AKA) suicide knob
Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first.
Any kids will probably have to
find some elderly person over 50 to explain some of these terms to
you.
Remember "Continental kits?"
They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental.
When did we quit calling them "emergency brakes?"
At some point "parking brake"
became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with
"emergency brake."
I'm sad, too, that almost all the
old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the "foot
feed."
Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home,
so you could ride the "running board" up to the house?
Here's a phrase I heard all the
time in my youth but never anymore - "store-bought." Of course, just
about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging
material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of
candy.
"Coast to coast" is a phrase that
once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we
take the term "world wide" for granted This floors me.
On a smaller scale, "wall-to-wall" was once a magical term in our
homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with,
wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their
wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure.
When's the last time you heard the quaint phrase "in a family
way?" It's hard to imagine that the word "pregnant" was once considered
a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company
So we had all that talk about stork visits and "being in a family way"
or simply"expecting."
Apparently "brassiere" is a word
no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up.
I guess it's just "bra" now "Unmentionables" probably wouldn't be
understood at all.
I always loved going to the
"picture show," but I considered "movie" an affectation.
Most of these words go back to
the '50s, but here's a pure-'60s word I came across the other day -
"rat fink." Ooh, what a nasty put-down!
Here's a word I miss -
"percolator." That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced
with? "Coffee maker." How dull. Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.
I miss those made-up marketing
words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words
like "DynaFlow" and "Electrolux." Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now
with "SpectraVision!"
Food for thought - Was there a
telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore.
Maybe that's what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers
threatening kids with castor oil anymore.
Some words aren't gone, but are
definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most
"supper." Now everybody says "dinner." Save a great word. Invite
someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts.
Someone forwarded this to me. I
thought some of us of a "certain age" would remember most of
these.
Just for fun, Pass it along to others of
"a certain age"!
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"Politics
is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not,
diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy."
- Ernest Benn
Home is where the grab bars are.