Thinking back to my childhood days

[AZgl1800]

Murgatroyd, remember that word? Would you believe the email spell checker did not recognize the word Murgatroyd?


Heavens to Murgatroyd!

Lost Words from our childhood: Words gone as fast as the buggy whip! Sad really!

The other day a not so elderly 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'.

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, penny loafers, and pedal pushers... AND DON'T FORGET... Saddle Stitched Pants

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 existed... 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!

Okidoki

[Schultz]

AZgl1500 wrote:
The other day a not so elderly lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy and he looked at her quizzically and said "What the heck is a Jalopy?"

She should have replied: You don't know what a jalopy is? "I'll fix your wagon!"

I was just listening to a Ratt song in the car that used the expressions "I'm off my rocker" and "I fell out of my tree." I wonder if these expressions have also "fallen by the wayside." I haven't heard anyone use them in ages.

[Moem]

"Don't touch that dial," "Carbon copy," "You sound like a broken record"

And then there was the young whippersnapper who saw a floppy disk for the first time, and piped up "Oh look! Someone 3D-printed the 'Save' icon."

[Portreve]

There is a video on YouTube where several young children (ages 7-12) are shown a rotary phone and asked:

1. What is it?
2. How do you operate it?
3. How do you use it?

They pretty much all got #1 right, most got right certain details (like the headset part) and maybe one could say how to dial numbers.

It's not so much a concern to me about whether someone has ever seen or used a piece of now thoroughly obsolete technology. What concerns me more is one's ability to reason out what something is vs. being cook lonely or mostly reliant on bring spoon-fed information.

I worked for a certain big-box retailer, and worked in the hardware department (I have a lot of background in that area having worked in some of the capacities I have elsewhere plus experience outside of work) and one day, an ~18 year old came in and asked me for help with an air conditioning filter. He made two mistakes, the first of which is not of concern here. Here's what he said to me:

“I need a nineteen and three over four by nineteen and three over four filter."

And mind you, he's in college.

[Moem]

There is a video on YouTube where several young children (ages 7-12) are shown a rotary phone and asked:

1. What is it?
2. How do you operate it?
3. How do you use it?

They pretty much all got #1 right, most got right certain details (like the headset part) and maybe one could say how to dial numbers.

Dude. I know a guy who's in his late twenties, and when he visited our local hackerspace and saw a rotary phone, he could not figure out how to dial.
The kicker? He's the co-owner of a telecom startup.

[Portreve]

Dude. I know a guy who's in his late twenties, and when he visited our local hackerspace and saw a rotary phone, he could not figure out how to dial.
The kicker? He's the co-owner of a telecom startup.

[slipstick]

See ya later, alligator!

After while, crocodile!

Be there, or be square!

It was a different world - one I fondly remember from my childhood. On another thread, the comedian Jack Benny was mentioned - got me remembering the shows I watched as a boy (got our first TV when I was about 6 or 7, and of course all we had was black and white for many years): Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy, Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, What's My Line, This is Your Life, Sky King, the boxing matches on Friday Night, ....

Anyone remember the old commercial jingles?
"BrylCreem, a little dab'll do ya.."
"You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent"
"Look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp - how are you fixed for blades?" (Gillette razor blade commercial)
"LSMFT - Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco"

[AZgl1800]

It was a different world - one I fondly remember from my childhood. On another thread, the comedian Jack Benny was mentioned - got me remembering the shows I watched as a boy (got our first TV when I was about 6 or 7, and of course all we had was black and white for many years): Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy, Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, What's My Line, This is Your Life, Sky King, the boxing matches on Friday Night, ....

Anyone remember the old commercial jingles?
"BrylCreem, a little dab'll do ya.."
"You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent"
"Look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp - how are you fixed for blades?" (Gillette razor blade commercial)
"LSMFT - Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco"

oh yes, all of those. we got our first TV in 1953, I was 10 years old, and we lived on those Saturday morning shows.
"Hi yo Silver Away!!!" and Tonto, his best friend.

Do you remember, or happen to see, Elvis Presley's very first public appearance on the "Ed Sullivan show" ?

Elvis copied his hair style after my own ( snicker snicker, still comb it that way )
loved his early songs, before he went into hard rock.

[DAMIEN1307]

hey AZg...if your like me, their isnt that much hair left to comb...lol..."golly gee whiz wally"...and of course, "ward, arent you being a lttile rough on the beaver?"...DAMIEN

[AZgl1800]

hey AZg...if your like me, their isnt that much hair left to comb...lol..."golly gee whiz wally"...and of course, "ward, arent you being a lttile rough on the beaver?"...DAMIEN

well, I am lucky enough to have enough on the sides to comb back like I used to...
but, er, uh, ahem, it is awfully thin now, and when it dries out, it just springs up everywhere

and yes, we need to copy all of these remembrances into a single post for laters, gator

[DAMIEN1307]

"In a while, crocodile"...DAMIEN

[Schultz]

Rotary phones may be obsolete (I wouldn't classify them as such myself), but you can still buy them. The link below sells the real deal, not cheap lightweight copies.

http://www.oldphones.com/

[lsemmens]

A few years back now, my sister and her Hubby had a black and white TV that was well past it's use-by date but still serviceable, so they still watched it. One of their kids brought a friend home from school one day. Friend was overheard to say "Gee, your folks must be rich, they have a BLACK AND WHITE TV!"

Think of all the new words that have also entered our language, too. How many of us would know the meaning of CPU, or RAM, along with mobile (as in phone) or e-mail addy, when we were kids?

[Schultz]

slipstick wrote:
Anyone remember the old commercial jingles?
"BrylCreem, a little dab'll do ya.."

I was surprised that Brylcreem is still on the market. I haven't noticed it in stores for years.

Here's another one for you. Remember the Chuck Wagon dog food commercials where the mini wagon with horses goes into the kitchen and "magically" goes through a kitchen cabinet?

[ajgringo619]

slipstick wrote:
Anyone remember the old commercial jingles?
"BrylCreem, a little dab'll do ya.."

I was surprised that Brylcreem is still on the market. I haven't noticed it in stores for years.

Here's another one for you. Remember the Chuck Wagon dog food commercials where the mini wagon with horses goes into the kitchen and "magically" goes through a kitchen cabinet?

Definitely. I wonder how long Mr. Wipple would be employed (or out of jail) with his Charmin "fetish"!
Another favorite of mine was "Where's the beef?"

[slipstick]

Anyone remember the Burma Shave signs by the roadside? I remember seeing these in the early 50's in west Texas and SW Oklahoma when we visited my grandparents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave
http://burma-shave.org/jingles/

[AZgl1800]

Anyone remember the Burma Shave signs by the roadside? I remember seeing these in the early 50's in west Texas and SW Oklahoma when we visited my grandparents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave
http://burma-shave.org/jingles/

I remember looking anxiously for the next one as dad would drive us down the highways...
I was raised in Oklahoma and had family in Texas and Kansas, those signs used to be everywhere....
some were still in New Mexico when I lived/worked out there between 78 to 92

[mediclaser]

Rotary phones may be obsolete (I wouldn't classify them as such myself), but you can still buy them. The link below sells the real deal, not cheap lightweight copies.

http://www.oldphones.com/

I have the privilege of having friends older than my grandparents. Two of them (a couple) still have a rotary phone. When we visited them last December, my 8-year old son was able to identify the old phone. He said he saw one of those on TV.

I remember the last time I actually used one those was when I was 18, working as a junior programmer. The company I was working for happened to keep their only remaining rotary phone in good working condition.

I believe the 911 emergency number is based on the rotary phone dial. The combination cannot be accidentally dialed ('9' takes a long stroke), but easy and fast enough ('1' followed by another '1' are fast strokes) even for the visually impaired.

[mediclaser]

"In a while, crocodile"...DAMIEN

"See you soon, baboon!" - Heard this from one of my friends older than my parents.

[AZgl1800]

the last rotary phone dial equipment that I used,
was the Wall Phone in our Communications shacks on the cross country gas and oil pipelines that I worked with.
Most of the company had converted to Touch Tone at that point, but we still have the rotary stepper switches in the switch centers and those converted our old dialers to the main telco system.