Lost Words from Our Childhood

Russ Steele

I belong to an eclectic writers group that often shares items they have discovered in the world of words. Below is the latest contribution and it brought back a lot of memories for Ellen and me. We shared with friends, and George encouraged me to post on RR. If you are not over 65 some of these words may need explanation, ask your grandmother or grandfather.

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! Okidoki

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!”

I hope you found a memory of two to enjoy!

Comments

[Gregory]

That was an E ticket ride.

BTW many of yours predate the '50's and the so-called Greatest Generation, a label created by Tom Brokaw to sell a s**tload of books to them.

[George Rebane]

Yes, some do predate the 50s, but I think that Russ' point was that these words and expressions - all familiar to me - were still current until many of us oldsters left our teen years. An E-ticket ride indeed down memory lane.

[Bill Tozer]

“See ya later, alligator!” After awhile, crocodile.

Pre-date? Like my Mom talking about sitting in the rumble seat? Of doing the Charleston at the NCO club?

[Bill Tozer]

The 50’s? Things have changed since 82.

https://www.facebook.com/FlashbackComedyVideos/videos/1681601218562550/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDI0NjU1NjI1Mzo1MTkyOTgxOTg1ODU2ODQ/

[Scott O]

Bill - my mother's much younger first cousin taught me that saying - from the then current hit song, no doubt. My father-in-law and my grandfather had a few expressions I heard no where else and I won't repeat them here. The worst fate I ever heard my father deem for some one or thing was that they or it could 'go to blazes'. Kids today would imagine he was instructing them to attend to a house fire.
My grandmother would be leery of a shop-keeper she thought was 'talking through his hat' and she would certainly 'take her trade elsewhere'.
But if she thought something exceptional, it was the 'cat's meow'.
My grandfather would declare something he thought to be well made or finely crafted to be 'a dandy'.
Just remember to be a hep cat and not L7!

[Don Bessee]

What about words that are denied their definitions by the PC mobs?

Invasion -

An occasion when a large number of people or things come to a place in an annoying and unwanted way:
the annual invasion of foreign tourists
​
An action or process that affects someone's life in an unpleasant and unwanted way:
an invasion of privacy

;-)

[keith]

As the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Snagglepuss would say, "Heavens to Mergatroyd, Exit, stage left!!"

[Mark O]

"An action or process that affects someone's life in an unpleasant and unwanted way:
an invasion of privacy"

Yes Bessee, you are an invasion. Perhaps even an invasive species.

[Bill Tozer]

Know everyone of these:
“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!”

Oh, The Life of Riley. Yes, indeed, quite familiar with that one. I thought it was “in like flint”, but guess it was like playing telephone and Flynn got changed to Flint somewhere in the backroads of my mind. Flynn makes more sense. Got called a pill once. I knew whatever it meant, it was not a compliment.

Of all the lines in the post, this one means the most to me:

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.”

Fiddlesticks. My Grandpa used to say, “Fiddlesticks to the barber.” I have asked several people from Grandpa’s region of birth over the years if they have ever heard of “Oh, Fiddlesticks to the barber!” and none ever heard of it. Come to think of it, they may have been the wrong generation I was asking. Too young. :).

Thanks Russ and Dr. Rebane for the smiles. E ticket ride.

[Gregory]

But some old sayings never die... like don't blow smoke up my ass.
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/ever_wonder_where_the_expression_blow_smoke_up_your_ass_came_from

And then there's "ollie ollie oxen free" which, over the centuries, got derived from the original "All ye! All ye! Outs in free" at the end of the game of Hide and Go Seek.

[George Rebane]

re Gregory 1120pm - Actually, blowing smoke up your ass was an accepted medical practice at the turn of the 19th century. Here's how RR covered it some years back -
https://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2012/08/obamas-address-of-national-issues.html

And for more on smoke where the sun don't shine, just google 'smoke up your ass' for a snootful - that about covers it from both ends ;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Looks like “Fiddlesticks to the barber” is a lost phrase of our youth, if you were a youthful teenager in 1910. If I could find somebody who was a teenager around 1910 or 1914, they probably couldn’t remember. :) Maybe Grandpa picked it up “over there”. Alas, too
late, nothing on Google.
A stitch in time saves nine,. Guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

[Matthew McCue]

Russ, According to https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/430682/what-does-the-phrase-the-turn-of-the-nineteenth-century-mean , "the turn of the 19th century" is ambiguous. Could you specify the dates, e.g., 1800-1810?

[Matthew McCue]

I think I should have addressed George, not Russ in my post above.