Discussion»Questions»Communication» For senior citizens (ie old people like me) can you recall any words, phrases and sayings, familiar in your childhood, but no longer heard?
"Pull over, I need to make a call, I think there's a phone booth at the next store." "Ya plan ta come along peaceful-like, or am I gonna hafta muss ya up a little?" "Where did I leave that buttonhook? Grrrrrrr."
"Let me rap with you for a minute." "Brother, can you spare a dime?" "Sunday go-a-meetin'-clothes." "She's one ripe tomato." "White courtesy phone." "Gas station attendant."
"Plug in the telephone." "Twenty-three Skidoo."
"Traveler's Cheques." "Get wise ta yerself!"
"Elevator operator." "The little woman." "Unmentionables." "House detective." "Crank up the car." "Bee-hive hairdo." "Smoking jacket." "Grease monkey." "Cat-eye glasses." "Kilroy was here." "Tennis, anyone?" "Let's cut a rug." "Riddle me this." "My better half." "Theatre usher." "Hubba-hubba!" "Dinner jacket." "Take a letter." "Road map." "Gun moll." "Right on." "Milkman." "Bell boy." "Bell hop."
Pass book. Bank book. Mail a letter. Yellow pages. Set of encyclopedias. Look for it in the TV Guide. Doctors making housecalls. Visiting friends at their homes. Wait for the Sears catalog at Christmastime. ~
I recall one or two that are probably regional dialect words, that our family used to use - Pikelet, Twitchel.
Then I heard a speaker on the radio refer to pikelets, only the other day! (They are usually sold as crumpets.)
A twitchel is a footpath, usually a short local one, not a long-distance way.
Randy -
People do still write and post letters, but not as often as hitherto.
The Yellow Pages are still published in Britain but are a lot slimmer than they were. Unfortunately one effect of companies not bothering to use printed directories on the assumption the Great God Internet is all that is necessary, means that it is actually much harder to find many of them!
There is a plethora of TV listing magazines here but as far as I can see only one, the "Radio Times", actually tells you anything about the choice of radio programmes available.
Visiting friends at home - lock-downs apart, it will be a very sad day when meeting people face-to-face at home, socially, is regarded as worthless and needless.
Thank you, Durdle, you are correct. I was responding to the portion of the original post that states where meaning may have changed. Letter-writing itself is not completely gone, but it has evolved vastly, much of it is in email form or some other computer-based media. Yellow pages is now mostly a website as opposed to the large book dropped on our doorsteps. I am not aware of any printed form of television listings that are regularly circulated like the former TV Guide magazine was, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, it's just become more readily available on the television's screen and other devices, so its meaning has changed. Home visits have gone the way of the family dinner; rare. ~
Actually pikelets are VERY DIFFERENT from crumpets, if indeed those words are used for the same things in Australia. A pikelet here is a miniature pancake. Crumpets are more like English muffins in shape, but less flexible and have a surface not unlike a wasp's nest.
Durdle 