14 responses to “Lost Words from Our Childhood”

1. 

   Gregory

   25 November 2018

   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.

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2. 

   George Rebane

   25 November 2018

   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.

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3. 

   Bill Tozer

   25 November 2018

   “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?

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4. 

   Bill Tozer

   25 November 2018

   The 50’s? Things have changed since 82.
   https://www.facebook.com/FlashbackComedyVideos/videos/1681601218562550/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDI0NjU1NjI1Mzo1MTkyOTgxOTg1ODU2ODQ/

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5. 

   Scott O

   25 November 2018

   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!

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6. 

   Don Bessee

   25 November 2018

   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
   😉

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7. 

   keith

   25 November 2018

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

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8. 

   Mark O

   26 November 2018

   “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.

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9. 

   Bill Tozer

   26 November 2018

   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.

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10. 

    Gregory

    26 November 2018

    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.

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11. 

    George Rebane

    27 November 2018

    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 😉

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12. 

    Bill Tozer

    27 November 2018

    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.

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13. 

    Matthew McCue

    13 January 2019

    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?

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14. 

    Matthew McCue

    13 January 2019

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

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