Fender skirts
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 290
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From: Monroe, WA
Fender skirts I gor this in an email - kinda funny
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 *****." (AKA) suicide ****
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
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 *****." (AKA) suicide ****
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
TECH Regular
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 448
Likes: 0
From: Corvallis, OR
Originally Posted by Amorget
You old people bitch about everything... 
There is something to be said about the transformation of the meanings and values of the words in our language as time "progresses". Lately something I've noticed a lot of my professors doing is calling Corn "Maize" (bio/history classes) Wow? I'm pretty sure if my father had called corn "Maize" his mother and father would have cross eyed him until he tried explaining he was just trying to be "diverse" and "different"--at which point they'd probably have told him to act properly at the dinner (supper) table or get ready for a lump on the head. Now I realize our language will always change, after all, no one speaks like increadibly well spoken and written founding fathers... little today can even understand them at all (which is obvious today in some of our judges "interpretations" of the constitution). Long story short, I think there is a significant importance in preserving our language, good post.
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10 Second Club
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 702
Likes: 0
Originally Posted by Amorget
You old people bitch about everything...
Just remember that "Old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm"
Pay particular attention to the treachery part.
On The Tree
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 197
Likes: 0
No kidding.... young people these days are totally uneducated.
I SWEAR I had a discussion with a 20-yr old a few weeks ago EXPLAINING that Micheal Jackson was the biggest Pop singer of my generation... then explaining that THRILLER was a song/album/video!
Of course I almost dropped dead when she told me she had no idea who "the A Team" were.
I damn near died laughing...
then cried a little inside. 
I SWEAR I had a discussion with a 20-yr old a few weeks ago EXPLAINING that Micheal Jackson was the biggest Pop singer of my generation... then explaining that THRILLER was a song/album/video!
Of course I almost dropped dead when she told me she had no idea who "the A Team" were.
I damn near died laughing...
then cried a little inside. 