WORDS AND PHRASES REMIND US OF THE WAY WE WORD
By Richard Lederer
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." A bevy of readers have asked me to
Shine light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to
Oblige:
Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We’d put on our best bib
And tucker and straighten up and fly right. Hubba-hubba! We’d cut a rug
In some juke joint and then go necking and petting and smooching and
Spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods and
Jalopies in some passion pit or lovers’ lane. Heavens to Betsy! Gee
Whillikers! Jumpin’ 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.
Like Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and Kurt Vonnegut’s Billy
Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time. We wake up from what surely has
Been just a short nap, and before we can say, “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, poof, poof go the words of our youth, the words we’ve left behind.
We blink, and they’re gone, evanesced from the landscape and wordscape
Of our perception, like Mickey Mouse wristwatches, hula hoops, skate
Keys, candy cigarettes, little wax bottles of colored sugar water and an
Organ grinder’s monkey.
Where have all those phrases gone? Long time passing. Where have all
Those phrases gone? Long time ago: Pshaw. The milkman did it. Think
About the starving Armenians. Bigger than a bread box. Banned in Boston
. The very idea! It’s your nickel. Don’t forget to pull the chain. Knee
High to a grasshopper. Turn-of-the-century. Iron curtain. Domino theory.
Fail safe. Civil defense. Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the
Hesperus. Cooties. Going like sixty. I’ll see you in the funny papers.
Don’t take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatroyd! And awa-a-ay we
Go!
Oh, my stars and garters! It turns out there are more of these lost
Words and expressions than Carter had liver pills.
This can be disturbing stuff, this winking out of the words of our
Youth, these words that lodge in our heart’s deep core. But just as one
Never steps into the same river twice, one cannot step into the same
Language twice. Even as one enters, words are swept downstream into the
Past, forever making a different river.
We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeful 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. We can have archaic and eat it, too.
See ‘ya later, alligator!
