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Strutting to the Mummers
New Jersey Woman Sentenced To 51 Months In Prison For Stealing $7 Million From Charity

Fender Skirts, Curb Feelers and Steering Knobs

Posted here March 24, 2007



Continental Mark IV Landau Sedan (1959)Continental Mark IV Landau Sedan (1959) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 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. 

   Someone forwarded this to me. I thought some of us of a "certain age" would remember most of these. 

 Just for fun, Pass it along to others of "a certain age"!!

 

 

  Warm Regards from Kitakyushu City ,Japan

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