airbud7
09-04-2020, 08:18 AM
Lost Words from our childhood: Mergatroyd!. Do you remember that
word? Would you believe the spell-checker did not recognize the word
Mergatroyd? Heavens to Mergatroyd! The other day a not so elderly (I
say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy; and he
looked at her quizzically and said "What the heck is a Jalopy?" He
never heard of the word jalopy! She knew she was old. But not that
old. Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and chuckle.
So let's illuminate some old expressions that have become obsolete
because of the inexorable march of technology. Phrases like: Don't
touch that dial, Carbon copy, You sound like a broken record, and Hung
out to dry. Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on
our best bib and tucker, to straighten up and fly right. Heavens to
Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping 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. We wake up from what surely has
been just a short nap, and before we can say, “Well, 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, go the words of our youth, the words we've left
behind. We blink, and they're gone. Where have all those great
phrases gone? Long gone: Pshaw, 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. It turns out
there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has
little liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! (Carter's Little Liver Pills are
gone too!) We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable
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. Leaves us to wonder
word? Would you believe the spell-checker did not recognize the word
Mergatroyd? Heavens to Mergatroyd! The other day a not so elderly (I
say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy; and he
looked at her quizzically and said "What the heck is a Jalopy?" He
never heard of the word jalopy! She knew she was old. But not that
old. Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and chuckle.
So let's illuminate some old expressions that have become obsolete
because of the inexorable march of technology. Phrases like: Don't
touch that dial, Carbon copy, You sound like a broken record, and Hung
out to dry. Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on
our best bib and tucker, to straighten up and fly right. Heavens to
Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping 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. We wake up from what surely has
been just a short nap, and before we can say, “Well, 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, go the words of our youth, the words we've left
behind. We blink, and they're gone. Where have all those great
phrases gone? Long gone: Pshaw, 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. It turns out
there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has
little liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! (Carter's Little Liver Pills are
gone too!) We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable
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. Leaves us to wonder