Dr. Fred Eichelman: The Lost Words of Childhood (“Heavens to Murgatroyd!”)
There are so many lost words from our childhood–words gone as fast as the buggy whip! It’s sad, really. A few days ago I said something to a grandson about driving a Jalopy and he looked at me quizzically and said, “What is a Jalopy?” He had never heard of the word jalopy! I knew I was old…. but not that old.
Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and chuckle.
Recently 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.”
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”.
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, penny loafers, and pedal pushers…AND DON’T FORGET… Saddle Stitched Pants
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 know it 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 are the following:
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.
On a date we would love to ‘go parking’ or ‘watch the submarine races’.
It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills.
This can be disturbing stuff! (By the way, ‘Carter’s Little Liver Pills’ are gone, too…)
We are the Children of the Fabulous 1950’s. No one will ever have that opportunity again. We 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 where we have the advantage of remembering there are words that once existed–and there were words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no more, except in our collective memory. And that is one of our most precious gifts: Our Memories.
It’s one of the greatest advantages of aging.
Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth…
Okidoki. See ya later, alligator!
