Words we used to use

[Ozark Tracker]

I got this in an e-mail,  made me start thinking about alll those words we used to use,  is there any you can add.


>     "FENDER SKIRTS.", etc.
>
> I  came across this phrase yesterday,
> "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  knobs." (AKA) suicide knob.
>
> 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.

[Forty Rod]

Just in the automobile field:

curb feelers

teardrop spotlights

roll-and-tuck upholstery

"lead sled"

Lakes pipes

afterburners

points. plugs, and condenser

rumble seat

jockey box

[Ozark Tracker]

had almost forgot bout them curb feelers, before I read this

[Texas Lawdog]

OT, We're lost in the 50's tonight.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I wasn't around in the 50's but my parents and grandparents used some of those words.

Slim

[litl rooster]

Suicide Knobs......is only for tractors these days


Suicide doors

Suicide shifters

[Dirty Brass]

More automotive - How about "wing windows" and "hood ornaments". Vacuum operated windshield washers.....and when the infamous "tubeless tires" came to be!

[Delmonico]

Little later but how about extended shackles and L60's.   Saves gas cause yer always drivin' down hill.

[Arcey]

Older Chevrolets with six volt batteries. Whitewall paint, Gas pump nozzles that didn't shut off by themselves when the tank was full. Rebuildin' wheel cylinders. Fillin' stations with the restroom keys attached to hunks of broom sticks painted pink 'n blue. The men's room had them vendin' machines sellin' 'those' things for the prevention of disease at drive-in movies.

Drug stores with TV tube testers 'n a lunch counter. Air conditioned 'n home weren't. Ya could sit 'n have a limeade in there. Drive-in restaurants where the waitresses were on roller skates 'n had trays what hooked to yer driver's door. Car windows ya cranked up 'n down instead of werkin' a button. They had radios not stereos. One speaker in the middle of the dash.

Don't know if there's werds for that stuff.

[Ozark Tracker]

oil bath air filters,  AM radio is fading fast.  them little radiator water bags that would hang up there on the front bumper, that ya needed if ya crossed any deserts

[Delmonico]

Got a funny about AM radio, got a kid that works here, nice kid, likes old time real Country music.  Tolt me the other day he'd found a radio station that carried The Grand Ol' Opry.  Was out in the country the other night and was playin' with his radio.  Well I asked him which one, thought maybe a local FM had picked up the feed.

He said he wasn't sure the call letters but it was on AM  650 to be exact.

Said, yep I knew that one, they've had it since 1925.

[Dirty Brass]

How many can remember when there was no FM radio - AM is all we had. I was lucky - I got ahold of a 4 track tape player when I was a young'un - yup, four track...way before before cassettes and cd's....record player? what the heck is a record player? 33 1/3? nope -  78 is what I was weened on! Stereo? nope - monolythic - no surround sound then, but I did have a reverberator in my trunk to add "echo" to the sound

Ah the good ol' days.......

[Steel Horse Bailey]

How 'bout goin' to the corner drugstore's cafe and ordering a meal.  (OK - often a burger 'n fries - but not always!)  And washin' it down with a cherry phosphate? !!!

[Forty Rod]

Vent windows

double clutching

Posi-Traction

window swamp coolers

water bags

Monkey Grip tube patch kits

Bardol Top Oil

bulk motor oil

little semaphore turn signals

[Major E A Sterner]

How about the High/Low headlamp switch mounted on the floor?

Had a guy come in the other day for a safety inspection with a 1964 Dodge Dart, Had one of the younger guys get in it to go through the lights an he says to me "The dimmer switch won't move" I look at him and see him trying to pull on the turnsignal stalk. I told him that he better stop before he breaks it and showed him where the foot switch was. He was amazed that they would put the switch on the floor like that

[Delmonico]

My 1990 Ford pick-up has the dimmer switch in the floor, I also find out at times it's easier to down shift if I double clutch.

[Leo Tanner]

Older Chevrolets with six volt batteries. Whitewall paint, Gas pump nozzles that didn't shut off by themselves when the tank was full. Rebuildin' wheel cylinders. Fillin' stations with the restroom keys attached to hunks of broom sticks painted pink 'n blue. The men's room had them vendin' machines sellin' 'those' things for the prevention of disease at drive-in movies.

Drug stores with TV tube testers 'n a lunch counter. Air conditioned 'n home weren't. Ya could sit 'n have a limeade in there. Drive-in restaurants where the waitresses were on roller skates 'n had trays what hooked to yer driver's door. Car windows ya cranked up 'n down instead of werkin' a button. They had radios not stereos. One speaker in the middle of the dash.

Don't know if there's werds for that stuff.

Weird,
     The drive ins came up in another thread--hadn't seen this one til just now.  Rolly-skates an all.  Mus be a day fer these kind a memories.

How bout the term "surface streets"?  Havent heard that in a while.  An speaking of suicide clutches how bout jockey shifters?  When was the last time anyone said to you "he has more (insert whatever) than Carter has pills?

Wow, this could go on an on


Leo

[Delmonico]

Don't forget suicide doors, lincoln used them into the 70's on some back doors.

[Arcey]

Dimmers. Somebody stuck in a slow lane with their signal light on tryin' ta change lanes. Ya ease off 'n hit yer lights tellin' 'em ta come over. Even semi drivers don't know whut that means ennymore. I give 'em one chance.

AM radio is where all the good 'hate' talk radio is. Listen all the time. When the commercials come on I hit 'CD'. Listen to a song. When that's over I hit 'AM'. Usually don't miss anything. Can carry enough songs on the IPOD that plugs inta the stereo ta drive coast ta coast 'n never hear the same one twice.

Everything is power. Seat is adjustable eight ways ta Sunday with an inflatable lumbar support. Eight speaker stereo. Windshield wipers that go from 'don't bother me' to slam berserk. But ya look in the floor yer gonna see a clutch. Go figure.

[Delmonico]

Arcey, most the truckers around here still know about the flashing the lights, I do it all the time and have it done for me.  Do it all the time on the way home from work, they have to stay in the outside lane on #2 till they reach a certain point and then have to get over to the center lane to go on the by-pass to I-80, I do it a lot when I'm in the center lane over there.

Another on we see around here a lot, OT should see this all the time, farmers on back roads wave to each other, in my pick-up and hat, they just think I'm another one, danged left arm was tired when I got back on Easter on my dirt road trip of a 100 miles or so.