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  1. B

    How would you earn a living?

    Were I to enter the job market in the late 1930s, I'd surely be a shiny-pants bookkeeper, same as I am now. The only difference would be the tools I'd be using. Instead of a keyboard in front of me, there'd be books of ledger paper and literal spread sheets 13-column wide. All of that I know for...
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    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    On another topic, however, my grandmother was born in the 1870s and died in 1970 or 1971. She had a couple expressions I've never heard anyone else use. If I were going outside not wearing what she thought was adequate clothing and it was cold, she would say I was "fanning." But if it were hot...
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    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    That reminds me of some military axioms that seem to have eternal truths: All enemy soldiers are snipers; the enemy has better weapons; we used to have better weapons; the enemy is out of range; but we're within range of the enemy; your rifle has something wrong with it and it won't shoot...
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    Lost art of proper relaxation

    I live in Northern Virginia just outside Washington, D.C., and high schools here definitely offer vocational training. Not only that but their adult ed also offers more advance classroom courses in things like building codes and things like that. I don't think any of them have paddocks and...
  5. B

    Vintage roadside

    You should see the place I'm from. Not the small town that I've often mentioned but the other place where I lived for a year when my folks moved. It was in the next county and the previous century and only 35 miles away. But it isn't what it was then, not that anything is.
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    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    Never a common expression but the host of an old radio show around here that featured "old time" music, so-called roots music and stuff like that referred to it as "obsolete music."
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    The wonderful foods of the Golden Era

    I wouldn't eat some of the food we had.
  9. B

    Vintage roadside

    This is something I ran across on another blog. It doesn't come with pictures but it does have to do with vintage roadside. It is dedicated to Miss Lizzie, because it's about Maine. The other Maine. "There is a backcountry Maine that painters do not paint, writers do not describe and visitors...
  10. B

    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    I recall a school teacher in high school telling us that the "W.P.A." from the Roosevelt days stood for We Piddle Around. I'm not at all sure what she thought of the program. Also, Sears, and no doubt others, used to sell pants called "putter pants," which I think were basically lightweight...
  11. B

    Vintage roadside

    If you know that area then, you probably remember the drive-in movie theater about two blocks up Rt. 29 (I think it is) towards Falls Church.
  13. B

    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    Somewhat related to dawdle are piddle and putter, both of which I'm getting in shape for since I hope to retire this year. My goal is to work until August when I turn 71--as does my boss. But I don't think we'll last that long.
  14. B

    The wonderful foods of the Golden Era

    My father referred to the ordinary white sliced bread as "light bread," obviously with good reason. It was something very exceptional when someone made white bread at home and I suspect it still is. He had been a prisoner-of-war in Germany for a year and spoke very highly of German breads, which...
  15. B

    The wonderful foods of the Golden Era

    Is vinegar still considered an essential thing to always have on the table, right next to the salt and pepper? Everyone I knew did; no one I know now does. One writer (journalist, actually) mentions vinegar and water as his favorite drink even. It also occurs to me that some of the wonderful...
  16. B

    The wonderful foods of the Golden Era

    There was an excellent PBS special documentary "America Eats," which was about things like hot dogs, hamburgers, hoagies/subs, and all those other extra special things that really aren't as good when made at home. It was followed up by another program "America Drinks" or something like that...
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    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    I am not surprised that every culture, or language, really, has taboo words, some I suppose more taboo than others. I have heard otherwise, though, but that allows for an awful lot of languages in the world, some of which are not written languages. Likewise, acceptable practices and manners can...
  19. B

    Did the Rules of Etiquette Provide a Greater Sense of Safety For Women?

    Whatever you say, madam.
  20. B

    Did the Rules of Etiquette Provide a Greater Sense of Safety For Women?

    Are you suggesting that, in the North, it is acceptable to call some women "toots?" That's another term I've never heard anyone use. I've also heard that "Miss" and "Mrs." are abbreviations or shortened forms of the same word: "mistress." Yet no woman, especially a lady, would want to be...
  21. B

    Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

    Interesting comments. One local bank founded before the Civil War was a holdout for assigning account numbers to their customers. All the merging notwithstanding, there seems to be just as many different banks as ever. Between where I sit and the bank where the company has accounts, there are...
  22. B

    Did the Rules of Etiquette Provide a Greater Sense of Safety For Women?

    I think a lady should be addressed as "ma'am" and a gentleman as "sir," in both cases if you aren't on a first name basis. Same for men and women. I do not see why that should be a problem for anyone. As for opening the door for a lady, I mentioned already that I open the door for everyone, men...
  23. B

    Vintage roadside

    I was just trying to learn more about the building I was thinking of in Alexandria but came up with nothing. I guess this calls for fieldwork and I'm not sure I'm that dedicated. But while I was thinking about that, I remembered that near where we used to live about 30 years ago, in Merrifield...

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