Terms Which Have Disappeared

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I still use the term galoshes, even though no one wears them, anymore.

I wear them! Shoes which cost me $300 or more per pair definitely get protection. With the prevalence of cheap, glued shoes manufactured in low-wage countries, it doesn't mystify me that people who buy them don't wear rubber overshoes in sloppy weather.

The problem I have is finding overshoes that don't destroy the shine. Rubber just rubs off the shine, sometimes waaay down near the base of the polish layers. I do have a pair of over-priced "Swims", but even these rub off the polish. A few years ago I found some overshoes with an inside layer of some woven synthetic fabric that would have been just the thing, but they didn't have a size large enough at that store, and research showed that they were no longer being manufactured.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the mentality is "I paid x-hundred dollars for these shoes, and if I put on rubbers nobody will be able to SEE them."

 

[tonyb]

We called 'em rubbers in the Upper Midwest of my early years. Everybody wore 'em, it seemed. Moms insisted. Shoes ain't cheap, young man.

As to the hobo/bum thing ...

My grandfather, who had hoboed around some as a young man, certainly made the distinction. It wasn't that he held bums in contempt so much as he knew his lack of a permanent address and possessions other than the ones on his person at any given moment didn't make him one.

I recall clearly his fondness for hanging out on the benches under the pergola in Seattle's Pioneer Square during his visits out here from his home in Wisconsin. He had lived quite near that spot for a spell when he was but a lad, when he traveled about with his bachelor "uncles," meat-cutters who moved from one packing plant to the next. In Seattle, those many years before, they worked at the old Frye plant, and resided in the Frye Hotel, a structure which still stands.

The men who flopped out under the pergola were bums, he informed me. He said some of them made for entertaining conversation, which might be facilitated by the occasional cigarette handed their way. Go ahead and give 'em smokes, he said, but don't give 'em money.

 

[jamespowers]

They are either Hippies or Bums James, make up your mind!

They are Hippie Bums.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh, come on; you know there's no difference between the two in his mind. :lol:

In reality. They are the same.

 

[jamespowers]

Mothers used to always remind their kids to wear their rubbers, a term with an entirely different connotation today.

Some still do today.

 

[jamespowers]

Go ahead and give 'em smokes, he said, but don't give 'em money.

A practice wisely followed even today.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Doohickey" seems to have gone out of favor. I was posting in another thread, used the term and realized that I don't hear it anymore. Growing up, it seemed common.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

"Doohickey" seems to have gone out of favor.

And "thingamajig" or the variant "thingamabob". I hear more "whatsis" these days.

OH! and another fast-disappearing word! When I am asked what I would like at a counter service establishment, I generally say, "I'll have a ....." Now, anyone under 30 seems to say, "I'll do a ... ." "Have" isn't used this way now.

In my own youth, the verb "do", in this sense, was a new locution for ingesting controlled substances, without a prescription.

 

[Tomasso]

You don't hear "pulling a boner" (making a mistake) any more. For some reason this came to mind after reading the rubbers reference.......

 

[LizzieMaine]

You don't hear "pulling a boner" (making a mistake) any more. For some reason this came to mind after reading the rubbers reference.......

There was a time when every baseball fan could tell you about "Merkle's Boner" and "Snodgrass's Muff."

 

[Tomasso]

There was a time when every baseball fan could tell you about "Merkle's Boner" and "Snodgrass's Muff."

And that was in the days before celebrity sex tapes were so common.

 

[HudsonHawk]

"Cracker" is often corrupted to "Corker," pronounced "cockah." "Ain't that a cockah!"

Where I'm from, we the people were called "crackers". It's also a compliment.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Vitanola, "slicker" is a good one, I remember the term "rain slicker" being common and, as you imply, it seems to have disappeared.

"Slicker" or even more common "slicker suit", is the still the common term heard around here.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Etude Geographique


Out West, they say, a man's a man; the legend still persists

That he is handy with a gun and careless with his fists.

The fact is, though, you may not hear a stronger word than "Gosh!"

From Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to Walla Walla, Wash.


In western towns 'tis many years since it was last the rage

For men to earn their daily bread by holding up a stage

Yet story writers still ascribe such wild and woolly bosh

To Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Walla Walla, Wash.


The gents who roam the West today are manicured and meek,

They shave their features daily and they bathe three times a week.

They tote the tame umbrella and they wear the mild galosh.

From Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to Walla Walla, Wash.


But though the West has frowned upon its old nefarious games,

It still embellishes the map with sweet, melodious names,

Which grow in lush profusion like the apple and the squash

From Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to Walla Walla, Wash.


Poetry courtesy of Stoddard King.

I always think of this when the subject of galoshes comes up.

 

[scottyrocks]

I wear them!

Of course, I was referring to the those in the vast majority who are not interested, or even aware, of the GE, as we are.

 

[Zombie_61]

OH! and another fast-disappearing word! When I am asked what I would like at a counter service establishment, I generally say, "I'll have a ....." Now, anyone under 30 seems to say, "I'll do a ... ." "Have" isn't used this way now.

I think this came about as an extension of the equally improper phrase, "Let's do lunch."

 

[Old Rogue]

I think "fireplug" is a regionalism -- it was always "hydrant" here, but I still hear "plug" from people raised in the midwest or south.

Just reading through this thread for the first time, so please pardon me if someone has pointed this out later. I've been a volunteer fire fighter for almost 20 years now. Many years ago I took a water supply class and was told that the term fire plug came from the days when water pipes were actually made of wood. To provide access for fire fighting holes were drilled periodically and sealed with a wooden plug. This might even be true.

 

[cw3pa]

Dem Bums aka the Brooklyn Dodgers

 

[Stearmen]

Discombobulated