Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Stanley Doble]

The term "tank town" "jerk" or "jerkwater town".

All have similar origin. When the first railroads were built the locomotive had to stop for water every 50 miles. If there was no town or depot, they built a water tower with a wooden tank on top, and a windmill to fill it.

The local farmers knew that was the place to "flag" a train, or pick up freight. Often someone would open a store, and a small town or village would develop.

These little settlement with no reason for existing besides the railroad, were known as "tank towns". To be stuck playing tank towns was the bottom of vaudeville, almost as bad as being stuck in one.

The next development was to build a trough between the rails that could be filled with water. Then the train could lower a scoop and scoop up water without stopping. This was known as "jerking water" or taking water on the fly.

Some former tank towns became jerkwater towns where the trains didn't stop anymore.

A hopeless rube or someone completely lacking in smarts or sophistication, came to be called a jerk, in reference to his suspected origin in a jerkwater town.

 

[Matt Crunk]

As Johnny Carson would often say . . . I did not know that. That's some wild, crazy stuff. Thanks, Stanley. Makes sense.

 

[Alice Blue]

My Grandmother used to go "marketing" rather than shopping, and her favorite pseudo-swear was "Oh Godfrey." If we had to go out in the rain, she would say "you're not made of sugar, you won't melt."

The only phrase of hers that I use today is "tin foil" rather than aluminum foil, but I think that one's still in general use.

ETA - I just remembered another of her phrases, "ugly as sin," which I use once in a while.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

If we had to go out in the rain, she would say "you're not made of sugar, you won't melt."

Ditto for my mother, 1924-2013.

 

[EliasRDA]

Ditto for my mother, 1924-2013.

My mom used it on my brother & I all the time when we were kids, now its my turn to use it when she scolds me for going out in the rain without a jacket. Course I do tell her she does need a jacket if it rains, heh.

And it sounds like you lost your mom this year Kilo? My condolences to you & yours.

 

[HudsonHawk]

ETA - I just remembered another of her phrases, "ugly as sin," which I use once in a while.

I always heard "ugly as homemade sin"

Also, "ugly as a mud fence" was/is common

 

[Stearmen]

Ugly as a stick in the mud!

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Combined with the passing of "The Greatest Generation", the lapse of conscription in the United States, has lead to a decline in many terms men learned while in uniform and carried into civilian life. How about a few? Here's one to start:

G.I. (verb) - To clean (barracks, for example) thoroughly for or as if for an inspection.

 

[Alice Blue]

Combined with the passing of "The Greatest Generation", the lapse of conscription in the United States, has lead to a decline in many terms men learned while in uniform and carried into civilian life. How about a few? Here's one to start:

G.I. (verb) - To clean (barracks, for example) thoroughly for or as if for an inspection.

K.P. - Kitchen Patrol.

 

[rjb1]

G.I. (adj) - Government Issue: GI shoes, or in the form as used in the military: GI Haircut

 

[rjb1]

4F: Unsuitable for draft/military-service due to physical problems
1A: Top physical condition, suitable for immediate conscription

(there were several other classifications, but were more obscure, 1Y: Unfit for immediate conscription due to physical condition, suitable for conscription in the case of national emergency)

 

[Stearmen]

SNAFU, situation normal, all fouled up! The F word was different, you can figure it out

 

[Stearmen]

B-52 Stratofortress are still revered to as BUF Big Ugly errrr, Fellow! The F is the same as above.

 

[Stearmen]

Cruising for a bruising. I would hear that from my mother when I pushed to far! I'm going to kill you! Not to worry, no one died. It usually started, with another boy hitting you in the arm. You would turn and yell the above, then chase him until both of you were tired, and it ended with you shoving the first boy, and then a good laugh by all!

 

[Stearmen]

I'm going to skin you alive. Man, I grew up in a violent time! And those were the good old days.

 

[bburtner@moran]

Wind pudding and duck.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

police (verb) - to clean and keep clean (a camp, post, etc.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm going to skin you alive. Man, I grew up in a violent time! And those were the good old days.

My mother used to threaten to sell me to the baby oil factory. And that was when she was in a good mood.

 

[Feraud]

I'm going to skin you alive. Man, I grew up in a violent time! And those were the good old days.

We were threatened to have our hides tanned!
Good grief, one can barely fathom the images put into the minds of children of being skinned and having your flesh processed! Skinning a child is one thing but tanning their hide? That's overkill.. What came after? The skins of unruly 12 year olds made into jackets, belts, baseball gloves? Or hung in the living room next to the deer heads?

We were also threatened with a good shellacking. That was less intense. It made me chuckle to picture my angry dad covering us in shellac..

These modern kids don't know the meaning of the word bully. We were downright terrorized by our parents.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We were threatened to have our hides tanned!
Good grief, one can barely fathom the images put into the minds of children of being skinned and having your flesh processed! Skinning a child is one thing but tanning their hide? That's overkill.. What came after? The skins of unruly 12 year olds made into jackets, belts, baseball gloves? Or hung in the living room next to the deer heads?

We were also threatened with a good shellacking. That was less intense. It made me chuckle to picture my angry dad covering us in shellac..

These modern kids don't know the meaning of the word bully. We were downright terrorized by our parents.

Of course, before the young folks here get all horrified at the abuse we had to endure and call the DHS for a retroactive call on our parents, keep in mind that we never took these threats literally. "SHUT UP BACK THERE OR I'LL PULL THIS CAR OVER AND BREAK YOUR G-D NECKS" simply meant we needed to settle down and stop arguing. It was simple hyperbole along the same lines as Ralph Kramden threating to send Alice bang-zoom to the moon. Such was the language then.

My grandmother's favorite threat was "Stop that or I'll lay you out in lavender." Which was a rather lovely early 20th Century euphemism for beating someone to death.