Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

Haven't had that in a while, but we eat biscuits and molasses on a regular basis. Black strap molasses no less. When i was a kid my grandfather grew sugar cane and sorghum and every fall would carry a truckload to the syrup mill. He always came back with a couple of paint cans full of molasses. In January you could stand a spoon up in it at breakfast and it would still be upright at dinner.

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One of the great New England legends is the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. A gigantic molasses storage tank in the North End of Boston ruptured, unleashing a gooey mass that killed 21 people and cut a broad swath of destruction as it flattened everything in its path.

And yet, it happened in January.

 

[dh66]

I've heard about that. Maybe it was really just high fructose corn syrup. I actually bought a jar of molasses at the store this afternoon, and a few shelves down was a bottle of "real cane flavored" syrup. Guess what that was made out of.

I guess this belongs in a different thread - sorry.

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[Stanley Doble]

Blackstrap molasses Crosby's Fancy Molasses for me.

http://www.crosbys.com/

Fancy molasses is sweet, blackstrap contains no sugar. Cooking molasses is in between. I always thought fancy molasses was for the table, blackstrap was for livestock.

 

[Stearmen]

That's what you get for going a mile a minute.

When were you born, 1900?

There are those that say I am older then dirt!

 

[Fading Fast]

While I try to keep up with this thread (as I really enjoy it), I am sure I've missed some stuff on the 71 pages, so apologies if this is a repeat, but I don't hear the term "hoosegow" used for jail anymore. Growing up, my Dad used it all the time and I still hear it occasionally in a TCM movie.

Also, having lived in Boston for eight years, I learned about the Great Molasses Flood. Other than those eight years, I've live in the NYC area my entire life and one of the best things about living in Boston was experiencing and gaining a greater understanding for regionalism (both seeing it anew in Boston and gaining a perspective on the regionalism of the NYC area that I hadn't seen until I moved out). While we know that the Internet and Globalization has reduced regionalism, based on my experience it is still quite alive and one of the interesting and fun things about living a large diverse country.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

One of the great New England legends is the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. A gigantic molasses storage tank in the North End of Boston ruptured, unleashing a gooey mass that killed 21 people and cut a broad swath of destruction as it flattened everything in its path.

And yet, it happened in January.

Supposedly when it gets real hot that area can still smell sweet. I've often wondered if that's true or just a type of mass hysteria...

 

[KayEn78]

I hear "hoosegow" on OTR programs...along with "pokey" (for jail). In that same era (1930s, 1940s and 1950s) at least on Dragnet, a cheap hotel was referred to as a "flophouse". Don't know if that's a regional (Los Angeles) saying, but I never heard of a flophouse until I listened to or watched Dragnet (both the '50s and '60s series).

 

[Zombie_61]

...In that same era (1930s, 1940s and 1950s) at least on Dragnet, a cheap hotel was referred to as a "flophouse". Don't know if that's a regional (Los Angeles) saying, but I never heard of a flophouse until I listened to or watched Dragnet (both the '50s and '60s series).

The term "flophouse" is believed to have been derived by combining the "hobo slang" word "flop" (to lie down to sleep) and the word "house". As such, I can't imagine it being regional, but it was probably used only in certain circles until authors and scriptwriters became aware of it.

 

[Stearmen]

The term "flophouse" is believed to have been derived by combining the "hobo slang" word "flop" (to lie down to sleep) and the word "house". As such, I can't imagine it being regional, but it was probably used only in certain circles until authors and scriptwriters became aware of it.

A hot & a Flop!

 

[dh66]

I still hear the term "flophouse" from time to time, most often in reference to a cheap motel - usually the kind with hourly rates.

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[KILO NOVEMBER]

"Jake", as in "That's Jake with me." or "Everything's Jake!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Jack" for money, as in "Fifty bucks? That's a lotta jack." And if you had a lotta jack, you were said to be "flush."

 

[Stanley Doble]

Or 3 hots and a cot = 3 meals and a bed = room and board

Old gag - the pay is 21.50 a week - 21 meals and 50 cents.

 

[dh66]

Or 3 hots and a cot = 3 meals and a bed = room and board

Also = a stay in the hoosegow.

Still hear that one used fairly commonly.
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[LizzieMaine]

Around here when you said someone had "gone to Tommytown" everybody knew that they were a guest of the State Prison in Thomaston.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And going "up the river" was a reference to Sing Sing Prison's relative location from New York.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Around here when you said someone had "gone to Tommytown" everybody knew that they were a guest of the State Prison in Thomaston.

In Florida, it was said you were "going to Raiford", Raiford, FL being where the Florida State Prison is. Lynyrd Skynyrd even did a song about the "Four Walls of Raiford".

Interestingly, the prison complex crosses the county line, so part of the prison has a postal address of Raiford, and another part, where they house death row has an address of Starke, FL. If I'm not mistaken, there's a fellow FLer from Starke (can't remember who though).

 

[Stanley Doble]

When I was a kid the euphemism for being in jail was "under the clock". I guess it was because the local police department and jail cells were in the Town Hall which had a big clock tower on top.

 

[rjb1]

When I was a kid our local fear if we did something really wrong was to be sent to "Jordonia", which was the location of the city Reform School. (And Reform School may be another term which has disappeared.)

 

[KayEn78]

The term "floorwalker" is heard on many OTR shows. I've never heard "floorwalker" ever when I went to a department store. Not sure if they said this in real life then or was it just a "radio" thing. Also back then, in real life, not on radio , some orphanages, children's homes or even homes for unwed mothers were sometimes referred to as "foundling homes." I recall a co-worker of mine telling me that she had to go to the "Chicago Foundling Home" to have her baby and give it up for adoption, before she could go back to college. This was in 1966. She was 21 years old then. On radio shows you'll hear "foundling home" sometimes as well.