Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

"Slacker" was the preferred term during the two World Wars.

"Alimony dodger" was a very common term in the Era, used to describe a man who went to considerable lengths to welsh on his court-ordered obligations following a divorce case. A certain Brooklyn relief pitcher was caught for doing this in the 1940s, and there was much snickering at the case of the "Dodger Alimony Dodger."

The most famous alimony dodger of the Era, however, was a Bronx con man named Lester Kroll -- who formed "The Institute of Marital Relations," changed his name to John J. Anthony, and spent the better part of the forties as a national radio celebrity, dishing out advice to troubled married couples. Takes one to know one.

 

[BlueTrain]

How about "hillbilly?" Of course there was the TV show the Beverly Hillbillies but that was, what, 40 years ago? There was also a band by that name in the 1940s that appeared in a few movies, also billed as the Beverly Hills Billies. But one used to hear the term hillbilly music but I doubt that term is used much anymore, if at all. I doubt it would apply to anything in Nashville. But things change.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was also the jocular formalization of "hillbilly," "Mountain William."

The "hillbilly" fad exploded in the 1930s. There had been plenty of interest in country music during the twenties, but the whole image of the "hillbilly" -- the raggedy overalls, the jug of corn squeezin's, the flea-bitten hound dawg, the lazy men forcing the women do all the work, the casual approach to personal hygeine, the shotgun ever-ready to shoot up a "revenooer" -- all goes back to the comic strips of the Depression era. Radio also had a big role -- Lum and Abner, Judy Canova, the various comedy acts appearing on the National Barn Dance.

Cartoonist Paul Webb was responsible for the crystallization of the hillbilly stereotype -- pretty much every visual image of "hillbilly life" since then has owed his characterizations a debt.

 

[BlueTrain]

I only heard the term "Hill William." But I've also heard of the college "Mary and Bill."

I remember Judy Canova but I never identified Lum and Abner as hillbillies. There was also the Park Avenue Hillbilly from a couple of movies. Her name was Dorothy Shay. From the comics there was Lil' Abner and Barney Google (and his horse Sparkplug). And following from hillbillies, there were flatlanders but I think that was only used in comic strips. Then there was Ma & Pa Kettle but Pa Kettle didn't seem to have the right accent for his role. Ma Kettle sure did, though.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pa Kettle had a rural New England accent. We don't have hillbillies here, but we do have rubes, hicks, yahoos, and harveys.

My favorite "hillbilly" character of the Era was created by sports cartoonist Willard Mullin of the New York World-Telegram. Mullin came up with a whole group of cartoon figures to represent the various major league baseball teams, and his figure for the woebegone St. Louis Browns was a hillbilly that out-hillbillied anything Webb, Capp, DeBeck, or any other cartoonist ever did. And in case anyone missed the point, Mullin named the character "Po' White Trash Of The American League."

(In this scene, Browns owner Bill Veeck and manager Rogers Hornsby add a little something extra to Po' White's jug to get the team hopping into 4th Place. It wouldn't last.)

 

[BlueTrain]

Okay, here's another one, though surely it's been mentioned by now: air mail. Is there still a special class for air mail? Believe it or not, it came to me when I was peeling an onion a few minutes ago to make sloppy joes. My wife likes onions in a lot of sauces. Anyway, you wrote air mail letters on onion skin. Does anyone still write letters, for that matter?

 

[kaiser]

We still have air mail here in Germany. Costs extra.

 

[Zombie_61]

Okay, here's another one, though surely it's been mentioned by now: air mail. Is there still a special class for air mail?

They just call it "priority" or "express" mail now. If you need to get a letter from the east coast of the U.S. to the west coast in one or two days, it's not going to make it on time if it's traveling by truck or rail.

 

[MisterCairo]

Okay, here's another one, though surely it's been mentioned by now: air mail. Is there still a special class for air mail? Believe it or not, it came to me when I was peeling an onion a few minutes ago to make sloppy joes. My wife likes onions in a lot of sauces. Anyway, you wrote air mail letters on onion skin. Does anyone still write letters, for that matter?

In Canada, most overseas mail is sent airmail. We have blue "Air Mail/Par Avion" stickers you can put on, not that they are actually needed.

I remember the blue onion skin paper airmail letters sent back and forth between our family and our grandmother in England. We don't use those any more, but do send actual letters and cards.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's still a thing here for local wags on the RFD routes to have one mailbox with a sign on it for "Regular Mail" and another next to it on a very tall pole labeled "Air Mail."

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Here are two mid-20th Century medical terms which have disappeared: "oxygen tent" and "iron lung".

 

[Fading Fast]

They just call it "priority" or "express" mail now. If you need to get a letter from the east coast of the U.S. to the west coast in one or two days, it's not going to make it on time if it's traveling by truck or rail.

Is that what happened? It seems to me that all coast-to-coast mail goes by air as my mother - who lives in Arizona - and I - living in NYC - exchange mail regularly (despite all my efforts on computers and tablets for her - email is not a thing she uses much) and it seems I can send things to her first class that gets there as fast (or sometimes a day behind) 2-3 "express" or "priority" mail (which, oddly, costs only a bit more than first class anyway).

Hence, first class makes it there in 3-4 days which I doubt is done by truck or train. When I mail her packages and go to a window, the options are over night for a gazillion dollars, 2-3 days for not a crazy number and first class for a buck or two less than 2-3 day mail. It must all go by air I would think.

That was a long aside, but your original point seems spot on - they simply rebranded air mail as "priority" or "express" since it is the timing - 2-3 days - and not the method - air, train, tuck - that now distinguishes the services. Thank you.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Here are two mid-20th Century medical terms which have disappeared: "oxygen tent" and "iron lung".

Thankfully they are relics of the past.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Does anyone still say "In like Flynn"? It was still common when I was younger but seems to have disappeared.

 

[Fading Fast]

Does anyone still say "In like Flynn"? It was still common when I was younger but seems to have disappeared.

Great expression and actually very graphic if taken literally as I believe it refers to Errol Flynn's success with women. To your point, have not heard it used in a long time.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I use I. Like Flynn quite a bit.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Pa Kettle had a rural New England accent. We don't have hillbillies here, but we do have rubes, hicks, yahoos, and harveys.

Weren't the Kettles supposed to be from Washington state ("Cape Flattery")?

 

[BlueTrain]

I haven't seen one of the Pa and Ma Kettle movies for a while and I don't remember where they were supposed to be living. In the old B-westerns, the location was usually a little vague and often geographically wrong, given where they were actually filmed. Of course, they were being filmed about as far west as you could go in the first place.

I still use "In like Flynn" now and then but I'm known for doing stuff like that, among other things. I have heard a few obsolete expressions from older relatives that one never hears anymore. My father-in-law's favorite (repeatable) expression was "gosh all fishhooks," and I actually heard that in an old movie from the 1930s. Once in a while he said "yikes," which is almost comical to hear. To date, however, I've never heard anyone say "swell" in normal conversation.

There must be lots of expressions I heard when little that are archaic but I probably wasn't paying that much attention at the time. One that comes to mind is "old-timey," referring to almost anything old. Rural people who came to town on Saturday morning were sometimes referred to as "country Jakes," but it tended to refer only to men. An old car might be a jalopy (I may have mentioned that one before) but "flivver" is decidedly ancient. The term "old country" was probably used everywhere in referring to where immigrants came from and in our town, it meant either Italy or Syria (or Lebanon). No one came from anywhere else, although everyone I knew seemed to claim to have grown up in the country just outside of town.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Kettles were indeed supposed to be from the Northwest, but Percy Kilbride's accent as Pa was definitely more rural Northeastern. When he was replaced in the last Kettle film by Parker Fennelly, this was even more emphatic -- Fennelly was a Mainer, with the most authentic Maine accent ever heard on radio or film.

"Gosh All Fishhooks" was closely identified in the 1930s with the radio serial "Jack Armstrong, The All American Boy," where it was the favorite exclamation of Jack's overenthusiastic cousin Billy.

"Yikes!" and its close relative "Yipe!" were popularized by Jack Benny, who would yelp such exclamations out at any opportunity.

I say "swell" or "swell-o" myself, but usually sarcastically -- "well ain't this swell!" when referring to something which is decidedly not swell, and "swell-o" when agreeing to do something I have no interest in actually doing. I've used these in this way as far back as I can remember, and have no idea where I picked them up.

 

[MisterCairo]

Hunkey-dory.

"Sore" as in angry, rather than in pain (there's a great scene in the Robert Downey Jr. flick Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang where he uses - and explains - it).