Terms Which Have Disappeared

[KILO NOVEMBER]

The antagonists in professional wrestling storylines are called "heels". The good guys are called "faces".

Short for "baby faces". There was a time I was a big pro wrestling fan. I remember taking the young son of a friend to a wrestling show. I told him that I bought the seats far enough away from the ring so that the fake stomping and punching wasn't so obviously fake.

 

[Stearmen]

Never knew anyone who had one -- we just throw our kitchen waste in a container we call "the dump." Not a garbage can, not a trash can, not a rubbish can, not a bin. Just "the dump." "Throw those chicken bones in the dump." "Throw those potato peelings in the dump."

The contents of "the dump" are then taken to "the dump." Not the transfer station, not the skip, just "the dump."

Funny, if you asked the average person, which state is more advanced, Maine or Colorado, you would win 9 out of 10 times! Yet, everyone I know is shocked when I tell them my Victorian came sans disposer!

 

[Stearmen]

While on the subject, I remember a few of the more prosperous homes in the '70s having their own trash compactor in their kitchen - about half the size of a dish washer, it did what it sounds like, you put your trash in there, turned it on and it mashed it down. I guess the idea was you'd have less trash to put out as, in our town, you paid by the can.

Even as a kid, I found the idea a bit strange as who'd want their smashed garbage, effectively, sitting in their house for days (as it could take that long to fill it up). Back in my frugal childhood home, we'd bag ours each night, tie it tight, put it in the can, seal the lid and move on. Do those things - home trash compactors - even exist anymore?

Funny you should mention that, my mother won a trash compactor back in the 70s. She got rid of it because of the very issue you mention! Personally, anything that is going to stink, goes into the small plastic grocery bags and straight into the outside trash that evening! Only non smelly items stay inside for the week. Actually, with this method, even the outdoors trash can does not smell even when it's over 90F.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Funny you should mention that, my mother won a trash compactor back in the 70s. She got rid of it because of the very issue you mention! Personally, anything that is going to stink, goes into the small plastic grocery bags and straight into the outside trash that evening! Only non smelly items stay inside for the week. Actually, with this method, even the outdoors trash can does not smell even when it's over 90F.

I never had one in my house growing up (never had a microwave or a dishwasher either), but I knew people who did, and no one ever put perishable things that stink in the compactor. Why would anyone think that's how compactors worked? That sort of reminds me of the arguments against an indoor toilet. "Why would anyone want to do their business IN THE HOUSE??" Well you see...you flush...

 

[Fading Fast]

There was no force on earth, none, anywhere, ever that would have been powerful enough to get my father to buy an in-home trash compactor, especially after the intense and prolonged "we need a new washing machine / no we don't" negotiation of '74. To be fair, it was never even brought up - my mother was a clean freak and knew the limits of our budget, so I can't see her having ever wanting one, even for free. I was just wondering if they even still existed?

 

[LizzieMaine]

We threw our garbage in an old 120lb Marfak grease drum from the gas station, which stood uncovered and open to view in the far corner of the kitchen. I don't remember ever having any kind of a lid on it. We also didn't have a lot of biologically-active waste -- we threw away very little food, and when we had peelings and such we usually just dumped them into the gulley behind the house where nature reclaimed them. So it wasn't as smelly or as messy as it might sound -- it was mostly just empty cans, boxes, and wrappers.

That's still the system I use today -- I throw what little actual food waste that I generate over the back fence into the junkyard where creatures take care of it for me. As long as there's seagulls, skunks, and raccoons, my solid-waste issues are easily resolved. The Circle Of Nature and all that.

 

[Fading Fast]

Hubbub - just used it in an email to my girlfriend's dad and thought, hey, you don't hear that one much anymore and, I think, I learned it from my grandmother. Also, I've noticed that most of the words I post on this thread come from my regular use of them and noticing that they might be dated, but if I try to think of dated words I use, I usually come up blank.

 

[Upgrade]

Hubbub is still used quite often. There's plenty of articles with the term in Google News.

It's also apparently the name of a crowdfunding website.

 

[Fading Fast]

Hubbub is still used quite often. There's plenty of articles with the term in Google News.

It's also apparently the name of a crowdfunding website.

Welcome to FL, glad you joined.

 

[EngProf]

We threw our garbage in an old 120lb Marfak grease drum from the gas station, which stood uncovered and open to view in the far corner of the kitchen. I don't remember ever having any kind of a lid on it. We also didn't have a lot of biologically-active waste -- we threw away very little food, and when we had peelings and such we usually just dumped them into the gulley behind the house where nature reclaimed them. So it wasn't as smelly or as messy as it might sound -- it was mostly just empty cans, boxes, and wrappers.

That's still the system I use today -- I throw what little actual food waste that I generate over the back fence into the junkyard where creatures take care of it for me. As long as there's seagulls, skunks, and raccoons, my solid-waste issues are easily resolved. The Circle Of Nature and all that.

I use Lizzie's throw-away method at my mother's house. It's adjacent to a big woods where reside raccoons, deer, possums, etc. (Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!).
Any edible food leftovers are pitched towards the woods and they never last overnight.

 

[EngProf]

Hubbub - just used it in an email to my girlfriend's dad and thought, hey, you don't hear that one much anymore and, I think, I learned it from my grandmother. Also, I've noticed that most of the words I post on this thread come from my regular use of them and noticing that they might be dated, but if I try to think of dated words I use, I usually come up blank.

I remember Bugs Bunny using the term. There is some sort of commotion going on outside his rabbit-hole so he comes out and asks, "What's all the hubbub, bub?"

 

[Stearmen]

There was no force on earth, none, anywhere, ever that would have been powerful enough to get my father to buy an in-home trash compactor, especially after the intense and prolonged "we need a new washing machine / no we don't" negotiation of '74. To be fair, it was never even brought up - my mother was a clean freak and knew the limits of our budget, so I can't see her having ever wanting one, even for free. I was just wondering if they even still existed?

Like I said, my Mother won it. No way my parents would have bought something so frivolous! Probably why they didn't use it correctly.

 

[Upgrade]

Listening to some early Frankie again.

"Easter Parade" mentions rotogravure.

"Soliloquy" mentions tin-type and lorgnette.

 

[Fading Fast]

Watching a 1934 movie "Housewife" yesterday the word "collywobbles" was used, which I didn't know but my girlfriend said her grandmother used to describe a nervous or upset stomach. And this is one of the definitions I found on line:

A state of intestinal disorder, usually accompanied by a rumbling stomach; for example, 'butterflies in the stomach'.​

Again, not a word I knew, but I love it (reminds me of kittywampus) and is just another reason I love old movies.

 

[GHT]

Collywobbles is still in use over here, not as much as it was though. It's most popular usage is to describe the feeling of nervous anticipation that you get when you are about to take a test or examination, or, horrors, stand up and speak in public.

On the Aloha shirt Hawaiian shirt thread are a couple of photos that would normally have been deleted, it brought back such a memory. Not a term as such, but who remembers taking a film in for developing, then, when collecting the prints, be hugely disappointed by the disasters? Heads chopped off, feet missing, out of focus, you were lucky if you got three decent shots out of a 35mm roll of film.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The more common American synonym for "collywobbles" is "heebie jeebies," a phrase for which we know the exact origin: it was introduced by cartoonist Billy DeBeck in his "Barney Google" comic strip in the fall of 1923, and became a national catchphrase by the middle of the twenties.

 

[Upgrade]

Costco had row upon rows of shelving with everyone's photo orders arranged somewhat alphabetically. You got a little photocard with thumbnails of all your shots.

Of course, that shelving is now gone and you're lucky if there is still a photo counter.

 

[p51]

I remember Bugs Bunny using the term. There is some sort of commotion going on outside his rabbit-hole so he comes out and asks, "What's all the hubbub, bub?"

If it wasn't for early Warner Brothers cartoons, I wouldn't know today what half of the slang of the 40s meant.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The wide distribution of Warner cartoons from the late 1950s thru the early 1990s were pretty much the only thing keeping elements of 1940s popular culture alive during that period. A lot of '80s kids will recognize Red Skelton, Jerry Colonna and Lou Costello catchphrases to this day, without having any actual idea whatsoever of where they really came from. "I'm only thwee and a half years old!" "I dood it!" "Silly, isn't he?"

 

[1mach1]

I'm sure this has been mentioned, but....
Hey buddy, how'd you like a fat lip?