Terms Which Have Disappeared

[tonyb]

...
The photos of the old gas stations in another thread reminded me of another expression, which I believe has largely become obsolete now. One of the gas stations had the term "cut-rate" out front in a couple of places. I barely remember one store in my home town that used the term. I believe it was largely replaced by the term "discount," probably in the 1950s, once the so-called big box stores started appearing. ...

There's a small chain of auto parts stores in western Washington State called Cut Rate Auto Parts. Yes, they are aware of the acronym, and they use it in their advertising -- bumper stickers, mostly, which read "Powered by C.R.A.P."

The business dates from 1955, when "cut rate" wasn't yet supplanted by "discount."

I gotta hand it to 'em. They've kept the doors open in the face of competition from big national brands. The stores are kinda fun, too, with old gas pumps and various other old car-related stuff, such as gas station and motor oil signs. I can imagine that it's the sort of place kids would like to go with their folks, as contrasted with the national brand store a couple blocks away.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Our Canadian friends can tell us all about Canadian Tire, a hardware and auto parts chain known from one end of the Dominion to the other as "Crappy Tire." A few years back they even tried to register that particular nickname as a trademark.

 

[2jakes]

I think you mean "knickers in a twist"...

 

[ChrisB]

"Knickers in a knot" is nicely alliterative, is it not?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Or, to give it a less anti-female slant, "your BVD's in a Bunch."

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ I only engaged modestly in that gunfight, but enjoyed watching the bullets fly - and am not trying to revive it here - but was surprised it went on as long as it did before being shut down.

It's funny, "panties in a bunch" (or some iteration), in my experience, has transcended its gender identity as I find it is used by men toward men quite frequently. It's almost like the "f" word in that, other than in certain context, you don't actually think about what it is referring to as when someone says a person is an "f-ing jerk," it doesn't refer to the act, just that the person is an extreme jerk. When a word is used often in that way, the actually physical reference gets lost and the meta-meaning takes over. I think that has happened to "panties in a bunch," or at least in the circle of people in business I know.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The "panties" angle when used by men toward men can be read as a way of subtly emasculating the subject by likening him to a wearer of panties -- a woman, or perhaps a transvestite. It doesn't bother me particularly -- I really don't care what kind of schoolyard taunts men like to exchange with each other -- but I think the subtext is interesting. Subtext is always more interesting to me than the surface.

(They say Cary Grant liked to wear panties, but for what it's worth, I don't think that made him any less manly.)

As for that other exchange, nobody can say they didn't have every chance to express their views as publicly as possible and to make it unmistakably clear exactly where they stand. Sometimes that's the best way to handle such situations.

 

[Hambone87]

Reefer

 

[Haversack]

One term I haven't seen since the early 1970s is Gas War. The cheapest price I ever saw was $.17 a gallon in Sacramento in the early 1960s.

 

[MisterCairo]

"panties in a bunch" (or some iteration), in my experience, has transcended its gender identity as I find it is used by men toward men quite frequently.

Variations on the saying have entered the general vernacular, certainly in Canada. It is no longer regarded here, if it ever was, as being something directed only at women.

It was used surprisingly often on board ship, which is 80% male crewed.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Knickers in a twist, panties in a bunch.

Oh, I was dead serious.

Are you as serious as a heart attack?

 

[vitanola]

I've only heard one person use that term and that was when I was still in grade school. She had a wind-up Victrola in her rather bare home two or three blocks from where we lived.

The photos of the old gas stations in another thread reminded me of another expression, which I believe has largely become obsolete now. One of the gas stations had the term "cut-rate" out front in a couple of places. I barely remember one store in my home town that used the term. I believe it was largely replaced by the term "discount," probably in the 1950s, once the so-called big box stores started appearing.

The discount stores, a term not used as much as it used to be, I believe, gave rise to the "fair trade laws," which was a form of price maintenance intended to protect small-town merchants (or more correctly, small merchants) from the big chains. I've never read any such law, so how the details got worked out, I don't know. Ultimately they resulted in a higher cost to the consumer, so they eventually disappeared--along with the small merchants.

Not only do we not have a Victrola, we don't even have a record player in the house. However, when my father remarried, my stepmother had a Victrola, which still worked. There was a small selection of old 78rpm records, one of which was a recording of "Tiptoe through the tulips." Don't remember any of the other titles.

Want one?

Or five?

 

[tonyb]

Reefer

Still commonly used among some of my associates, although in full knowledge that it is rather old-fashioned. But it is more musical than, say, "joint," or "doobie."

It has come to mean, besides a cannabis cigarette, cannabis is general. "Got some reefer?" is an inquiry into whether a person has pot, twisted up in cigarette paper or not. I've heard it abbreviated to "reef."

My understanding of its etymology is that it's from the sailing world. To "reef" a sail is to roll it over on itself, to reduce its area.

 

[BlueTrain]

I never heard any of those terms when I was growing up and incredibly enough, not in college either and I graduated in 1971. I also never heard any reference to moonshine, either, but there were all sorts of names for cigarettes in use, none complimentary. I still never heard the word joint as applied to a cigarette. I did hear the term "goofball," though, which I took to mean some kind of narcotic pill, only I didn't use the word narcotic.

 

[ChrisB]

The Reefer Man

 

[vitanola]

"Muggles", or "All Muggled Up"

"Viper"

 

[2jakes]

There was one word that was used for anyone that smoked "grass" when I was young. It was meant as a putdown. Also a drunk was a "wino".

It was not until my late teens in
the military did I see it being used.
I didn't smoke, so the odor was
offensive. But the label that was
applied to it was worse. I tried it
as a dare, but my body rejected
it. Same with beer.
Someone told me, "you're not suppose to taste it, just swallow
it down!"
"That's stupid!" I replied.
"What's the point in that?"
I added.
So the worse thing I drink is
Dr. Peppers and chocolate malts.
Luckily, I haven't put on overweight.

 

[vitanola]

Purely academic interest. I love the music, but could never understand the attractiveness of the "substance".

Back in my college days (and for many years thereafter) my vice was cigar smoking. A dozen or more a day.

How I yet crave them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

To most people in the Era, "reefer" meant either a refrigerated railroad boxcar or a type of woolen overcoat originally designed for wear on board a ship.

 

[tonyb]

To most people in the Era, "reefer" meant either a refrigerated railroad boxcar or a type of woolen overcoat originally designed for wear on board a ship.

"Reefer" still means that (a refrigerated trailer) in the trucking business.