Terms Which Have Disappeared

[tonyb]

I was giving a lecture on the 8th Air Force bomber crews for schoolkids last week and I didn't realize the use of "Flak" as a normal word meaning to someone giving you grief over something was no longer in use in any context.
When I was young, people used it all the time, with so many kids not realizing it originally meant German anti-aircraft artillery in WW2

It’s been awhile since I’ve had regular conversations with what we in the business commonly called “PR flaks.”

A more polite handle was “agency (or company or whatever) spokesperson.” The people best suited to that kind of work have skills (and personalities) quite different from my own.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Is "hood snack" just referring to the classic neighbourhood corner stores or comes it from old days poor people neighbourhoods?

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I can’t think of a specific term for those little mom-and-pop stores that were still much in evidence in my early years. They’re all but nonexistent now, although in some older neighborhoods the structures still stand and have been converted to other uses. I can think of a couple of them in an old neighborhood of mine. The store spaces themselves faced the streets and living spaces were behind and/or above the store.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We used to call those "corner stores" even if they weren't actually on a corner. They were all the same -- Narragansett Beer sign over the door, soda cooler right as you walked in, opposite a crate with newspapers piled on it., two or three shelving units full of sun-faded canned goods and boxed cereal, and a deli counter at the back with a meat slicer and, maybe, a pizza oven. "Italian sandwiches" came wrapped in butcher paper dripping with oil, and if you got pizza it came sandwiched between two paper plates stapled together. The proprietor was always an elderly bald-headed man who seldom remembered to put in his false teeth, and didn't like kids pawing around in the comic books, especially if they just ate an Italian sandwich.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
“Corner store” seems as fitting as anything.

There was one across from my junior high school. They sold lots of candy and soda pop.

I’m just now recalling that an acquaintance, a friend of sorts, lived in a space that had once been a corner store. But that’s been more than 40 years ago. The structure was on a well-travelled arterial. I doubt it still stands.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Corner store" is a common term in old Germany, too. Or "Tante Emma Store".

We even have a "Rails Bakery", here in smalltown. Sometimes brings irritation to people, but they're just next to our railtrack, with distance of maybe 5 meter. That's it.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
I’m assuming these “rails bakeries” are situated near passenger/commuter rail stops?

 

[Trenchfriend]

^^^^
I’m assuming these “rails bakeries” are situated near passenger/commuter rail stops?

Nope, it's just a colloquialism. The family owns the whole corner building at the railroad crossing.

 

[Turnip]

Colossal and epochal…

 

[Trenchfriend]

Fulminant...

 

[tonyb]

“Billfold”

It hasn’t disappeared entirely, and I doubt it will in what remains of my lifetime. But I don’t hear it nearly so often as I once did. And I suspect I’ll be hearing it less and less, more or less commensurate with the decline in the use of paper currency.

My bank pretty much insisted I get a new debit card, what with the old one’s number on file in numerous places. I put up a mild protest, seeing how certain of my monthly bills are debited automatically on that card number. And how I make the overwhelming majority of my in-person purchases with it. I might get hungry before the replacement card arrives, I said.

As it turns out, I already had something called a “digital wallet” on my iPhone. The bank put my new card’s number on it, although I could see only the last four digits. So I couldn’t update my info with those monthly payees until I had the physical card. And yes, I heard from them when my old card’s number was declined.

 

[tonyb]

While I’m at it …

“Money clip”

New ones can still be had, but I can’t recall when I last saw one in use.

I was bestowed with one about 30 years ago. It featured a facsimile of my business card and a small knife blade, as well as the clip for holding folding money. It may still be hiding in some box of junk around here somewhere.

 

[tonyb]

I found it. I had to soak it in water and use a pair of pliers to loosen the blades enough to free them.

 

[BobHufford]

I think there is one left down in your area that is owned by the grandson of one of the founders. It is still named Sambo's.
Ah yes, I found it:
http://www.sambosrestaurant.com/

Our Sambo’s plates made it to the Easter brunch table this year!

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
How’d you score the plates, Bob?

 

[BobHufford]

^^^^
How’d you score the plates, Bob?

When the local franchise went out around 1990 my wife’s Grandpa attended the auction and brought these home.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Does anyone have a "davenport" in your house? My grandmother did.

 

[RossRYoung]

Indeed, that was often where I was sent to sleep at night!

 

[tonyb]

Does anyone have a "davenport" in your house? My grandmother did.

And then there is “divan.” It seems it referred specifically to what is also called a “daybed,” but I recall it used as a synonym for “couch” or “sofa.”

 

[LizzieMaine]

That same question came up just the other day in a radio discussion group I'm in, as a word commonly used on soap operas. "Davenport" came from a furniture company that manufactured couches in the late 19th century, and was mostly heard in the midwest as a synonym for couch, sofa, or "chesterfield." We only ever used "couch" in my Northeastern neighborhood, with "sofa" occasionally heard from Congregatinalists, who were also the type most likely to wrap their sofas/couches in plastic covers to keep the kids and animals off.