The Ford Barn - Nostalgia

The Ford Barn (https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/index.php)

- Model A (1928-31) (https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3)

- - Nostalgia (https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=183145)

We need to keep this alive.
Model A's are mentioned.

GEE WHILLIKERS !

WORDS AND PHRASES REMIND US OF THE WAY WE WERE.

About a month ago, I illuminated some old expressions that have become
obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology. These phrases
included "Don't touch that dial," "Carbon copy," "You sound like a broken
record" and "Hung out to dry." A bevy of readers have asked me to shine
light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to oblige:

Back in the olden dayz we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on
our best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right.

Hubba-hubba!

We'd cut a rug in some juke joint and then go necking and petting and
smooching and spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods
and model A's in some passion pit or lovers' lane.

Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!

Holy moley! We were in like Flynn and living the life of
Riley, and even a regular guy couldn't accuse us of being
a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea
in China!

Back in the olden dayz, life used to be swell, but when's
the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way
of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle
skirts, saddle shoes and pedal pushers.

Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

Like Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and Kurt

Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time.

We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap,
and before we can say, "I'll be a monkey's uncle!" or "This
is a fine kettle of fish!" we discover that the words we grew
up with, the words that seemed omnipresent as oxygen,
have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues
and our pens and our keyboards.

Where have all those phrases gone?

*
Bigger than a bread

box. Banned in Boston. The very idea! It's your nickel.

Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper.
Turn-of-the-century. Iron curtain. Domino theory. Fail safe. Civil defense.
Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cooties. Going like
sixty. I'll see you in the
funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Heavens
to Murgatroyd! And awa-a-ay we go!

Oh, my stars and garters! It turns out there are more of
these lost words and expressions than Carter had liver pills.*

We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeful times. For a
child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy
that has no age. We at the other end of the chronological
arc have the advantage of* words that once did not exist
and words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly
stage and now are heard no more, except in our collective memory.

It's one of the greatest advantages of aging. We can have archaic and eat it
too .

See 'ya later, alligator!

Thanks Pete, I needed that :rolleyes:

After a while crocodile!

You know Pete, maybe you should write a book of this same type. You might "Get Rich Quick".

Oh yeah ! A walk down memory lane. But I'm not going to tell you to 'Put a Sock in it", because "You hit the nail square on the head."

I'd tell you more, but, in my "Buster Brown Shoes" 'I'd walk a mile for a Camel.," while "I'm going to get my ears lowered", so I can catch a flicker and see Clara Bow - "The IT girl" (she's the 'Cat's Meow'). I should have just grabbed a Hack, 'cause my dogs are barking' !

And don't forget, while driving your 'fliver', the Burma Shave signs, and all the folk wisdom they gave us.

"I want my Maypo."
And Fiber Magee - don't open that closet door.
"The Shadow knows" (he's the guy with the 'Gat') - Inner Sanctum

So - who else in this old codger group is living a 'Life of Riley' ?

Is that the $64,000 question?

here are a few of Burma Shave signs I remember:

Hardly A Driver
Is Now Alive
Who Passed
On Hills
At 75
Burma Shave

Don't Stick
Your Elbow
Out So Far
It Might Go Home
In Another Car
Burma Shave

He Tried
To Cross
As Fast Train Neared
Death Didn't Draft Him
He Volunteered
Burna Shave

Fortunately Fedoras are back in style. I love these phrases and should try to incorporate them more into my daily life than some other phrases.

Mike

just now got these off a 1938 movie starring adolfe menjou. follow that cab-like a revolving door-for the luvva pete-cheese it, the cops-as the crow flies

Cool dadio. Those were the cat's pajamas.

Sitting in the cat-bird's seat, Cocoa puffs train,Shuffle off to Buffalo, in a Pig's eye, snug as a bug in a rug, beat you like a red-headed stepchild,Slower than molasses in January.

All I can say is that you guys are "windier then a popcorn fart"!

slower than molasses running up hill in January now thats slow. Those kids are as active as two cats on a hot tin roof. Hornier than a two peckerd owl. Better quit before i get carried awy

The story of........"Big"Guy Fellows, the only friend I ever really had, but he don't like me see.
Not since that dame down at the Dirty Dime Saloon came between us, she was a hot little flapper with gams that went all the way up, and togged to the bricks, she looked me in the peeper's and I knew she was swell, I was dizzy for the dame, she was a real pip, if you know what I mean. So she throws me a honey cooler, and I knew she had me pegged for a wheat, I figured her for a prosty but I wasn't minding.
So I walks up to her and offers her a snipe, and asks her for an egg harbors, but she ain't going for that, seems she's the canary in the joint.
I realized she was a scat singer, and the place was jolly up, but I gots a tin ear for them kind of beats, but the cat on the gooble pipe was kippy.
That's where Guy Fellows came it, he asks me for a sawbuck, but alls I got is a fin.
Well, he sees me eyeing the doll and tells me she a B-girl, so I garb him by the nerts and tell him to blow.
I must have had to much giggle juice in that joint, or the dame slipped me a mickey in the hootch, because I woke up in a flop house a week later and my fin was gone, and so was...Guy Fellows.
PS: If any ones see Guy Fellows tell that SOB I'm looking for him, I want my fiver back.

Your firing on all cylinders

measurements a bee,s knee . a nats fart , or a bull roar,

A

Abyssinia - I'll be seeing you
Apple - Big cities

B

Baddy - A person of ill repute
Badmouth - Talking harshly about someone or something
Baloney/Boloney - Nonsense
B-girl - A female who encourages customers to buy drinks at the bar
Biggie - Big Shot
Blat - Newspaper
Bobbie Pin - A hair pin once used on bobbed hair

C

Carny - A carnival worker
Carryout - Food taken away from the point of service or sale
Chizz - Swindler
Chrissake - Vulgar/profane oath
Cliff-hanger - A movie/film or event intended to build suspense
Clip-joint - A high priced club
C'mon - Expression to Come on
Cojones - Courage/'guts'
Crapper - Toilet
Curvaceous - A female of shapely anatomy

D

Demo - A sample of work/records/music/writing/photography
Dilly - Personable character
Dong - Penis
Doozer
Double-Dip - Two separate actions, two helpings of food, working two jobs

E

Emcee - Master of Ceremonies (M and C)
Eighty-six - To stop/put an end to. Originated in restaurant menues.

F

Fave - Favorite
Flatout - To Do
Flopperoo - A failure
Footy - Flirtacious foot play
Fringer
Futz - Waste time

G

Gang-up - To gather together/to gang
Gas - Fuel for transportation/automobiles
Gee - Drugged
Ginzo - Italian ancestry
Glam - Glamorous
Goof - Waste Time
Gook - A person of Asian ancestry
Gotcha - Expression for I've got you!
Guesstimate - Best guess possible given the facts and figures

H

Hackie - Taxi cab driver
Hair-do - Hair Style
Ham - Acting up or Corney
Harrumph - A sound emitted indicating dissatisfaction or to gain attention
Hasta-la-vista - Spanish Good-bye
Hepcat/Hepster - Person in the know
Hetero - Hetero sexual
Hi-de-ho - An expression of good will.
Homegirl - A female from a hometown of individual using slang/peer group
Hoo-ha - Commotion
Hooverville - A temporary town filled with make-shift buildings
Hot-damn - An expression of glee or luck
Hunh - An expression of question or of opinion
Hype - Exagerated description

I

Iffy - A condition that is at once doubtful and positive
Itsy-Bitsy - Tiny

J

Jeeves - Butler
Juke - A form of entertainment emitting from a Juke Box/musical records or an eatery or entertainment venue

K

Killer-diller- Really excellent person, place, experience, or thing

L

Logo - Abbreviation for Logotype/symbolic/brand
Lucky - Lucky Strike Cigarettes

M

Macher - Man of importance.
Main-Line - To inject drugs intraveneously
Meths - Drinking methylated spirits
Mocky - Of Jewish heritage.
Moxie - Guts/nerves
Modoc -Aviator's glamorous flashy style
Mojo - Narcotic
Moody - To gain favor though a insidious approach
Moola - Money
Mootah/Mooter - Marijuana
Moxie - That extra flair

N

Nada - Nothing, zip, zilch
Narker - Informant
Nasty - Not good
Nerts - Eupheism for Nuts
Nibcocked - Pointed penis
Nice-Nellyism - Prudish behavior
Nit-witted - Dull/un-intelligent
Not at all - No problem/No need to mention it
Nudie - A show/magazine featuring nudity
Nympho - Nymphomaniac

O

Off base - Taken by surprise
Oh yeah - Really?
Okie-doke Okay
Oomph - An extra punch/zest/appeal of beauty
Okie - Resident of Oklahoma
Oops - Expression of dismay for a mistake
Orgasmic - Sexual state

P

Patsy - That's all right
Payola - On the payroll through illegal practices
Peck - Peckerwood/Black Slang
Pen-pal - Long distance friend
Pep-pill - A stimulant
Pimpish - Having the characteristics or traits of a pimp
Pint-size - Dimmunitive stature
Pix - A variety of pictures
Pizzazz - A punch of style/show in appearance
Playgirl - A girl/woman who is enjoying life/out on the town
Poop - To tire
Pot - To waste
Preggy - Enciente
Pricey - Expensive
Prosty - Prostitute
Punchy - A condition of confusion or high anxiety
Pushy - Bossy/teetering on obnoxious

Q

Queenie - Effiminate male
Queeny - Effiminate
Queer - Homosexual
Queerie - Homosexual

R

Raggy - Referring to Ragtime music
Raunchy - Debased

S

Scaredy-cat - A frightened individual
Schlepper - An undesirable person, a bum
Schmaltzy - Overly sentimental/corney
Schmeck - A Drug/Heroin
Schmooz - To chat and befriend/gain favor
Schnozzle - The Nose
Shack-up - Cohabitation
Shitless - Sensless/Often used with unbelievable fear
Skidrow - Run down part of town
Skivvy - Under clothing
Slap-happy - Gleefully joyful beyond sense
Sleep-over - Spending the night at one anothers house
Schmooch - Kiss
Snazzy - Dressed Stylish
Snit - A temper fit
Soap opera - A drama
Speako - Speakeasy
Spliff - Cannibus/rolled
Starry-eyed - Agog
Stinkeroo - Something unfavorable, either person, place, circumstance or thing
Strip-tease - Stripper
Sucky - Not a desirable circumstance/ a wound
Swacked - Inebriated
Sweet-talk - Expressions of flattery
Swingy - Pertaining to music/swing
Switcheroo - To make a switch or change

T

Tampax - Tampon
Temp - Temporary employee
Thataboy - Expression of encouragement. That's a boy! Atta boy!
Tizzy - A state of anxiety or confusion and jittery nerves
Tongue-in-cheek - Sly, Mischeifous, Capricious
Toots - Referring to a girl or woman

U

Up-do - A free flowing hairstyle
Up-Tight - Anxious

V

V.I.P. - Very Important Person
Virgy - Virgin

W

Wack - A crazy person.
Wacky - Wild, crazy or peculiar
Wee-Wee - To urinate
Whamo - Sudden or violent slam/explosion
Whanger - Penis
Whatcha - Query/What do you?, What are you?
Whatsa' matter - What is the matter
Woofer - Constant talk/chatter

"I've got to see a man about a horse" or "I'm going to shake the dew off the lilly". "The cat's meow". "A fart in a carload". "That's cookin with gas". "More excuses than Carters has pills". "Tits on a boar hog".

I can remember when "gay" meant happy or festive.