Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Inkstainedwretch]

Does anything "come on like Gangbusters" any more?

 

[MisterCairo]

I use that, and still hear it occasionally.

 

[MisterCairo]

I think I have entered this in the past, but I will bump it - "now we're cooking with gas" is one of my favourite lines. My dad used it often.

 

[2jakes]

Does anything "come on like Gangbusters" any more?

Yes.

Watching Rod Steiger as sheriff Bill Gillespie from ‘In the Heat of the Night.”

As many times as I’ve seen it....Rod Steiger "comes on like gangbusters”
when he is in the scene.

 

[Fading Fast]

Yes.

Watching Rod Steiger as sheriff Bill Gillespie from ‘In the Heat of the Night.”

As many times as I’ve seen it....Rod Steiger "comes on like gangbusters”
when he is in the scene.

Great call - he does "come on like gangbusters" many times in that and many movies.

In one scene in "Doctor Zhivago," he is explaining to the idealistic and reluctant Zhivago and Lara why coming with him is the only safe option as the Communists will kill them - period. He doesn't use any physical force, but the power of his argument and the power of his voice and body English comes on like gangbusters. That man is an actor.

And great expression that is fading fast .

 

[2jakes]

Nice segue !

 

[tonyb]

I occasionally use "came on like gangbusters" and "now you're cooking with gas." And I believe I remember (memory not always being so reliable) when and from whom I first heard both expressions. That's been a long time ago, but it doesn't predate my adolescence. My folks didn't use those phrases. Not as I recall, anyway.

 

[2jakes]

I occasionally use "came on like gangbusters" and "now you're cooking with gas." And I believe I remember (memory not always being so reliable) when and from whom I first heard both expressions. That's been a long time ago, but it doesn't predate my adolescence. My folks didn't use those phrases. Not as I recall, anyway.

“You took the words right out of my mouth”.
I also have had similar experiences.

 

[Fading Fast]

My favorite race track echo of "came on like gangbusters" happened in a race the oversized Forego was running in back in the '70s. I remember watching it on TV and seeing this big, thundering horse in the stretch run starting to move past his sleeker competitors one by one and the announcer shouting "and on the outside, here comes Forego moving like a freight train."

Racing fans know how much pride the sport takes in the beauty, the elegance, the sinewy fluidity of thoroughbreds - so to hear a horse, accurately, described as a freight train in a positive way was impactful and fun. Forego was a freight train, with a high-speed-train gear.

 

[skydog757]

Nobody asks "Is it bigger than a breadbox" anymore.

 

[scottyrocks]

"Waste not, want not"

I just used that expression in another thread and thought - I always heard that one growing up used by the older "Depression Era" generation (my dad and grandmother, in my case), but not by the kids at school. Now I never hear it. Probably, just another one that will go away as that generation passes on.

Not likely to heard by the last few generations, where everything is disposable, often on the floor.

 

[2jakes]

"Collect call".

Last time I made one was in 1963.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Collect call".

Last time I made one was in 1963.

Do they even offer that option with land lines any more (I haven't had a land line in over 13 years now)?

 

[2jakes]

Do they even offer that option with land lines any more (I haven't had a land line in over 13 years now)?

My guess would be that this option went the way of the dodo...
similar to pay phone booths.
I can remember when phone booths were made of wood and had a small fan inside.

I wonder where “supie” changes into his super hero costume today?

 

[LizzieMaine]

1-800-COLLECT was a thing well into the early 2000s.

I don't have collect capability myself because my long distance service got shut off because I kept forgetting to pay the bill and I haven't bothered to get a new one, since there's nobody out of state I need to call. But I believe it is still offered by most long-distance providers.

 

[2jakes]

I used to call "person to person” to my folks.

I would tell the operator the name of the person I was trying to contact.

The name I gave was my own.

The operator would relay the message.
Folks would tell her I wasn’t available.

Didn’t matter.
My folks knew I was coming home!

There was a joke about asking to talk "person to person”
to a Mr. Itsaboy.
Or something like that!

 

[Fading Fast]

I think person-to-person was very expensive - more so than just collect - probably, in part, to make up for all the lost revenue from people like 2jakes gaming the system.

 

[2jakes]

I think person-to-person was very expensive - more so than just collect - probably, in part, to make up for all the lost revenue from people like 2jakes gaming the system.

Hey!
I resemble that remark!

 

[tonyb]

I used to call "person to person” to my folks.

I would tell the operator the name of the person I was trying to contact.

The name I gave was my own.

The operator would relay the message.
Folks would tell her I wasn’t available.

Didn’t matter.
My folks knew I was coming home!

There was a joke about asking to talk "person to person”
to a Mr. Itsaboy.
Or something like that!

I remember a variation on that practice. Among my scalawag relatives it was called "check calling." The caller would reach the operator via payphone and say he wished to make a collect call to wherever. The call recipient would be greeted by the operator saying something like "I have a collect call from Walter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa." The recipient knew to reject the call (and charges) because he or she had agreed in advance that if the caller identified himself as Walter, rather than Wally, he was just letting the recipient know where he was. Conversely, had he identified himself as Wally, he had something of greater importance to impart and therefore the recipient was to accept to call, and the charges.

It was among the many examples of the grownups not practicing what they preached.

 

[Upgrade]

Nobody asks "Is it bigger than a breadbox" anymore.

Steve Allen at one point commented that the phrase itself was incongruous because it was so old-sounding, bringing up images of a fussy Victorian kitchen.