Terms Which Have Disappeared

[vitanola]

The term "floorwalker" is heard on many OTR shows. I've never heard "floorwalker" ever when I went to a department store. Not sure if they said this in real life then or was it just a "radio" thing. Also back then, in real life, not on radio , some orphanages, children's homes or even homes for unwed mothers were sometimes referred to as "foundling homes." I recall a co-worker of mine telling me that she had to go to the "Chicago Foundling Home" to have her baby and give it up for adoption, before she could go back to college. This was in 1966. She was 21 years old then. On radio shows you'll hear "foundling home" sometimes as well.

The position of "Floorwalker" or "Floor Manager" was common to the department stores in days not so long gone by. The Floorwalker was the lowest level of management, he would supervise the sales staff in his area and assist customers. As far as Foundling Homes are concerned, well, the term was, as you have surmised, a euphemism for "Home for unwed mothers".

 

[Stanley Doble]

There certainly were floorwalkers in department stores. See Captain Peacock of Grace Brothers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Q3es3hdpE


They went out when discount stores and malls replaced the old multi story department store. A Walmart greeter is just not the same thing.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There certainly were floorwalkers in department stores. See Captain Peacock of Grace Brothers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Q3es3hdpE


They went out when discount stores and malls replaced the old multi story department store. A Walmart greeter is just not the same thing.

One marketing ploy I really hate is how stores like Target and Walmart will make staple items as inconspicuous as possible, sometimes even moving them around, so that you spend at least twenty minutes looking for that item when all you want to do is run in and run out. The reason behind it is while you're looking for your item they want you to notice other things and impulse buy. And then whenever I mention it to friends they always ask me why didn't I ask one of the employees. Well, I would have if there was somebody on the floor to ask! More often than not after such a fruitless search I have to go to the customer service desk in front to ask somebody.

 

[Fading Fast]

The position of "Floorwalker" or "Floor Manager" was common to the department stores in days not so long gone by. The Floorwalker was the lowest level of management, he would supervise the sales staff in his area and assist customers. As far as Foundling Homes are concerned, well, the term was, as you have surmised, a euphemism for "Home for unwed mothers".

When I worked at Sterns department store in the early 80s, some of the older employees referred to the floor managers (the official term) as floorwalkers. Also, there is a scene in the movie "Holiday Affair" (a late 1940s Christmas movie) in which one of the key plot turns happens when a department store floorwalker fires Robert Mitchum's character and he explains what happened to Janet Leigh's character by saying "Little floorwalkers have big ears."

Another term which has all but gone away is "lying in" and "lying in hospitals" for when women gave birth and had to have bed rest. In NYC, there is an old "lying in" hospital that I occasionally pass on lower second avenue where you can still find the old name if you look hard (I'm doing this from memory, but I think it is some of the masonry or perhaps on old signage embedded in the masonry).

 

[Fading Fast]

One marketing ploy I really hate is how stores like Target and Walmart will make staple items as inconspicuous as possible, sometimes even moving them around, so that you spend at least twenty minutes looking for that item when all you want to do is run in and run out. The reason behind it is while you're looking for your item they want you to notice other things and impulse buy. And then whenever I mention it to friends they always ask me why didn't I ask one of the employees. Well, I would have if there was somebody on the floor to ask! More often than not after such a fruitless search I have to go to the customer service desk in front to ask somebody.

For the same reason, that is why department stores put the cosmetics and perfumes right inside the main door - these are high margin products that they want you to have to pass to get to anything else. Conversely, most supermarkets put the milk deep in the store so that you have to pass by the high-margin products to get to the very low-margin milk.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Another term which has all but gone away is "lying in" and "lying in hospitals" for when women gave birth and had to have bed rest. In NYC, there is an old "lying in" hospital that I occasionally pass on lower second avenue where you can still find the old name if you look hard (I'm doing this from memory, but I think it is some of the masonry or perhaps on old signage embedded in the masonry).

Along the same lines, a term I hear all the time among a certain southern demographic is "laid out" when someone is too ill to work that day. "We'll be a man short today, Zeke laid out". Is that common in other parts of the woods?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Along the same lines, a term I hear all the time among a certain southern demographic is "laid out" when someone is too ill to work that day. "We'll be a man short today, Zeke laid out". Is that common in other parts of the woods?

Around here it used to be said..."Zeke is laid up with the flu today".
HD

 

[dh66]

Along the same lines, a term I hear all the time among a certain southern demographic is "laid out" when someone is too ill to work that day. "We'll be a man short today, Zeke laid out". Is that common in other parts of the woods?

Very common down here.
Often Zeke "laid out" today because he "took drunk" last night.
He may well also have laid out because he was indeed "laid up", probably with a bad case of the white russian flu.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[HudsonHawk]

When I was in college and one of us was too hung over to go to class, we were said to have the "Heineken Flu". Not that we'd been drinking Heineken, mind you, it just rolled off the tongue better than "Milwaukee's Best Flu".

 

[dh66]

I think I may have had that once.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[rjb1]

Another "Yes" from a Southerner concerning "laid out" as a term for not showing up for work. However, it was more of my Dad's generation, I think, since I have not heard it in quite some time.

 

[2jakes]

In the movie "Forever Young" (Mel Gibson) last night.

"Close but no cigar"

also the word "cheaters" which is referring to sunglasses .

Anyone know the origins or why they were referred as such.

 

[HudsonHawk]

In the movie "Forever Young" (Mel Gibson) last night.

"Close but no cigar"

also the word "cheaters" which is referring to sunglasses .

Anyone know the origins or why they were referred as such.

Every time I've heard "cheaters" it was in reference to reading glasses, not sunglasses.

 

[2jakes]

The reason I mentioned "sunglasses" was because in an old movie,
the character is wearing them & his friend asks..."what's with the cheaters ? "

Thanks for sharing !

 

[Stanley Doble]

Close but no cigar. A cigar was a common prize or bar bet. For example if you played a game of pinball or pool, or the equivalent, the loser would have to buy the winner a drink or a cigar. So close but no cigar means you are almost right, or almost won but not quite.

Cheaters means eyeglasses. In the sense that a nearsighted person was "cheating" by using them to improve his vision.

You could call sunglasses cheaters but it would not be quite correct. In other words, close but no cigar.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Ha Good one SD...

 

[2jakes]

Ha Good one SD...

Amazing ....LOL....

 

[Stearmen]

Where I come from, if you are Laid Out, it means your never coming back to work, or any where else for that matter. Your in the Mortuary!

 

[2jakes]

Where I come from, if you are Laid Out, it means your never coming back to work, or any where else for that matter. Your in the Mortuary!

As opposed to Laid Off ...:eusa_doh:

Or Getting Laid ...

 

[Stanley Doble]

Slang doesn't always make sense. Readers = marked cards, cheaters = eyeglasses. You would think it would be the other way around. I guess that is the idea, a sort of secret language for insiders that only insiders know the meaning of.