Terms Which Have Disappeared

[KILO NOVEMBER]

"Sunday-go-to-meeting"

 

[2jakes]

Have a cow:

“I’m just teasing you. Don’t have a cow!"

 

[busmatt]

New here and I apologise if this has been mentioned before but I said “Pip pip old bean” to a chap the other day and he looked at me as if I was speaking a weird language.

Matt


Brought to you by HYPNOTOAD

 

[Upgrade]

Did people actually say that? It tends to be construed as a stereotype like the Cockney “‘ello Guv’nor”.

The BBC Comic Relief special for Call the Midwife lampshaded it with one of the actors from the show spouting “reassuring posh 50s speak”. There’s something about having the ensemble cast in full period dress doing caricatures of themselves.

 

[Zombie_61]

"Sunday-go-to-meeting"

Five or six years ago the New United Molokan Church was built on our block. I had never heard the term "Molokan" before this; as I understand it, it applies to a "Spiritual Christian" sect that originated in Russia centuries ago and was/is considered unorthodox because they consume dairy products during their various fasts. The term itself, "Molokan", translates variously into English as "milk drinker" or "dairy eater". Apparently they hold services according to their own schedule rather than every Sunday, and as their congregation has grown the church's rather sizeable parking lot has proven to be insufficient so many of the congregants park on the streets. So whenever our street is lined with cars my first assumption, regardless of the day of the week, is that it must be Molokan "Go-to-meeting" day unless there are obvious signs that someone on our block is having a party.

 

[2jakes]

New here and I apologise if this has been mentioned before but I said “Pip pip old bean” to a chap the other day and he looked at me as if I was speaking a weird language.

Matt


Brought to you by HYPNOTOAD

Last time I heard this term was from the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes
Film series (’39-’46)

Sometimes… I simply enjoy the clothes those two were wearing!

 

[2jakes]

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

Voices & bugle call provided by the one and only,
Mel Blanc.

 

[2jakes]

 

[Trenchfriend]

From another time, when food was enormous precious. Translated from German:

"At our home will be eaten, what has to go!"

 

[2jakes]

From another time, when food was enormous precious. Translated from German:

"At our home will be eaten, what has to go!"

“Wunderbar!"

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

Voices & bugle call provided by the one and only,
Mel Blanc.

Or, as somebody said, "One man's Mede is another man's Persian."

 

[LizzieMaine]

"You can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t." Unless you're my mother.

 

[Fading Fast]

What one gets from reading period books, watching period movies and studying history is that "middle class" Americans - living in cities, with jobs like bookkeeper, secretary and retail sales were struggling to get enough food in the '30s.

While I'll get blowback, I'm going to say it anyway, it's different today. As food has become much cheaper and our gov't support programs larger, the scale of the problem is no where near as big today. With some thought and effort - and judicious buying - I fed myself with no problem on minimum wage pay (and just above minimum wage pay) in the '80s.

Yes, there is hunger in America (I'm not arguing otherwise), but I am pointing out that it was a much broader problem for people in the '30s who had what today are jobs that pay enough for one to eat - get a full amount of calories. And I'm only talking about people with jobs.

I think this, in part, explains why there were so many expressions back then that touched on ways to stretch a food budget.

 

[2jakes]

What one gets from reading period books, watching period movies and studying history is that "middle class" Americans - living in cities, with jobs like bookkeeper, secretary and retail sales were struggling to get enough food in the '30s.

While I'll get blowback, I'm going to say it anyway, it's different today. As food has become much cheaper and our gov't support programs larger, the scale of the problem is no where near as big today. With some thought and effort - and judicious buying - I fed myself with no problem on minimum wage pay (and just above minimum wage pay) in the '80s.

Yes, there is hunger in America (I'm not arguing otherwise), but I am pointing out that it was a much broader problem for people in the '30s who had what today are jobs that pay enough for one to eat - get a full amount of calories. And I'm only talking about people with jobs.

I think this, in part, explains why there were so many expressions back then that touched on ways to stretch a food budget.

1930s;
My dad recalled that for the most part eggs for breakfast from the backyard chickens.
Milk from cows raised at home.
Neighbors would trade things with one another.

Flour was used for making bread of all kinds including bisquits,pancakes.
Meat was weiners, bologna, spam & hamburger meat.
Potatos was the common ingredient which was added to
the above.

Peaches,oranges,corn,lemons and a mint plant to make tea were all home-grown.

Treat for the holidays was a home-grown turkey.
Christmas, folks would make sweet dessert
from the skins of watermelon, orange peel.
Pineapple skins were placed in a huge jar with
water & other ingredients which I can't recall
right now.... but I do remember it had quite a
"kick" after fermenting in the icebox for
several days.

"Icebox" was just that.... large chunks of
ice in the fridge!
Homemade tamales either beef, chicken or
pork with home made beef chili on the side
was a favorite treat around the holidays.

I remember my aunts gathering at the
kitchen at my grandmother's house during
Thanksgiving and Christmas preparing some
of the best foods which I enjoyed and miss
very much today.

One of my sisters made home-made chocolate
brownies from scratch and gave me the whole
pan as a gift.
She was about to say that perhaps she should've given something nicer but I
stopped her and gave her a hug, whispering in her ear, "Syl,this is the nicest gift!"
And I meant it.
She got teary-eyed but I kept talking, making her laugh with tears of joy. She told me no one can make her laugh like me.

With a glass of cold milk (usually cannot
drink milk by itself) I had to refrain from eating them all at once.
They were just as good as my mom's.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In his autobiography, Malcolm X talked about growing up in rural Michigan during the Depression, and thinking "Not To Be Sold" was a brand name, because it was on the labels of all the surplus-food products issued to families on relief. The first time I read that, I knew exactly what he was talking about, because we had those same products on the table in the 1960s and 70s. Canned peanut butter, canned luncheon meat, bagged flour, beans, and cornmeal, all with USDA SURPLUS -- NOT TO BE SOLD in big black letters on each container. You'd go up to the town office the first Monday of every month and pick up your allotment, while your Betters looked on with tight little patronizing smiles.

I ate a lot of that NOT TO BE SOLD cornmeal as breakfast mush, and it was especially good when you fried it. I'd take the meat to school in my lunch but I'd trim the round slices into rectangle shapes before making sandwiches so the other kids would think it was Spam and not NOT TO BE SOLD.

The thing with conditions today is that there is a great deal of really inexpensive food available, most of which is unfit to feed a dog. You can survive on a $14 a week food budget if you eat those $1 Banquet frozen dinners every meal, but you'll probably want to kill yourself by Wednesday night.

 

[Fading Fast]

Huggermugger

Until I ran into it the other day, I had completely forgotten this word. My vague memory of it was it being used as an informal, confidential meeting - like your parents might have a quick huggermugger before they sprang bad news on you.

However, when I looked it up, it appears my meaning wasn't quite right. That or the word had its colloquial uses not captured by the formal dictionary definition.

The meaning here from The Free Dictionary:

noun
The habit, practice, or policy of keeping secrets:
clandestineness, clandestinity, concealment, covertness, huggermuggery, secrecy, secretiveness, secretness.

adjective
Existing or operating in a way so as to ensure complete concealment and confidentiality:
clandestine, cloak-and-dagger, covert, secret, sub rosa, undercover.
Informal: hush-hush.
Idiom: under wraps.

adverb
In a secret way:
clandestinely, covertly, secretly, sub rosa.
Idioms: by stealth, on the sly, under cover.​

Does anyone else remember the word and, if so, what was the meaning that you remember it having?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've heard of "uggamugga" as a private expression of mutual affection. It's clearly decended from the same root, probably altered thru non-rhotic dialect pronunciation, and if you think about it it kind of fits in with the "on the sly" angle. And I've also run into the uggamugga variation used in the same way as "hocus-pocus" or "jibber-jabber," for obfuscating nonsensical talk. "Don't give me any of that uggamugga!"

 

[2jakes]

"Piddies"
As in,"Uh oh...wan outa piddies!"

 

[scottyrocks]

View attachment 143752

I use 'Geeze Louise' a lot.

 

[2jakes]

I use 'Geeze Louise' a lot.

On occasions:
'Got dandruff & some of it itches'