They Say Em' From the Golden Era - Slang & Memorable Phrases

[Dixon Cannon]

Met an old photographer once. Talking about fast films and large aperatures, he quipped, "like shootin' a black cat in a coal mine at midnight!"

So... I've never tried to!

-dixon cannon

 

[Technonut]

Hey... What's with all this gobbledygook? [huh]

 

[TailendCharlie]

My mother would use these;YOU BETTER COOL YOUR JETS MISTER!
WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS ALL THAT RACKET!
WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME!

 

[woodyinnyc]

My grandmother used to say "That and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee", in response to any statement she wasn't impressed with. Shows you how long ago she started buying coffee.

Along the same lines, my father always said, "Well, smell you for a quarter". I still don't understand what or where it comes from, but I do know there are few people I would pay a quarter to smell!

 

[PeeWee]

"Y'all remember to wipe your feet" Heard it a million times growing up in the south.

 

[HadleyH]

"Keep it on the down' lo" ___ (means don't tell anyone else what I am about to tell you)

and

"Say it isn't so"-___ (...well may be this one is not so spectacular but always appear in my books about the 20s and 30s )

 

[Clarke]

My grandma sometimes says, "Now brown cow" or "Don't let the moon get in your eyes." Classic phrases I'll say.

 

[goldwyn girl]

My Grandma had plenty, here's 3 that come to mind. Australian phrases......
Struth!!!
God, love a duck.
More front than Waltons

 

[BonnieJean]

I must live in a time warp...

I still use and/or hear a lot of the phrases mentioned here on this thread. lol
Older men call to each other with "Hey, old timer!"
How about, "like locking the barn door after the horse gets stolen",
and when a person is going on and on, "like beating a dead horse".
Or how about, "He can't carry a tune in a bucket" or
"he couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag".
"You better skee-daddle!"
Or my favorite road-rage comeback if someone cuts me off in traffic, "You ding dong!" (I say this out loud in my car and no, I don't yell it out of the window!)

Oh, I live in a rural area in the Midwest and maybe that's why a lot of the old phrases are still being used around here....

 

[MrNewportCustom]

And, did you know that the dollar sign is a devolution of the letters U.S. superimposed on one another?! The original dollar sign was U (and) S, one on top of the other. Eventually the bottom of the U was dropped. And later still, one of the parallel lines of the U was dropped to form the present day $. You can take that to the bank! (to use and old expression!).

-dixon cannon

Very interesting' I did not know that. I prefer to use the double-line dollar sign. I just like it better. I wish it was on my computer.


Thank you,
Lee

 

[Dixon Cannon]

My Grandma had plenty, here's 3 that come to mind. Australian phrases......
Struth!!!
God, love a duck.
More front than Waltons

How 'bout Buckley's Chance! I actually know a couple, named Buckley and Chance. They'll never make it...not a Buckley's Chance!

-dixon cannon

 

[Dixon Cannon]

One of my favorites, long before Rod Stewart put it on an album cover;

"A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse"! Now that is classic!

-dixon cannon

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I actually knew this... Although I spelt it wrong.... I am a trivia geek but I suck at spelling.

I've actually seen it spelled a number of ways: doozie, doosie, duesey. . . . I really don't think there is a set spelling, but that last one is a shortening of the name of the car.

Another classic - "Penny for your thoughts?"


Lee
_______________________

“Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.” - Robert Benchley

 

[Joie DeVive]

BonnieJean you reminded me of another one.

I heard this whenever I left a door open, growing up:
"Were you born in a barn??"

 

[dhermann1]

I watched a couple of good 1920's flicks last night on TCM (and have the circles under my eyes to prove it). In the 1926 Bea Lillie pic "Exit Smiling", they use the phrase "She knows her onions". The thought of it brought tears to my eyes.
Then in "Broadway Melody" (1929) they used a word that's hardly forgotten now, but it surprised me to hear it used so long ago. Two chorus girls are getting into a cat fight and one refers to the other as a BIMBO. So that one's been around for a good long while, apparently.

 

[BonnieJean]

I heard this one as a kid if I got between my dad and his football game on TV: "You make a better door than a window!"

 

[JazzBaby]

I heard this one as a kid if I got between my dad and his football game on TV: "You make a better door than a window!"

Sadly I got the less pithy "I know you're a pain, but you're not a pane of glass!"

Now hold on a darn-tootin' minute!

 

[Harry Pierpont]

"Even a blind hog will root up an acorn once in a while"

 

[dhermann1]

Well, waddaya know?
and
Howdaya like that?

 

[MrNewportCustom]

You rarely hear, "Are my seams straight?" anymore.


Lee
___________________

Well, maybe some of you ladies hear that one.