Oh yeah, my wife is 1 1/2 years older so does that make me the innocent?

HA!  I married a man 7-1/2 years younger than me.... so I can retire first...  


Speaking of oldies... got this email from my 80+ year old ex-neighbor.... By the looks of the poll, many of us remember this stuff:


--------------------------

For most of us old folks, we will remember and enjoy.

For you young folks you will smile and probably say "Big Deal".



FENDER  SKIRTS AND SUPPER

I  know some of you will not understand this message, but  I bet you know someone who might.
  I  came across this phrase yesterday.

'FENDER  SKIRTS'



A  term I haven't heard in a long time, and thinking  about
'fender  skirts' started me thinking
  about  other words that quietly disappear from
our  language with hardly a notice like 'curb  feelers'
 

And  'steering knobs.' (AKA)
'suicide  knob,' 'neckers knobs.'
 
   
Since  I'd been thinking of cars,
my  mind naturally went  that direction first.

Any kids  will probably have to find some older person
over  50 to explain some of these terms to  you.

Remember 'Continental  kits?'
They  were rear bumper  extenders and spare tire covers
that  were supposed  to make any car
as  cool as a Lincoln Continental.
 
 
 

When  did we quit calling them 'emergency  brakes?
  At  some point 'parking brake' became the proper term.
 But  I miss the hint of drama that went with  'emergency brake.'

I'm  sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone
who  would call the accelerator the 'foot feed.'
Many  today do not even know what a clutch is
 or  that the dimmer  switch used to be on  the floor.
For  that matter, the  starter was down  theretoo.
   

 
 Didn't  you ever wait at the street for your daddy
to come  home, so you could ride the
'running  board' up  to the house?



Here's  a phrase I heard all the time in my youth
but  never anymore - 'store-bought.'
 Of  course, just  about everything is store-bought these days.
 
   But  once it was bragging material to have a
store-bought  dress or a store-bought bag of candy.
 
   
'Coast  to coast' is a phrase that once held all sorts
 of  excitement and now means almost nothing.
Now  we take the term 'worldwide' for granted.
This  floors me.
 

 
 On  a smaller scale, 'wall-to-wall' was  once
a magical  term in our homes. In  the '50s,
  everyone  covered his or her hardwood floors with,
 wow,  wall-to-wall carpeting!
 
 Today,  everyone replaces  their wall-to-wall carpeting
with  hardwood floors.  Go figure.




When  was the last time you heard the quaint phrase
'in  a family way?' It's hard to imagine that  the word 'pregnant'
was  once considered a little  too graphic,
a  little too clinical for use in polite  company,
so  we had all that talk about stork  visits and
'being  in a family way' or simply  'expecting.'

Apparently 'brassiere' is a word no  longer in usage.
; I  said it the other day and my daughter cracked  up.
I  guess it's just 'bra' now.
  'Unmentionables'  probably wouldn't be understood at  all.

I always  loved going to the 'picture  show,'
but  I considered 'movie' an affectation.
 
 
   
Most  of these words go back to the '50s,
but  here's a pure  '60s word I came across
the  other day 'rat  fink.' Ooh, what a  nasty put-down!


Here's  a word I miss - 'percolator.'
That  was just a fun  word to say.
And  what was it replaced with 'Coffee maker.'
How  dull... Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.
 
 
   
 
 I  miss those made-up marketing words that were
 meant  to sound so modern and now sound so retro.
Words  like 'Dyna  Flow' and 'Electrolux'  and 'Frigidaire'.
  Introducing the  1963 Admiral TV, now with 'Spectra Vision!'
 
 
     
 Food  for thought.
Was  there a telethon that wiped out lumbago?
Nobody  complains of that anymore.
 
   Maybe  that's what Castor  oil cured,
because  I never hear mothers threatening kids
with  Castor Oil anymore.
 
 


Some  words aren't gone, but are definitely
on  the endangered  list.
The  one that grieves me most is 'supper.'
Now  everybody says 'dinner.' Save  a great word.
Invite  someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts.
 

Years ago, when I was a college student, I used to work for a boss at a summer job who, at lunch time, would always say, "OK, boys, let's go eat dinner".  He was originally a farmer as well.

When my best friend got his driver's license, his first car had "three on the tree", instead of the more-desirable "Four on the floor".  I'll guarantee my kids wouldn't know what those terms meant.

Also, think of all the sounds that have gone away, things we used to hear daily and which are ingrained into our brains if we are over a certain age.  Kids don't remember those, either.  Like the sound a dial telephone makes when you release the dial and it rotates back.  The sound of typewriter keys clacking, and the "ding" at the end of a line.  The "ding-ding" sound when you pulled into a gas station and ran over the rubber hose, announcing your presence to the "pump jockey".

More pertinent to motorcycles, how much longer will it be before no one knows what a "kickstart" is (at which point, that Motley Crue song will make no sense at all . . .)?

Serowbot wrote on 10/07/13 at 11:09:29:


Because without it you could not tune in to Channel 13.....WQED in Pittsburgh!  That is where I watched Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers when I was a kid.....it was the PBS station.

I had forgotten about those knobs.  When you tuned to the VHF portion of the TV the knob clicked at the 13 channels and stopped....and some TV's had a larger knob for fine tuning.  When you tuned in the UHF portion of the TV the knob just rotated and you had to move it slightly left and right until you got the reception just right!

jcstokes wrote on 10/07/13 at 12:23:36:



I had a similar incident just after i had met fiona. I still had a turn table back then and had a record playing when it finished I asked her to "turn it over". Had her completely stumped!  

jcstokes wrote on 10/07/13 at 18:47:25:


You sound like my Dad

Panheads were coming to an end,when I was born.Sept 1964....49 going on 80.Should've listened in my younger years.