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[Guest]

WHAT THE HECK IS A FENDER SKIRT?



I CAME ACROSS THIS PHRASE IN A BOOK 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". SINCE I'D BEEN THINKING OF CARS, MY MIND NATURALLY WENT THAT DIRECTION FIRST. KIDS WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO FIND SOME ELDERLY 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".

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 HEAR 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 "WORLD WIDE" 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, E VERYONE REPLACES THEIR WALL-TO-WALL CARPETING WITH HARDWOOD FLOOR S. GO FIGURE!

WHEN'S 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 THE FAMILY WAY" OR SIMPLY "EXPECTING"

APPARENTLY "B RASSIERE" 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- '60's 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 "DYNAFLOW" AND "ELECTROLUX." INTRODUCING THE 1963 ADMIRAL TV, NOW WITH "SPECTRAVISION!"



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 "SUPPER". NOW EVERYBODY SAYS "DINNER."

SAVE A GREAT WORD. INVITE SOMEONE TO SUPPER. DISCUSS FENDER SKIRTS.

SOMEONE FORWARDED THIS TO ME. I THOUGHT SOME OF US OF A "CERTAIN AGE" WOULD REMEMBER MOST OF THESE.

[I B Squidly]

Fun!

Staying with cars: Look under the hood. See the carbureator? Nope, it's a throttle body or an injector. Don't worry about replacing the cap and rotor, replace the module instead. Ethel and hi-test went the way of 50 cent gas. I remember when they charged to put lead in now they charge to take it out. Not that I miss it but does anyone make 'three on the tree' anymore?
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"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[dusty]

When's the last time anyone drove a pickup with the starter button on the floorboard.
And dimmer switches you worked with your foot.
Turn signals? You did that with your left arm out the window.

Dusty
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Left and Wrong are the opposite of Right!

[I B Squidly]

Dusty,

Floor board starters are pre-WWII. Floorboard 'brights' disappeared in the 70s. Screw the details. How many remember when DRINKING AND DRIVING was AMERICA'S FAVORITE PASSTIME? How many empties make it into the bed of the truck?

That's right! DAMM, Drunks Against Mad Mothers is where I'm at.
_________________
"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[dusty]

Wellllll.....see.....I B, that's one of my arguments as to why we should never have invented these damn automobiles.
It used to be that a man could get drunk and the worse thing that would happen would be that he fell off his horse. NOW look what happens.

Dusty
_________________
Left and Wrong are the opposite of Right!

[LimaCharlie]

We had a DUI on a ridding lawn mower here recently. He rode it to the market to get more beer. B Double-E Double-R UN, Beer Run.
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I was going to become an anarchist, but they had too many rules.

[AMOS]

The beer run song.........great, now I'll have that going through my head all day. LOL.

[Schadow]

Growing up in the '30s in Southern California, we had a superheterodyne Philco radio, the only electronics in the house and the word 'electronics' hadn't been invented.

Our telephone was a black Elliot Ness stick model with no dial and our phone number was 48. Just 48. You called the operator, one of whom was my aunt, and gave her the number if you knew it or just asked for a name. Every once in a while the operator would say something like, "Oh, I just saw her walk by outside on her way to the store so she isn't home. I'll let you know when she heads back." Making a long-distance call was a major undertaking involving many operators between us and the destination manually putting plugs in the right holes.

My Dad's Model A pickup's gas gauge was a glass-encased bobbing float on the dash which fascinated me no end. And, gas for the pickup was about 15 cents per gallon.

San Diego was very nervous just after Pearl Harbor and, to my great delight and envy of my friends, an Army anti-aircraft artillery battery and crew moved onto the vacant lot next door. My Mom occasionally fixed them a meatloaf dinner to supplement their C rations and they would supply us with ground coffee of which they had plenty and which we couldn't get.

What I remember most about those days was the sudden blossoming of blue stars in the windows, sometimes changed out for gold. Everyone was totally committed to the war and anything required to win it. Movies started coming out with patriotic themes. The newspapers (at least on that coast) carried nothing negative or derogatory about FDR or the war effort.

I'm afraid those attitudes will never return.

Schadow
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Capt, 8th U.S. Army, Korea '53 - '54

[Snipe]

[Schadow]