What the heck is a Jalopy?” Have you never heard the word jalopy? Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory when you read this and chuckle.
Some old expressions have become obsolete due to the march of technology. Some of these phrases include: Don’t touch that dial; Carbon copy; You sound like a broken record; and Hung out to dry.
Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We’d put on our best bib and tucker, to straighten up and fly right. How many remember Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping Jehoshaphat! Holy Moley!
We were in like Flynn and living the life of Riley; and even a regular guy couldn’t accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea in China!
Back in the olden days, “life used to be swell, but when’s the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and pedal pushers.”
Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn’t anymore. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” Or, “This is a fine kettle of fish!” We discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed universal, as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards.
Poof, go the words of our youth. Where have all those great phrases gone? Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It’s your nickel. Don’t forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper.
Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I’ll see you in the funny papers. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses. It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! (Carter’s Little Liver Pills are gone too!)
Can we no longer be hip or groovy? Did you tremble or become intimidated if you were offered a knuckle sandwich? Were you the guy that was cruisin’ for a bruisin’ or just knew the guy? Bread was hard to come by especially if you were almost out. Maybe you tried to borrow a little bit. Did you have any extra bread? Hopefully you never did the five-finger discount.
Did you ever get Hornswoggled? Hopefully you never knew the inside of the Hoosegow. Then again maybe you were the cat’s pajamas or cat’s meow or knew someone who was. Hopefully things you had it made in the shade.
Did you ever burn a little rubber to show ‘em what that hot rod could do?? Or was yours just a hunk of junk? Maybe you just punched it cause you were late for the show.
Dude, you don’t have to yell at me! What’s your bag?” Lay it on me man, lay it on me. Things just got heavy. Oh, man, that movie was heavy. Did you make the scene downtown?
And didn’t we all bust a gut at sometime or another? Because weren’t things far out or ought of sight man? Then again things could be a bummer. Can ya dig it? Did you ever just hang loose instead of doin what ya oughta? “You gotta make it to my party tonight. It’s gonna be a gas.”
Maybe you were just square or was your party a shindig because it was so groovy? If you were a fink you probably didn’t get invited! Boogie on down and maybe do me a solid. Did the man keep you down or did you just spaz out? Maybe you needed to take a chill pill.
Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth. See ya later, alligator! After a while crocodile. Oki-Doki artichokey! Catch you on the flip-side!