Words Meant Things

I came across this phrase in a book yesterday “FENDER SKIRTS.”

Fender skits were metal covers over the tops of tires, especially in the rear. it’s not clear if they were to help reduce rocks being thrown up in rear-wheel-drive cars, or if they were just thought to look “cool.” Shrug.

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”

Curb feelers were like “deely-bobs,” except instead of wearing them like antennae on your head, you clipped them to your wheel well. If you parked too clese to the curb, they made a scrapy sound. Actually, a clever idea, even if they looked a little dorky. Not sure why they disappeared off the scene, though they’re now being replaced, functionally, by side radar systems..

And “steering knobs.” (AKA) suicide knob

These are little knobs that clip onto a steering wheel, allowing you to steer one-handed (hence the nickname). I knew a woman, growing up, with just one arm, for whom such a thing made a great deal of sense. And steering knobs are still avaliable (heck, you can find them on Amazon), and all these other items can be found in various aftermarket sources (ah, the joy of Google).

Since I’d been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Any kids will probably have to find some elderly person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you.

Or perhaps an under-50 blogger with a big vocabulary.

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.

Whatever. Still available.

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.”

Ah, see, now we’re going from obsolete or out-of-style technology to a change in phrasing. And, in fact, since folks are recommended to use these when parking the car, vs. saving them for an emergency, it’s a change that makes sense.

I’m sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the “foot feed.”

Now that is cool. It’s as opposed to a throttle control on the steering column or dash, which tells you just how old it is. When was the last American car manufactured that didn’t have a “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?

Call Child Protective Services! Or Doc Savage!

I had an early VW with running boards. Actually, “running boards” show up on some cars to this day — it’s just that the police threaten to shoot you if you ride on them (with, I’ll not, good reason).

It does sound like fun, though.

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.

And then it became bragging material to have something “home made.” That’s not actually a bad thing.

My mom used to sew our clothes. Now it’s easier to let poor people overseas do it for us.

“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.

Which is one reason why people don’t wear suits, ties, and hats aboard airplanes, unless they’re going directly to a meeting on the other end, and sometimes not even then.

But, yes, the world is getting, effectively, a lot smaller. Katherine has travelled more in her life by air than I had until I was in my 30s (maybe later). It think that’s a good thing, though still a bit “flooring.”

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.

Margie’s bungalow in Pasadena had virgin hardwood floors under the worn wall-to-wall, which was a very nice discovery (if a lot of work, and demonstrative of why people moved from wood floors to wall-to-wall carpeting.

That said — the term “wall-to-wall” has by no means vanished.

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 a family way” or simply “expecting.”

True, that sort of started going away a fair length of time ago. Not sure that’s a bad thing. Though I still hear (and use) “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.

Huh. Yeah, I suppose.

I always loved going to the “picture show,” but I considered “movie” an affectation.

Interesting. I suspect “picture show” was to contrast with a “stage show” at the theater. Don’t particularly miss it.

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!

Not sure that it’s a 60s term — it’s originally underworld slang (similar to a stool pigeon), and as such I suspect goes back at least a few decades earlier, at least as an insult of that style; it later took on other associations.

That said, it does evoke a nice evocative sense to it, like “you dirty rat” and the like.

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.

It wasn’t a case of just replacing the term but the technology. Percolators are actually very cool — but their coffee is pretty nasty.

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!”

Fast-forward a bit and consider how iThis and iThat and Thisr and Thatr will sound to the ear in, oh, twenty years. Or less. Heck, consider how all the XYZ 2000 and ABC 2000 brand names sound.

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.

Nowadays, lumbago is just called “lower back pain” (and people just take ibuprofin), or else gets more specific diagnoses like sciatica or various disc problems. And castor oil was used mostly for constipation (which isn’t as much of a a problem now, and, when it is, more effective solutions are at hand) or as a punishment for little kids (which is, these days,
frowned upon).

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.

“Supper” seems to be both regional (Doyce and Jackie both use the term) and an issue of definition; it usually implies an early meal (anything after lunch), whereas after 5 p.m. or something, when most folks eat, “dinner” seems to be more commonly used. But you can still find plenty of debate on the subject online,

In the end, it was an interesting article to begin with — but, ultimately, too parochial and too drifting in direction. Nice try, though.