Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
The movie was The Yearling, adapted for the screen from the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s novel of the same name. It starred Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman. At one point in the movie Jane Wyman appeared to be darning a sock. I had recalled the word “darn” from my childhood, as my mother used to darn our socks.
I doubt that many people, certainly those below the Millennial Generation age group, would know of this word. We now live in a throwaway society so there really is no need to darn anymore.
But this article isn’t about the scourge of our throwaway society, it is about how certain words/phrases were once in our English vernacular but, over the years, have lost (or are beginning to lose) their meaning. I started making a list off the top of my head but was overwhelmed with all of the words/phrases that were once commonplace. As examples:
Making out, davenport, canapés, Sen-Sen, love beads, juke boxes, car hops, granny glasses, slickers, beehives, transistor radios, overalls, teased hair, hip huggers, garters, chalk boards, malt shops, watch fobs, saddle shoes, pegged pants, pixie haircuts, wool bobby sox, drive-ins, gas station attendants, roller skates with keys, rumble seats, lazy susan, tie-dyed clothes, scooters, cash registers, penny loafers, angora-wrapped rings, suspenders, sweats, crystal radios, ham radio operators, Tangee lipstick, pop-it beads, lunch boxes, candy cigarettes, the flip, shirt dresses, percolaters, iceboxes, bell bottoms, milkmen, duck’s tail, pancake makeup, girdles, poor boy sweaters, fountain pens, the shag haircut, mini-skirts, the mod look, rumpus rooms, dickies, the stroll, library card catalogues, soda jerks, T.V. tubes, stewardesses, sideburns, Early American furniture, tiddlywinks, beauty marks, clip-on earrings, aurora borealis jewelry, Timex watches, mood lamps, the crew cut, ball and jacks game, Fizzies, etc., etc.
Of course, there are hundreds more, but these are just some of the words/phrases that I recalled from my childhood and beyond.
In case you might think that the above words and phrases are sacrosanct, in juxtaposition you might want to see a sample of some of the words/phrases currently being used by the texting Millennial Generation: Sorry not sorry; I can’t even; perf; TBH; bae; phubbing; hundo P; JOMO; the struggle is real; on fleek; dipset; P; it me; JK; V; frenemy; pimp; stacation; automagically and chillax.
I had to Google “Words Millennials use” or else I would have no clue about what they have incorporated into their word culture.
I wonder, in the era of electronic communication, whether those generations behind us will have any memories of words and phrases they so quickly exchange hour by hour from their devices. I have so many memories elicited from the words/phrases I listed above. Perhaps word and phrase memories may be lost on future generations. I don’t know. I guess time will tell. This I have learned.