cj Sez: STARTING NOW is your best chance to buy my ebook
collection for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their Annual
Summer/Winter Sale!
You can find my on-sale ebooks . . .
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For writers and readers
This little funny read is not my article. I borrowed it from
a Facebook post, but I admit 100% to having heard all of these and certainly
some of them came out of my mouth—in fact, one or two still do.
“Ever wonder about all of the sayings or words that seem to
be lost as we grew older? Let’s look at a few of these words…
Do you remember the word ‘Murgatroyd’? Spell checkers don’t
even recognize that word. Our computers are confused… Heavens to Murgatroyd!
The other day a not-so-old lady said something to her son
about driving a jalopy, and he looked at her quizzically and said “What the
heck is a jalopy?” He never heard of the word jalopy!! She knew she was old …
but not that old.
Some old expressions that have become obsolete because of
the march of technology. They include phrases such as “Don’t touch that dial,” “Carbon
copy,” “You sound like a broken record” and “Hung out to dry.”
Remember when we had lots of ‘moxie’ and we’d put on our
best ‘bib and tucker’ to ‘straighten up and fly right’?
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!
Way back, 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 have vanished.
Poof...go the words of our youth. The words have been left
behind. We blink, and they’re gone.
Long gone are words and phrases like: 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 seems that there are more of these lost words and
expressions than Carter has liver pills. This is disturbing!
We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable
times. For a child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy that has no age.
We at the other end of the chronological arc have the
advantage of remembering there are words that once did not exist and there were
words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no
more, except in our collective memory. It’s one of the greatest advantages of
aging.
We are left to wonder where Superman will find a phone
booth… But just consider that no one will ever have the opportunity again for
such a great change in wording and phrases. We, at least most of us, are
children of the fabulous 50’s. We have been given one of life’s most precious
gifts…our memories…
I still call the fridge an ice-box from time to time. That’s
what mama called it, so that’s what I call it.
The lost Words from our childhood are gone as fast as the
buggy whip! Sad really! Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and
chuckle.
See ya later, alligator! Okey-Dokey… God bless you all.”
§§
Do commercials rush the season or what?
I saw this Facebook
ad, complete with photos, on June 25, 2026:
“No matter your space or style, there’s a Balsam Hill tree
made just for you. From grand living rooms to cozy corners, find the perfect
fit and make every room a little more magical this Christmas.”
This post is by author and book coach Miranda Keskes.
Keskes writes that she had a client who “wondered, should
she write chronologically and leave the break-up for the novel’s end? An
excellent question, and one I answered with another question, “What emotional
experience do you want your reader to have?”
How about you, Lyrical Pens writer? What do you want your reader to
experience?
§§
“We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the
minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will
know our content.” ― Émile Zola
§§
That’s it for this month’s post. You-all guys keep on
keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.
cj
My paperback books are available through your favorite
bookstore and Amazon (stop by my Amazon author page for a listing: Amazon Central Author Page )
Just a reminder: Lyrical Pens blog for readers and writers
is a monthly issue, kind of like a newsletter. I’m aiming for the first of the month,
whatever day that is, so watch for it please. That said, thank you for stopping
by Lyrical Pens today. I really do appreciate every one of my visitors. Drop me
a comment or a question, and we’ll talk.
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