The following is not a story as such, but every now and then, I throw in some interesting tidbits from the far reaches of my muddled mind. My mind has been very busy lately. I know this because lately every time I try to think, I get a busy signal.

 

When I was in High School and had English classes with "Ma" Purcell", one term always eluded me in the English textbooks. This was the term "usage" as germane to English. It obviously referred to the use of proper words in writing and oral "use", hence the term "usage". Why this never occurred to me then is totally a mystery to me! I'm sure at the time I had other things on my mind other than "usage".  I have had a life long interest and study is using certain words and phrases, especially those used in the past. I have often tried to make some of those old words and phrases to be used by others in the present vernacular. So far, I have always been unsuccessful in this undertaking, but nevertheless, I continue to use some of the past ones in hopes they will catch on with others. This coincides with my other vain linguistic quests in earlier years to learn 4 foreign languages, which was always difficult for me due to my weakness in this area. Now, I only remember enough French to get my faced slapped by any respectable French lady J  Bonjour belle moi lettre se frequenter. Hmmm, it's all coming back to me now…  Even though we had to learn German in graduate school in order to read the old German theology books, likewise, I remember just enough German to also get my face slapped by any respectable frau. Mein kennug es gibt Mikro. Knast dich vorgelesen der anfrage. Well, I guess I do remember more than I thought. Forget about the other 2 because neither of which are spoken in these modern times. (Classical Greek and Ancient Hebrew). The cruel irony of all this is that I'm much more proficient in the above-mentioned unspoken languages than I am in French and German! At least if I would have studied Spanish and was proficient in that, I could have been a translator or something. In retirement, I could make a tidy sum from any truck and fruit farm around here.  Podrido nueva. It sure beats trying to make any money with farming or raising horses. Oh well, even though I never mastered foreign languages, I have many gifts and talents in many other fields, and if I ever find any one of them, I'll let you know.

 

Since I don't care for 99.09% of the "movies" made these days, I find myself, when I do watch TV, which isn't that often, that I am attracted to Turner Classic Movies. I love those old 1930 – 50's movies that were made without the phony computer-generated special effects used these days on every movie that makes them look like Saturday morning cartoons. I prefer to use my imagination, which is far better and graphic than any of the trendy computer generated phony effects. Back in the 40's and 50's movies were called "pictures" and I'm always fascinated and amused by the words and phrases that were in universal usage back in the 1920's to the 1950's, but are rarely if ever used these days, some of which I've tried to resurrect to use these days.

 

Well, all right, I now shall list some of the terms and words used back then and some of which I have been using in the present in hope they would catch on in the present "usage". The first is "Swell". If you have noticed, I use this term a lot in my stories, and for that matter, in my oral speech as well. Sadly, after years if saying it, it has yet to catch on in today's speech. Some of the other past words used in old movies that are not in use today are as follows:

 

"You'd better play ball with me". "Do you have any dough"? It's amusing to me that westerns written in the 1950's use "dough" for money when it was never called that in the old west times. "No, you don't understand". The word "ill" when referring to someone who is sick. "You'd better watch out or I'm going to get sore" (i.e. mad). The use of seltzer bottles. The only use I ever saw for these in pictures and cartoons was to squirt people in the face. Clarabelle the clown made the most prolific use of these on Howdy Doody.

 

Words and phrases in use that were unique to the westerns made mainly in the 1940' and 50's consist of the following:

Guys used to throw a shot glass full of whiskey in someone's face to start a gunfight. In addition, in the old westerns, guys that were in the desert would run out of water and say, It's empty and throw the empty canteen away, usually by throwing it to the ground. I've always wondered why they did this. What if they would eventually find a water hole? They would have nothing to fill with water for the rest of the journey! Another thing you don't see in modern westerns is that when someone is out of ammunition, they throw their empty pistol at the other guy. If someone were scared they would say, "You're yellow" (Usually pronounced, "Yellah". When greeting someone they would say, "Howdy". When accosting someone with a pistol they would say, "Reach!" rather than "put your hands up", or the present "FREEZE"!

 

In non-westerns they would say, "Are you sure?" --- "Sure I'm sure"! "What is this, a gag"? Have a drink (liquor). Alright you mugs (Used mainly by Edward G. Robinson). I must go at once! (I used to use this at the office and it caught on briefly with some people). The use of "Say" especially before a question, i.e., "Say", what are you going to do about this? "Make Love" (In those days it referred to kissing and not what it came to mean in the 1960's). When something cost a thousand dollars, they would say, "It's gonna cost you a grand". When someone confessed to a crime, it was "sing", i.e., "You'd better sing or we'll rough you up!" When someone wanted to know what someone was getting at, they would ask, "What are you driving at?" One interesting phenomena was that when someone was on the phone, or telephone as they called it, when they were cut off, the caller would repeatedly click the phone button. The answer to this riddle is that sometimes they would say, "Operator Operator, I've been cut off"! This may be one clue that in those days if one clicked the phone button on and off a few times, that the operator would come on the line. I'm not sure of this, but it's feasible. Speaking of phone "usage", in the old movies did you ever notice that when they were finished speaking on the phone, they rarely said "Good Bye", but merely hung up when they were finished speaking. Now days, if we did this, the other party would no doubt think we were "sore" at them. When some guy would want to ask a stranger a question he would start with "Hey, Mack…"

 

In contemporary times, I have used my own unique phrases. For example, "OK Fine!" (This caught on briefly at the office). "I'm nerveval" (The state of nervousness). I trust (hope) you did such and such… Unfortunately, none of these have caught on in universal contemporary usage yet. Oh well, I will continue to persevere on not be discouraged.

 

As an interesting footnote, my twin brother Tim claims when he was a Navy recruiter he coined the term "Waffled" in referring to someone backing out of something, i.e., "He waffled out". I've heard this used in contemporary speech, even in televised sporting events. If this is factual, then I'm envious that he had this kind of universal success when I have tried this kind of thing all my life without significant success! Oh well, I'll just keep persevering and see what happens. Now I must go at once!