JFF - Phrases That Have Gone the Way of the Dodo....

Updated on October 23, 2012
S.R. asks from Grovetown, GA
21 answers

So, I was glancing at facebook and someone mentioned addicting someone else to Pinterest, at which point in my head, I started saying "Be kind" and finished with "Be kind, Rewind!" and realized..... that phrase has no place in our society anymore! No more Blockbuster tapes that have it on there. Likely my children won't hear that phrase (or if they do, they sure won't have a clue where it comes from!) How sad....

At any rate, what are some other phrases that don't have a use anymore that I just haven't realized yet? I'm sure there are more, and I have now prepared myself to mourn the loss of these poor idioms...

Also, I apologize if my train of thought from facebook to the phrase itself is disconnected. My brain is disconnected.

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So What Happened?

Loving these!! Although, Sue H, SNAFU still has a place in our house. My husband is military, so I have NO doubt they will hear that at some point, and eventually figure it out. :)

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♥.O.

answers from Washington DC on

One day I said to my teenager in my best valley girl voice "gag me with a credit card" (that's what my friends & always said when we were being sarcastic toward each other). My daugther said 'huh?'. I said you know instead of "gag me with a spoon". She said 'again, huh?'. I replied I'm doing a valley girl impersonation. She said 'what's a valley girl'. I said "oh, nevermind".

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A.B.

answers from Dallas on

I told my daughter that she sounded like a broken record, and she was very confused. I told her it was like the needle was stuck on the record, and well, that just made it more confusing. ARugh.

16 moms found this helpful

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T.M.

answers from Redding on

"Here's a quarter, call someone who cares."

No more phone booths.

22 moms found this helpful
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R.M.

answers from Cumberland on

Many years ago, my friend told her children , after their endless string of "mommmmmmmmmmmmmy, mommy, mommy" that they sounded like a broken record. They looked at her, absolutely baffled and asked, "What's a record?"

I also like, "He doesn't know (bleep) from shinola"!

13 moms found this helpful

N.P.

answers from San Francisco on

I was recording my kid with our digital video recorder and she got her face right in the camera and asked, "Mom, why do you keep recording me?" and I replied, "I want to get the sound of your little laugh on tape so I can watch it again when you're all grown up and don't want to play with me anymore."

She said, "I'll always play with you mom!... What's tape?"

/feelingold

Also: http://www.cracked.com/article_19109_6-things-our-kids-ju...

13 moms found this helpful

A.M.

answers from Kansas City on

i still do, and always will, dial a phone :) even though there are no dials anymore...just buttons!

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K.H.

answers from Detroit on

I catch myself telling the kids that we can tape things on the DVR. Uh, no, doesn't work that way!

I also trip myself up talking about a singer's record - no, CD - no, not that either. Album?

The funniest thing, while only loosely connected up the topic, is trying to explain to my kids what computers used to be like and that nobody had them in their homes. My dad has been a programmer since the late sixties when the computer was room sized so I was trying to explain how much they have changed. Turns out, they were picturing a giant sized laptop and you typed by jumping from key to key!

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A.V.

answers from Washington DC on

I told my sks (who do know about vinyl) that a broken record is like a skipping CD, though that is too fast going out of style.

7 moms found this helpful

L.B.

answers from Biloxi on

This makes me think of penny loafers - your know the preppy slip on shoes, leather, sometimes with a tassel but always with a little slit on the top.

When my dad was young they actually put pennies in the slits.
When I was a teen it was a dime - as that was the price of a pay phone.
When pay phones went up to a quarter, everyone stopped putting change in the slits.

But they are still called penny loafers.

Random, I know.

7 moms found this helpful

M.P.

answers from Minneapolis on

I always say "Cool Beans" my kids say "you like cold beans?" nope not really kids.

I also say, "those are the cats pajama's" my kids and anyone younger than me just look at me like crickets are chirping.

5 moms found this helpful
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S.H.

answers from St. Louis on

knee high to a grasshopper
fine as a frog hair
beep, beep (the roadrunner)
cool your tulip (x-rated)
sing like a canary
bum's rush
snafu (situation normal, all f*cked up)
two bits
that truck "dog walks"....when the frame is twisted & the rear follows offset
mopar
carburetor
whitewalls (tires)
dame, dish, doll
dick (private detective)
cheaters (eyeglasses)
hair of the dog & it'll put hair on your chest
chicken butt, 5cents a cut.....go around the corner & get yours cut
over the shoulder boulder holder
jalopy, flivver, rumbleseat
78, 33, 45 (all records)
8 track tape, cassette

& the list could go on & on! I just got a new phone....a Samsung Galaxy S3. This sucker does it all! I no longer need a camera, Ipod, laptop, nor e-reader! My phone is awesome!

4 moms found this helpful

X.O.

answers from Chicago on

These ones are still in use, but really should be modified:

"Turn on the tv" or "turn up the volume" - no one has dials on their tv anymore, so the idea of "turning" anything is kinda inaccurate

"Turn on the light" - my husband's family 1st language is Arabic, so they think it is so weird that I say "turn on" anything that doesn't have a dial. They say: "open the light."

"Roll down the window" - aside from classic cars, and if anyone has any leftover cars from the 80s, I'm pretty sure we all have power windows.

Here in IL, smoking is no longer allowed in restaurants, so it has been many years since I've walked into a restaurant and been asked "smoking, or no smoking?"

"Would you like fries with that?" - people just order value meals if they want the fries

"that's so retarded" or "that's so gay" - hopefully with more education these 2 phrases will go the way of the dodo soon!

3 moms found this helpful
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A.S.

answers from Casper on

These are two of my Dad's favorites:
Let's blow this pop stand.
Tits on a Ritz.

Just remembered- Peachy keen, jellybean. I use it all the time and get the strangest looks, especially from non-Americans.

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L.M.

answers from Cleveland on

love this post, Can't think of any off the top of my head.

Although, it sparked a memory, a disconnected one. i remember hearign the Song she's a Brick House by the commodores and asking my dad what that meant. Lol, he gave me some techinqual speech about pouring the footers in a basement or something crazy. I suppose the phrase about a Brick s#$t house would be obsolete now.

3 moms found this helpful
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R.K.

answers from Appleton on

See ya later alligator - After while crocodile ( From the very first song played on the radio and called Rock and Roll Bill Haley and the Comets 1954)

Groovy Man -- Look it up in the phone book -- The iceman cometh (ice for the ice box) -- flapjacks (pancakes)

It's a doozie ( from Duzenburg cars) Give it a whirl --- Drop me a line (write a letter)

2 moms found this helpful

M.J.

answers from Milwaukee on

We used to sing "Cant park here" to the music of MC Hammers Can't touch this

Or I remember saying NOT at the end of sentences. I like peas - not!

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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

Aieeee. I use most of these!!! (Ones already posted)

Particularly 'Tape'. Also 'Film' (as in for cameras... I call my memory card my 'film' and it drives my family nuts).

Nice gams
Drop a dime
White Only
Glass Ceiling
Stenographers Pool / StenoPool
WAV Cage
One horse town
Ice Box
IBM Compatible
Ruined Woman
Ditto (one I use all the time!)
Tuppence
League
Spinning Like a (broken record / shuttle)
Sunday Driver! (Had to explain this one, recently)
Sister suffrogate
Company Town

----------

Just heard a story lately about a parent whose 90 something year old grandfather agreed to speak in his great grand child's elementary school classroom. I'm paraphrasing a tad.

Upon arriving, he looked around the classroom with wide eyes.

"You'll have to excuse me, I haven't been in a classroom in over 80 years."

"The computers are really startling, aren't they?" The teacher agreed

"Oh no! It's the electricity. Never could have imagined having electric lights and heat in school when I was a kid!!! But here we are. Just wonderful."

Gave the teachers a lot to think about!

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S.B.

answers from Kansas City on

I still have a VHS and people are always telling me that's weird. I just don't see the need to buy everything on DVD when I have it on VHS already. :-)

That being said, my husband is always saying to our daughter to "light somewhere" or "you're like a fart on a hot skillet." Both are phrases I hate and don't know why.

2 moms found this helpful
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K.M.

answers from Houston on

Our youngest daughter came home from school one day singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy." She was surprised to find out I knew it. I went on to teach her another version, one that included him riding on a turtle so that he turned the corner just in time to see a lady's girdle. Have you ever tried to explain a girdle to a 7 year old? Or an LP? Stockings? They don't even say barrettes anymore, they're hair clips. Sometimes our kids look at us as if we're aliens. Very funny.
One of these days their children will look at them oddly when they say "Skype."
May the force be with you and nanoo-nanoo.

1 mom found this helpful
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A.T.

answers from New York on

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
Cool Beans
Gimme some skin
Hi Five, Low Five
Chidren should be seen and not heard
See ya later alligator, in a while crocodile
fine as wine (referring to a pretty woman)
lol....gosh this takes me back

1 mom found this helpful
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M.R.

answers from Seattle on

Bitchin' post!!
Totally Bitchin' became Totally Awesome

For Sure, from the 70's!

BTW, For Sure is still used up here in Canada, where all the Hippies came!

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