Years ago, my wife, Janice, and I took in our three nephews while their mother recovered from a car accident. They’re in their 20s and early 30s now but all were under school age when we had them.
I told the 3-year-old to sit on the hassock so I could tie his shoes. “What’s that? My butt?” I realized that many of the common words that were used by our pre-Boomer parents were part of a different language.
When we visited my grandmother, she told us to hang our coats in the chifferobe and have a seat on the davenport. You scrubbed pans with a “chore boy” and canned foods were kept in the basement in the fruit bin, usually a room that was converted into a pantry that used to store coal.
We drank out of garden hoses, babies sat on their mom’s lap during car rides with no seat belts and we ran around with sparklers on the Fourth of July. If the weather was “close” (humid) you suffered through it because who had air conditioning? And that brings me to modern conveniences.
Say What?
I made the mistake of mentioning to a classroom of college kids that where I live, we aren’t allowed to hang clothes outside. “Why would you do that? Is your dryer broke?” No, they smell better!
Mistake number two: I mentioned that a lot of old houses had home incinerators in the basement. “Wait a minute! You burned trash in your house? You built a fire in your basement!?” No, it was a controlled fire in a container. The concept was foreign to them.
Then there was the party line. “You’d have a party on the phone? Why don’t you just invite them over?” This comes from a generation that has never actually dialed a phone or has heard a dial tone.
Boomers were the generation that could smoke in college classrooms. At some high schools, the seniors had a special room to light up. If someone gave you a hard time, you “pasted them in the mouth.” Football players wore a lot less equipment. They also had shorter life spans but who knew back then? I tried to explain fountain pens, trading stamps, paper drives and eight-track tapes. They looked at me like I was from another planet. I was able to adequately describe the concept of CB (citizen band) radios, people using a medium to rattle on about nothing in their boring lives. Now it’s called Facebook.
Ready, Set, Shop!
The holiday season used to start the day after Thanksgiving, but now it’s the day after Halloween when Christmas carols take over the radio. Back then, you went to Nela Park to see the elaborate light displays, Halle’s seventh floor to get a paper key from Mr. Jingeling, there was one of Santa’s “helpers” at every department store (usually stinking from a Chesterfield King) and then to Higbee’s Silver Grille where kids’ lunches were served in a little stove. Now you take your pets to get a photo with Santa.
Boomer Trivia: Last issue, I asked what was Ozzie Nelson’s occupation on TV’s “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”? He was always home! Well, Ozzie was a retired bandleader who married his lead singer, Harriet Hilliard. You mention an Ozzie that led a band now and they think it’s the guy who bit the head off the bat.
For next time: This Prospect Avenue bookstore had three floors and was famous for having books stacked everywhere, but the proprietors knew exactly where to find everything. Name the store.
