Teenagers and old fashioned phrases

[No17CherryTreeLane]

Would the teenagers in your life know what you meant if you asked them
"Are you courting?"

Spent time with extended family over the last week and I asked my 18 year old niece this question.
She looked puzzled and then asked what I meant 😁
Before I answered, we asked her 14 year old sister if she understood the phrase, who said "Yeah of course I know. It means are you going out with anyone!" and looked at her sister in disgust 😂

Any other gems you've come up with, to be met with looks of total bafflement?
(I'm mid 50s by the way, which practically translates to being older than Methuselah!)

No, I’ve seen ‘toilet’ in old novels. Not to mention a fashion plate in a Victorian Women’s Magazine* entitled ‘a lady’s morning toilet’, I.e. what she might wear in the morning.

*’The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine’ - a GGMA had a set of bound copies of these - fascinating stuff.

I used pop for fizzy drinks all my life. When I moved north I found it was also used for still drinks like orange squash or 'dilute orange' as it was called here.

I thought it was American. I never used that expression, it was snogging.

I.live in Bolton and people call all soft drinks pop here but when i lived in Bury just a few miles away only fizzy drinks were known as pop.

Try: It’s a bit black over Bill’s Mothers!

Ah that’s my mistake then, same to the other poster who gave a similar update/correction.

👍🏻

All these comments about where the word “pop” is used and when, I feel like I’m being profiled!
I’m Yorkshire/Cheshire with parents born in 1932 so you’ve got me pretty close.

Wikipedia tells me it’s common in Scotland, the North, Midlands and South Wales. And quite identifying in the USA.

Pop isn't used in any part of Scotland I've been in. I believe in the Glasgow area it's called ginger. Where I am (NE) it's usually lemonade, regardless of the flavour or if you're in a takeaway they call it juice eg cans of juice

North East. Pop means any fizzy drink.

We mentioned ‘call for’ to our kids yesterday. As in ‘I’m going to call for Angie’, as in, go to her house, knock on the front door and see if she is in and if so, if she wants to come out to play or hang out. Obviously they have no concept of this because they just phone/text/message their friends to arrange to meet up.

Funnily enough, when I said ‘call for’, DD (who is 20) said ‘Is that like courting?’ I was surprised she knew that word but has read/watched a few period dramas and stuff set in the mid-late 20th Century so I guess she picked it up from something like that.

We came up against another one recently when it transpired that they find it hilarious that DH calls himself a ‘Gooner’, ie an Arsenal fan. Apparently ‘gooning’ now = wanking 😫😂

It was 2p when I was young, and led to the rhyme, occasionally seen as cubicle graffiti.

Here I sit, broken hearted
Paid 2p and only farted
Surrounded by the smelly vapour
Had to laugh, there was no paper

40p now seems to be the 'going rate', if you'll pardon the pun.

The copy of Heidi that I had as a child referred to Fraulein Rottenmeier 'completing her toilet' which I used to think meant she'd been to the loo 😆

Here I sit, broken hearted
Paid 2p and only farted
Surrounded by the smelly vapour
Had to laugh, there was no paper

The bog graffiti I remember was rather more coarse...

Here I sit, all broken hearted
Paid a dime and only farted.
Yesterday I took my chance;
Saved my dime but shit my pants

Yes. Like "pardon you!"

Erm, slut… my DM (born 1942) told me not to be sluttish once when I (born 1974) was about 18. I was outraged. She just meant I had a filthy room.

Not so much a phrase, but this weekend, I came across several young adults who had never heard of playing blind man’s buff, despite its many references in classic literature, as the game children often play while passing the time.

My mum told me off for sluttish behaviour when i was a teen, because I ate a slice of toast without cutting it! (We are similar eras!)

Vulgar, but “having it off” for having sex. Is this still used today? Also, I still say “Bob’s your uncle!” to which my daughter will reply, “He is, actually”. (She has an uncle Bob).

I tried to start a conversation about this a few weeks ago and was met with a table of blank faces all aged between 50 and 75.

In Derby in the 60s, we said 'scores'.

We also kept a shovel by the back door to scrape up the horse shit in the street, 'for the garden'. It was a lucky day if a cart horse left you a gift. There'd be a lot of competition to get those droppings.

That brings back memories @GeorginaWilby The cry of the rag n' bone man (there's another one) would get folks running out into the street with buckets & spades in the hope that his horse might leave some treats behind. Very good for the rhubarb.

Are you winching? 🤣

I find myself muttering "Gordon Bennett"
from time to time and the DCs have never questioned this (I think the tone of voice makes it obvious what is meant) but must admit I have no idea of the derivation.

I didn't know where "for Pete's sake"'comes from till this thread and I say that too (I'm in my 50s).

Do you think my head buttons up the back ? Meaning daft or another referring to a banana boat

"Do you have a beau?"
"Did anyone see my magazine? I left it on the Davenport."

YY to "Doing a line with..." and "Doing a steady line with..." in Ireland of yore.

Not as far west as Mayo, but that's certainly a blast from the past.