...to think that this expresson is dying out?

[WalkDontWalk]

On another thread someone used the expression 'taking the mick'. And I thought, 'I used to hear that all the time when I was a kid. But I rarely do now.'

So I started to think of others that my dad used but my kids don't.

'Having a kip' or 'I was akip'.

'Yikes' (My daughter says I'm the only non-cartoon that says 'yikes'.)

'Swinging the lead'

'Bunking off'. (Daughter: 'Never heard that. Sounds rude')

'Going Dutch' (Daughter. 'Nope. No idea. Is that rude too?')

'Haven't the foggiest.'

These were all in use in London fifty years ago. Maybe they were always regional.

The barn door is open - flies undone
when asked the time - freckle past a spot
cat’s out of the bag

i think many idioms are lost on my kids.

There was no 60s or 70s cricketer called Gordon Bennett. I would have heard of him if there were. They were the decades of my childhood & teenage years & I was raised in a cricket-mad household.

How about the expression, “A load of old cobblers”? I haven’t heard that for a while.

My mother's reply if someone asked if she had the time was yes have you got the energy. She was very straight-laced and I swear she didn't get what she was saying.

The rude and childish answer to that was "Time you bought a watch", used by us as children, not by adults.

I say Jimmy Riddle all the time.

When I was a teenager it was "Have you got the time" ..... "Have you got the money"?

These are all lovely expressions. It is our duty to keep them going!

I remember a while ago on MN - I think it was on the Meghan&Harry threads, someone using the phrase “no room to swing a cat” and an irate poster accusing them of advocating animal cruelty. These literal people walk among us…

Nope. Irish and use it all the time. I'm speaking for my people.

I say "Babies'n'Bonnets" to my DC which they know means "This won't buy the baby a new bonnet"

"Go and see a man about a dug (dog he was Glaswegian) "

I never understood that one .

I went out to secure the trampoline/furniture in the garden pre storm Amy and said to my son I was going to ‘Batten down the hatches’ and he thought that was a hilarious thing to say.

I distinctly remember my parents saying "Gordon Bennett" and I am pretty sure it was from this...

Google Wikipedia.

It was Chinny Reckon! To imply you weren’t being truthful.

So Will is a southerner and Bill a Midlander 😀

The other strange one I remember is from the Black Country. Lower Gornal 'where they put the pig on the wall to watch the band go by'.

Sweet Fanny Adams, meaning Fuck All
Bob’s your uncle
Theres nowt as queer as folk
till the cows come home

I say so many of these, not even ironically. It is only since my kids could question what I was saying that I realised how many. Favourites are haven’t the foggiest, I’ll be there in two shakes of a donkeys tail, Gordon Bennett - my kids say this too - flaming Nora (Nora for short).

Although “yikes” only occasionally and ironically, a la Scooby-Do.

Racing to be the first to put your foot on a discarded Woodbines cigarette packet and say '"Willy Willy Woodbine, bring me good luck". A children's thing rather than an adult superstition, perhaps. It had to be Woodbines, not any other brand, goodness knows why.

There’s many a slip t’wixt cup and lip - lots of chances for something to go wrong
gone for a burton- disappeared
spend a penny - go for a wee
Charlie’s dead - underskirt showing
cozzy - swimsuit
plaggy bag - plastic bag
croggy- ride on handlebars of someone s bike!

I use all those and more. DD (22) loves learning new slang and idioms from me and she puts them into practice

Love this thread… it’s taking me down memory lane and reminding me of various relatives 😊

We still say Ta Ta for goodbye in our family, Yorkshire and Lancashire roots. I've always found it charming.

Crikey!

We were off out to a restaurant the other night and I told my son to get his glad rags on, he looked at me as if I'd lost the plot

Our version was "time you bought a watch and got pregnant so we can all have one"
I know, makes no sense, but...

Ta ra here (Merseyside).