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Funny old sayings that give away (y)our age

(131 Posts)
Grannyknot Tue 11-Sept-12 22:53:21

I said at work today 'I doff my hat to you' and my colleague looked at me blankly. I also recently said 'photo-stat machine' till a young colleague said 'Why do you say that, instead of photocopier?' (blush). I wondered why myself, and then remembered about roneo-stat machines, but decided against trying to explain to a 23 year old. No wonder DD sometimes says to me "How do you still fool them at work, woman?" grin

Littlenellie Thu 13-Sept-12 08:05:27

And do you remember the really thick fog that used to come from the coal fires before the smokeless fuel was used we used to them peasoupers...

Ella46 Thu 13-Sept-12 08:17:52

Yes, nellie, I remember the Peasoupers. I loved them when I was still at school as they would send us home early, but when I was working in Manchester, the buses and trains stopped and I had to walk miles home!

Bez Thu 13-Sept-12 08:18:19

Those smogs around the greater London area tasted awful and made everything so filthy. Even worse if there was frost too - my father and a couple of friends travelled to work together in one car and took it in turns to walk in front of the car with a torch! I also remember him making mixtures he heard about to stop the windscreen freezing over.
At school those of us that had a long journey home were on a list and this list would come round and your name read out with the instruction to go home now! Of course we met up with everyone else living in our area so could walk to the bus station together as that was quicker than using the trolley bus to get there for our various buses home.

vampirequeen Thu 13-Sept-12 08:20:58

I say 'he's not the shinest button in the box'.

I told my children they'd only get a bag of cinders from Father Christmas if they were naughty.....that went way over their heads.

Littlenellie Thu 13-Sept-12 08:24:22

I remember getting let out of school early,I was about 6,part of my journey home was getting past a double set of level crossing gates that although controlled by a man with levers,would swing at you and start closing without warning ...think he was a sadistic old s*d...was always terrified I would get trapped and a train would mow me down...still dream about them now sometimes...no 'elf and safety in them days..

Littlenellie Thu 13-Sept-12 08:32:41

My dad had a motor bike and side car...before we went up market and got a Robin Reliant....when I got to about 12 I was allowed to ride pillion to give enough room to my mum and little brother,( thinking of that scene in "on The buses" when Olive in the sidecar parts company with her the old man driving the bike...when asked dad would say oh yes I have a BSA dubblerdolt motor bike it wasn't until many years later I found out a dubblerdolt motorbike and sidecar was in fact a double adult grin that flipping reliant robin ended up catching alight from the floorboards but that is another story altogether grin grin

Bags Thu 13-Sept-12 08:40:06

anno, my Dundonian mother-in-law's posh aunt infused tea too. We just used to mek it.

Bags Thu 13-Sept-12 08:41:12

"Not the full shilling" of someone about whom it is now said "one sandwich short of a picnic."

whenim64 Thu 13-Sept-12 08:45:00

I remember walking the four miles home from work, having been allowed to leave at 3pm because of pea souper fog in the 60s. There was no transport. I didn't see a soul, and it was eerily quiet. I had to retrace my steps several times when I missed turnings, and to this day I still don't know how I got home in one piece.

Ella46 Thu 13-Sept-12 09:12:50

Then when, when you got home you had a smoggy face with smudges around your nose!

Oldgreymare Thu 13-Sept-12 09:13:14

Last night's post lost so backtracking!
My Mum had aspirations to be middle class so said plimsols as we did until we started school then they were pumps.
She also said : 'Don't stare, Mrs........ is not all there'. That meant we stared all the more to see which bits were missing!

Littlenellie Thu 13-Sept-12 09:19:36

ella used to tie a scarf around my face which was soaking wet by the time you got home...mum wanted me to wear a balaclava,which I refused ,I realised when she wanted me to wear it through the summer too,that she did have a problem with me being an ugly child,and the peasoupers was a good excuse to keep me undercover grin

absentgrana Thu 13-Sept-12 11:44:24

The peasoupers in London were also known as London particulars. Then, going full circle, someone invented a recipe called London Particular which is a pea soup with pig's trotters.

soop Thu 13-Sept-12 11:51:51

Smog! I was at school in early 60s when the town was enveloped in thick yellow-tinged smog. Traffic stopped. We girls had to walk about 4 miles home. I remember how quiet, and eerie, and other-worldly the town seemed. hmm

feetlebaum Thu 13-Sept-12 12:38:10

The Big Smog was in the early Fifties - '52 I think. It lasted for a week - and thousands died as a result of it...

An expression of my mother's that I liked - of someone who would be shocked by something - 'Ooh! She'll have a pink fit with her leg up...'

soop Thu 13-Sept-12 12:40:40

feetlebaum You are right. I was wrong. It was 1952-ish.

trendygran Sat 15-Sept-12 17:33:02

I grew up in Yorkshire and never heard of 'sandshoes' as a child . We always called them 'pumps ' or P.E. shoes.

vampirequeen Sat 15-Sept-12 21:10:14

Yorkshire is a big county....probably cos it's God's own... and language seems to have developed differently depending on where you live. I'm from East Yorkshire lass married to a West Yorkshire lad (a Wessie) and sometimes we seem to speak different languages. For example he calls a breadcake a teacake which is odd because to me a teacake is sweeter and has raisins in it.

I show my age when I talk about baps. These are small breadcakes to me but apparently the word has a whole different meaning more in line with the Kate topless issue smile

Sook Sat 15-Sept-12 22:04:43

My mum and nan called knickers drawers.

Our small entrance hall was called a lobby. Where I live now lobby means a pan of stew.

A jigger was an alleyway between back to back houses, also referred to as an entry.

Anagram Sat 15-Sept-12 22:06:22

That's a ginnel! grin

Elegran Sat 15-Sept-12 22:08:25

You must have been watching QI, sook. Stephen Fry had sveral dozen meanings for jigger, some of them very odd.

Sook Sat 15-Sept-12 22:18:02

Elegran I didn't watch QI will google jigger though just for interest.

Anagram There is a row of terraced houses in Port Sunlight Village (Wirral) named The Ginnel.

annodomini Sat 15-Sept-12 22:33:44

A jigger in East Africa was an insect that burrowed into one's toes!

Joan Sat 15-Sept-12 23:07:46

Elegran said.

"Stephen Fry had sveral dozen meanings for jigger, some of them very odd."

My husband was a sailor back in the dim mists of time. He remembers walking through Singapore when a young lad came up to him and said 'Jigger jig my sister mister, only half a crown" He told the lad to bugger off, but later wished he'd given him the money to give his sister a break.

Elegran Sun 16-Sept-12 08:32:59

Jiggery-pokery? Well, I'll be jiggered!

I wish now I had noted them all down. Will see if it is on I-Player.