Recently, we were chatting over dinner about an upcoming sports match. My brother said, “I’m gong to have to tape it, I’m going to be out.” The 14 year old at the table piped up and said, “what are you talking about – I thought it’s in England?”
To ‘tape’ something for her is baffling. We had a bit of a giggle about it, after we worked out the confusion – she was not even a twinkle in the eye at the time of ‘tape,’ and thus thought us oldies had gone a bit mad. Even once we explained how video recorders read tape, she really thought it sounded like the work of dinosaurs.
It led me to hunt out some other phrases which today’s children may not understand.
Telephones: We used to ‘hang them up.’ When phones had an earpiece connected via a cord, to end the call, you had to replace it in the cradle. It was actually rather satisfying to slam the phone down at the end of a difficult phone call, rather than just pressing a button. You also couldn’t ‘pocket dial’!
Shopkeepers: They used to ‘ring up’ a purchase on a cash register (cha-ching!), but now many stores use tablets, or simply scan codes. It’s not quite the same.
Documents: If you receive email, the ‘cc’ field actually stands for ‘carbon copy’ – remember the paper which blackened your fingers in a typewriter? It used to be the height of efficiency, and the only way to get an immediate copy of a document (this was before photocopiers and faxes too).
Car windows: Who ‘rolls down’ a car window anymore? Kids press a button in the car to adjust their seat and open the window – but in days gone by, we used to have to manually crank down the window using a handle. They were a bit cumbersome and sometimes got stuck.
Rewinding: Back to the tape – we used to be able to rewind through a song or television show on a audio or video cassette – that is long gone – as is the tape getting stuck in a player and having to put a pencil into the cassette and re-spool it.
Turning a device off: Televisions, radios etc used to have a dial or button which needed to be ‘turned off.’ Now we simply press the power or swipe to wake up.
What others do you recall? Please comment below!
Hilda JEAN - 7 years ago
The lost phrase that I grew up with, and still think about it even today, is my mother telling me to “rise the ashes” (i.e. clean the grate out). I used to love that job!