Do I sound like a broken record?
Hardly a day goes by when I’m not explaining something to someone, and usually, that someone is a three-year old. We talk about language and words and why things are said the way they’re said. Lately, she’s been asking about why we say certain phrases, and it hit me. A lot of what I say is getting to be rather out-dated.
For example, I say, “hang up the phone.” Do you actually hang up your phone anymore? We don’t. In fact, the thought of what she must see in her mind’s eye is pretty funny when you think about it.
I was raised in a house where, for the longest time, we only had one phone. It was black. It was rotary, and it really did hang on our kitchen wall. It had a super long cord, and my mom could talk on that phone and go about her day, winding that curly cord around furniture and corners. As kids, we knew exactly how far that cord could stretch, and I’d be lying if I said we didn’t take full advantage of that. That is, if we weren’t under her feet fighting with our siblings or begging for her attention the instant she put the handset to her ear.
That never changes, does it?
But, at the end of her conversation, she really did hang up the phone. What do we do here? Here, we click a button and then try to remember to put the handset in the charging base…or run around frantically trying to locate the phone the next time someone calls us.
Also…how many phone numbers do you think I dial a day? Technically, none. There is no dialing involved! If I don’t have the number memorized and punch it into the keypad, I find the person’s name in my phone address book and click the little green button.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sound of dialing a real rotary dial phone. The clicking and whirrring is ingrained in my memories. A part of me is sad that Claire will never have a reference for that sound!
Or, what about “roll down your window.” Do you actually roll down the window in your car? I don’t. I press a little button on my door, and window goes up and down, as if by magic.
I remember when automatic windows were actually a “feature” of a new car. Now, it’s pretty much standard. But, try to pantomime the phrase, “Roll down your window,” and you do the rolly-motion with your hand, right? Kids like Claire will have no idea where that comes from.
Then there’s television. (Don’t even get me started about how she’ll never know what “live TV” really is. We have a DVR, so all our shows are recorded whether or not we’re home, and we can watch them whenever we please.) The TV of my childhood had no remote control. My dad would sit on the couch and make a circular motion with his fingers, and whichever kid was closest had to turn the dials: either physically turning the channel or physically turning the volume up or down.
We still turn the channel here. We still turn the volume up or down…but not really. Again, we click a button.
With all this talk of “we click a button to do this, and we click a button to do that,” I sound like a broken record. But! If broken records don’t exist anymore, I can’t sound like one, right?
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times! You make me sound like a broken record!” Believe me, Claire understands what I mean when I say that, but she really has no reference for what a broken record is. To her, music lives in our computer or in these tiny hand-held devices. With a couple clicks of the mouse or the push of a button, the music plays. Music these days doesn’t “skip.” She won’t have to gently pick up the needle and put it past the scratch on the record.
She is almost young enough that CDs aren’t even what she thinks about when we talk about music. Just the other day, she asked if we were going to “watch this one,” and she was holding a CD. Nearly every CD we have has been converted into the mp3 format, and if we do listen to a CD, I put it in my computer, usually unbeknownst to her, and it plays on our stereo system in the living room.
All of this is starting to make me feel old. Please tell me I’m not alone! What obsolete phrases or concepts do you use around your kids, and can you do so without shaking your cane at the ones on your lawn?
Well, I still have roll up windows in the back, so Heath does know what the phrase roll up/down your window really means. He has to do it a lot! I have always used (and still use) “I sound like a broken recorded,” even though I have never had to deal with a recorded player, other than to play with the broken one my parents still own. I did have to deal with rewinding cassette-tapes tape. There are so many useful ways to use a pen other than for writing! LOL! I’m sure our children will create new phrases consistent with the times! It never hurts to keep the past in the present, so we don’t forget how far we have come!
We actually have records–an entire closet full of them. I am not kidding. Top to bottom. My husband has a turntable (he’d die if you called it a record player), and he even buys new music on records. Some artists actually still release their stuff on vinyl. Can you believe it? I’ve never said it, but if I ever pull out that phrase, my boys will know what I mean.
But they’ll never know the satisfaction of taking film out of the camera and getting it developed. We just “go pick up our prints.” sigh.
Great observations for a new generation!
The other day my daughter threw a fit because I made her turn an episode of Little House on the Prairie (at least she likes something from my childhood) off in order to eat dinner. I told her that I would “tape” the episode and she would watch it later. I don’t know why, but I still say tape when I want to record something on the DVR.
At this point, she knows what I mean, but really it is ridiculous that I can’t get with it and say, “I am going to DVR it.” Heck, that will probably be outdated soon as well.
The other day I started a list of “endangered sounds” — I’ll have to add the rotary dial sound to it — I already had the busy signal (doesn’t it always go to voicemail now?) and the sound of a knife scraping the last of the mayo out of a glass jar — either the jar is plastic or it’s a squeeze bottle now!
There are lots of phrases that lose there referents, but we still use. “Getting hitched” – very few of us have hitched a horse to anything…
“That’s a real doozie” comes from the Model J Duesenberg car of the 1920s being a really impressive car – so a “duesie” is anything really cool. How many people know that? Of course, the phrase is passing out of use, too. So… maybe all our phrases will eventually fall out fashion too?
Great. I’m going to spend the rest of the day finding anachronistic sayings.
I’m SO impressed with all those you found!
Jessica, back in the day, I was an EXPERT at untangling a cassette tape! I could even “repair” a broken one! Oh, the skills we needed…
Jennifer, it’s great that your husband still has vinyls. I know Claire would be so intrigued if she ever saw them! My parents had vinyls, but I never did.
Becky, I use “tape” a lot to when I should say, “record.” It’s ingrained!!
Kagey, that’s a great list! Another sound is the sound of a modem. That screeching and whirring noise that meant we were finally connected with the outside world.
What’s funny is the new phrases that my daughter think are completely normal. For example, she’ll say, “Momma, are you tweeting this?” Ha!
Oh, Lori…they’re everywhere! We can’t escape them!
Too funny! I’m sure once I can start having conversations with my toddler, I’ll become more aware of these, but, until you pointed it out, I hadn’t even thought about how confusing it must be for a young mind! I can just hear the endless “why”‘s now that will make me stop and think how absurd some of the things we say now must sound!
So, just like Lori, I’ve already started wracking my brain trying to think of what others exist!
Typewriter. I was trying to explain typewriters to Hadley and she looked at me like I was from another planet.
Maybe I am.
Mama Bird, just you wait!
Amber, that’s true! My mom taught me how to type on a real typewriter, and then in school, I took “keyboarding.” It was one of the first years they changed the name from “typing.” How funny!
Oh! Amber, I meant that “typewriter” was a good one, not that you’re from another planet. Or maybe we’re from the same one so I don’t notice? Ha!
I really enjoyed this post. I remember sitting in a rental car we had and my daughter not knowing how to roll down the window because she has never seen a manual car window before. She had no clue what “that thing that turns” did! Hilarious!