<p>Have any of you found that your kids are stumped when you say something that really isn’t that “old” but they haven’t heard of it because they’re from another generation?</p>
<p>I recently played the word “hatpins” (7 letters!!) in Words with Friends with my son and he said he’d never heard of that word before. </p>
<p>Another time, I was shopping with my other son and I said that I had to buy a slip…and he asked what that was. He’d never heard of a slip. lol</p>
<p>How timely! Just yesterday I asked my 18 yr old to read some cooking directions on a box (print is way too small for my aging eyes) and it referred to “butter or margarine” to which he said “what is margarine”? Wow - so scary!! And he is heading off to college in 6 months??!!<br>
It’s not necessarily and “old-fashioned” word, but perhaps less commonly used than back in the day - or maybe he is just that clueless…</p>
<p>I find that I use lots expressions that my kids have not heard before. They look at me and ask where I heard that expression. I’m old!</p>
<p>Scuttlebutt! I asked one of my kids what the scuttlebutt was about something over the Christmas break and he/she looked at me like I had two heads. My husband and I assured all three that it was a real word and that it was not a dirty word. They found it very weird so just to bug them we (my husband and I) tried to use it as often as possible over the break.</p>
<p>“You sound like a broken record”</p>
<p>They have no idea what that means</p>
<p>Quarter past, quarter of, half past the hour. All three look at me like I came from another planet.</p>
<p>When my son got an email suggesting he look up someone’s address he asked me, “What are the white pages?”</p>
<p>I said “what’s your 20?” to my daughter the other day.
She’d never heard of it. I told her it was CB slang.
She’d never heard of a CB.</p>
<p>Facsimile. My son had to provide a form via facsimile. He had no idea what that was. Better yet, since we don’t have a land line, we had to go to a UPS store to use theirs.</p>
<p>My S laughs when I use the phrase “small potatoes” to mean something of little importance. He gets it now, but says I am the only one that uses the phrase.</p>
<p>This happens with words and phrases, but also with certain historical events and personages that were a big deal at one time, but are not taught about in school.</p>
<p>For example, my sons had no idea who Charles Manson was when I mentioned him one day when they were in their late teens/early 20s.</p>
<p>Quarter of, quarter after, and half past the hour get strange looks from everyone, even our generation! I remember when I starting using my first digital clock, and how I had to visualize an analog clock each time I looked at it so I knew what time it was. I don’t know when that ended, but now I think in terms of exact minutes. So if it’s 10:13, I could never say it’s quarter past 10, yet back in the olden days, that’s what time it was.</p>
<p>Dwhite, I thought margarine was more commonly used than butter, or maybe that’s because I seemed to get served that more than I want. </p>
<p>Mom2collegekids, they still sell slips? I still have a few for those “just in case situations”, and I don’t want to get rid of them, because I thought they weren’t available anymore.</p>
<p>When I was still teaching, one of the stories we read each year referred to a record that was dropped on the floor and later in the story when someone played it, it skipped. My students never could comprehend it, so I would enjoy explaining to them what a record was, which one was my first 45, and yes, even what a record player was. Considering I played records for my students in my early years of my career (taught kindergarten), it was quite a mind boggling experience to have students at the other end of my career who didn’t know what they were.</p>
<p>mom2… you obviously don’t have a boat- then the slip would have been where you “park” it at the dock/pier, whatever (we never had a boat but I understand there are differences in when one uses each word). You rent or buy your slip for the season so you don’t have to put your boat in and take it out of the water everytime you use it.</p>
<p>We were on a vacation tour where everyone was casual- some rustic places (no A/C, TV, phone…) but had to dress up for the final dinner at a nice restaurant. I mentioned how everyone was all “gussied up” and got the comment about never hearing that phrase from some senior (over 65) citizens. It is a phrase i usually would never use but it seemed good in the situation- having been in rustic conditions a lot.</p>
<p>Kids of today might know what a record is if you refer to it as “vinyl.”</p>
<p>Just wanna drop in and say that college kids I’ve talked to know what records are 
Wouldn’t be surprised if there were plenty who didn’t, though.</p>
<p>Try asking them if they know what an 8-track tape is.</p>
<p>Area code. Some of the college app and related forms have wording along the lines of “phone number, including area code.” The first time she saw this, D yelled to me (in the kitchen) “What’s an area code?”</p>
<p>Funny thread. None come to mind at the moment, but this reminds me of how little kids take phrases so literally. A bit off topic, but when S1 was about 3 years old, I was playing catch with him in the backyard and said, “Keep your eye on the ball.” He put the ball up to his eye.</p>
<p>This seems to happen to me more and more every day.</p>
<p>I’ll have to start writing them down.</p>
<p>But here’s one I was happy about. Yesterday I had to tell a kid what polio was.</p>
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</p>
<p>[hello</a> ball.mov - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvN8BNCdeN8]hello”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvN8BNCdeN8)</p>
<p>:cool:</p>