Community Chat

[Anonymous032819]

---

@candyagain wrote:

What a wonderful thread! My grandparents used many of the words listed here. As I read the posts I could see each of them and their kitchen when reading the replies.

My grandmother always pronounced the letter "H" as "Haitch" (hay-ch). Her parents were from England she said and that's how she was taught. My grandfather shoveled coal from the coal bin in the basement into the boiler to heat the house. There was a hatch that the coal delivery was dumped into from the truck outside into the wooden coal bin. They cooked on a cast iron stove until my uncles bought them a new electric one.

There was a closet on the first floor landing with an early toilet...the tank and pull to flush were on the wall above. The old double outhouse was in the backyard. Both were out of use.

There was a silver container with a pop up lid that always contained dark molasses on the kitchen table. There was an old icebox in the kitchen that they used for cereal and cracker storage as they had a new Frigidaire. My Papa would take a slice of bread, pour the molasses on it and that was a treat! He also made us "French pap". It was torn up white bread sprinkeld with granulated sugar that he poured warm mik over. I remember it was great.

---

@candyagain 

I've seen pictures of those

[sunala]

---

@froggy wrote:

---

@candys mine wrote:

Got another one.  When I was a kid "Thongs" were todays "Flip Flops".  The Looks I Get these days when I slip up!

---

I lived on Guam for 4 years as a kid. We called them zories and it took me a long time to even call them thongs. Even longer to change to flip flops!

---

@froggy  - In Brooklyn they were called "zories" too. Matter of fact, John's Bargain Store (yesterday's dollar stores) sold them as  "Zories, 2 pair for a Dollar!"

[chiclets]

---

@sunala wrote:

---

@froggy wrote:

---

@candys mine wrote:

Got another one.  When I was a kid "Thongs" were todays "Flip Flops".  The Looks I Get these days when I slip up!

---

I lived on Guam for 4 years as a kid. We called them zories and it took me a long time to even call them thongs. Even longer to change to flip flops!

---

@froggy  - In Brooklyn they were called "zories" too. Matter of fact, John's Bargain Store (yesterday's dollar stores) sold them as  "Zories, 2 pair for a Dollar!"

---

@sunala 

Oy....I used to go to John's Bargain Store on Church Avenue off Utica Avenue.

[1Snickers]

@Carmie  Amscray is pig Latin for scram. My Mother could speak pig Latin but I never understood it! I think the a and y were added and you can see scram (go away) with the m in front.

[Shorty2U]

My dads parents spoke Italian all the time. (As well as English of course) So did my dad and his siblings. I used to know how to talk Italian too but forgot most of it since they are all deceased now,. I can decipher some of it yet.

My moms step mom (My moms parents both died very young from heart disease as did my mom) spoke Pennsylvania Dutch at times when I was a kid when she didn't want us kids to know what she was saying to my mom (lol) I never picked that up. I maybe know a few words, not many! PA Dutch is slowly dying around here in PA as people are getting old and younger ones don't keep up with it! 

[PocoLoco]

My inlaws from Pennsylvania called a closet a "clothes press".  

[Pook]

My slovak grandmother used to  call underpants "gutchies".  I forgot about that one.

[candyagain]

---

@Anonymous032819 wrote:

---

@candyagain wrote:

What a wonderful thread! My grandparents used many of the words listed here. As I read the posts I could see each of them and their kitchen when reading the replies.

My grandmother always pronounced the letter "H" as "Haitch" (hay-ch). Her parents were from England she said and that's how she was taught. My grandfather shoveled coal from the coal bin in the basement into the boiler to heat the house. There was a hatch that the coal delivery was dumped into from the truck outside into the wooden coal bin. They cooked on a cast iron stove until my uncles bought them a new electric one.

There was a closet on the first floor landing with an early toilet...the tank and pull to flush were on the wall above. The old double outhouse was in the backyard. Both were out of use.

There was a silver container with a pop up lid that always contained dark molasses on the kitchen table. There was an old icebox in the kitchen that they used for cereal and cracker storage as they had a new Frigidaire. My Papa would take a slice of bread, pour the molasses on it and that was a treat! He also made us "French pap". It was torn up white bread sprinkeld with granulated sugar that he poured warm mik over. I remember it was great.

---

@candyagain 

I've seen pictures of those

---

Yes, exactly!! The same design but no where near as luxurious at all in my grandparents' house! The plain porcelain "commode" was in a closet the size of a modern day bathroom stall. The door had a rectangular frosted glass window. And the closet was situated in an unheated stairwell in front of the side door from the backyard. BUT what an improvement to going into the two-stall wooden outhouse outside in the backyard!!

I also had a slop bowl and pitcher of my grandmother's. They washed up in those as there were no upstairs sinks when she was a child. There was also a bowl that went under the bed that I assume they used at night when going outside to the outhouse wasn't feasible. They were emptied out in the morning.

One of my favorite stories is when a woman born in the late 1800's was asked by a reporter what she saw as the greatest modern invention. He expected her to say the aiplane or the telephone electricity etc. She replied "indoor plumbing".

[kivah]

@CRAZYCATLADY 

Sounds like they were from NEW YAWK. We lived in a small apartment in Brooklyn - everyone still calls a purse a "pocketbook." As kids, we used to play stoop ball (threw a spaulding against the edges of the steps). Across the street a few families owned 2-story houses - where they lived upstairs and rented out the rooms downstairs. When I arrived in California many years ago - I started using "purse."

[kismet]

my mother called underpants that too only I thought it was spelled "gotchies".  Also I used the word "youse" until I got my first job and my boss told me there is no such word.  Well there was in my town.