Columnists
Do you remember fender skirts?
By David Hall
Jan 25, 2020

Nowadays there are fewer and fewer people around that are familiar with the automobile term fender skirts, years ago that was a very recognizable term. For those of you that don't know fender skirts are covers that went over the rear wheel wells just in front of the hubcaps. In fact hubcaps are becoming less and less commonplace as many cars now have special wheels which no longer require hubcaps.

We no longer hear about curb feelers or steering knobs any more, either. The terms rumble seats and running boards go back even farther than the first four automobile terms I mentioned.

Continental kits contained the spare tire and extended over the rear bumper, that made the car look "cool" like a Lincoln Continental. Accelerator pedals used to be called foot feeds, if you asked someone nowadays to step on the foot feed most would have no idea as to what you meant. In fact I had a 1967 Chevy II Nova that had a special accelerator pedal that clamped over the regular gas pedal which looked like a foot. Whoever thought that product up probably got the idea from the term "foot feed." Back then lots of young people were looking for all kinds of accessories that would make their car totally unique and my "foot feed" accelerator pedal was definitely different.

You also don't often hear people saying roll up the window; years ago roll up windows in cars were pretty much standard, but today power windows are pretty much standard and the old-fashioned roll-up windows are just available on a few cars.

Outdated phrases are not just limited to car terms, they pertain to many different things. I imagine there are many phrases that are common today that may show up on the "outdated phrases" list in the next fifty years or so. How many of the phrases below have you heard:

Burning the midnight oil - Many students do this as they stay up late studying for a test.

Busy as a one armed paper hanger - Just think about it, that would be pretty hectic.

Carhops - Food servers at restaurants where people eat in their car.

Close but no cigar - That means usually in a contest you almost won but didn't.

Dial the phone - Before home phones had buttons and you actually dialed the number.

Drive ins - 

movie theaters - Where you watched the movie from inside your car, many of those theaters used to feature carload nights for a special price one or two nights a week.

restaurants - You eat in your car and food is brought to you by carhops, Keller's on Northwest Highway in Dallas is still serving those great burgers just like they have been doing for over fifty years.

Get off your high horse - Usually this means for someone to get their attitude better.

Hold your horses - Slow down and take it easy, don't be in such a hurry.

Jumping on the bandwagon - Usually something a lot of people are doing and many people are also getting in on it.

Like a broken record - This is said when people are repeating something. When many records were made out of vinyl some would develop a skip which caused the song to repeat and repeat and repeat.                                          .

Mad as a hatter -  This expression dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries in France and Engand where mercury was used in the making of felt hats. it often caused nervous symptoms and tremors in the workers which caused them to appear mad.

Penny loafers - In 1934 G. H. Bass Company made the first version of the shoe known as the penny loafer, they were called Weejun's. G. H. Bass has been in business since 1876 in Wilton, Maine and still sells those shoes today. They were called penny loafers because a penny could be inserted in the leather strip across the front of the shoe.

Poodle skirts - A skirt popular in the 50s that had a poodle featured on the front of it.

Sock hops - School dances that were usually held in school gyms, so as not to scar up the wooden floor students often took off their shoes and danced in their socks.

Take it with a grain of salt - Don't believe what someone says to be entirely correct, accept it but don't take it really seriously. It may come from the idea that a lot of food tastes better with a little bit of salt.                      

If you have any comments or questions my e-mail address is deh63shs@yahoo.com.