I was a child in the 1950s and my father used a nonsense word whenever we pestered him and my mother when they went out in the evening.
“Where are you going, Daddy?” would elicit the serious response,
“We have to go to the hasmajakazoonfasika.” (Each letter “A” pronounced as it is in “mama,” and the word rattled off very quickly.)
When we reminisced before his death I reminded him of this and asked where he got it…sadly he did not even remember his gag which caused us so much merriment later on.
Does anyone know the source of this1950s nonsense word? Ever heard it before? It sounds like a Jimmy Durante routine or something. I used to think it was a USMC bit because to his dying day he was proud of the Corps and used USMC terms like “the head”, “field day”, “deck” for toilet, spring cleaning, and floor.
I’ve no idea where your dad got that word in the Fifties or prior. Perhaps he made it up himself? That could account for why he couldn’t remember its origin.
Now, had it been the Seventies, I would’ve guessed Big Bird’s Alphabet Song, from Sesame Street.
It’s the one where Big Bird attempts to pronounce the alphabet as one word. Its beginning sounds similar to your dad’s word, something like “ab-ca-def-hi-ju-mi-ni-nop-ri-su-wi-zyzz”.
The ending part -fasika doesn’t fit though. Anyway, wrong time zone, so no.
In a Sports Illustrated article many years ago about Ty Cobb’s last days, Cobb spoke of fooling someone as “slipping them the osfakeegus”. Maybe it was an idiolect, maybe a slang term of the 20s or 30s. Maybe your father’s term was the same.
When you leave the house in the morning, do you rebuckle your knickerbockers below the knee?
Are you starting to memorize jokes, from Cap’n Billy’s Whiz-Bang? Is there a nicotine stain on your index finger? A dime novel, hidden in the corn crib?
(A) If my Dad was asked a question needing a monetary answer: “It’s worth a dollar three-eighty.”
(B) If asked a question needing a numerical answer? “Zipdeleven.” (zip-d-eleven)
I occasionally use (A) but frequently interject (B) if I don’t have a real answer. Parents are always the best teachers. Dazzle them with brilliance but bamboozle them with bullshit.
I’m a contemporary of the OP and my dad was a one-term enlisted Marine. Dad wasn’t real big on USMCisms, but the OP’s dad’s phrase definitely wasn’t one of my dad’s.
I’m gonna bet it was something unique to the OP’s Dad.
That one was actually the subject of one of the earliest Straight Dope threads here. (I believe the board opened up March of '99, and that thread was from early April '99. As in that thread, I know the expression as “a buck three eighty” but am pretty sure I’ve also heard “a buck two fifty.” As I mention in that thread (though over a decade later), around here I often hear “couple two tree bucks” for a similar sentiment.
