# "Old-personisms" that have sneakily snuck into your habits or vocabulary **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111 "2023-01-12T16:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/181 "2024-01-16T21:03:40Z")
That one’s kind of like saying something is “taped” when it’s all digital these days. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/182 "2024-01-17T15:28:26Z")
I don’t listen to music like I used to. As a kid I had all of the popular albums and 45s. I always listened to the radio in the car or CDs. We would lug around a boom box with our collection of cassette tapes. I joined the Columbia record club numerous times buying albums and then CDs. Now I listen to podcasts or audible books in the car. I haven’t played a record, album, cassette, or CD in years. I have a playlist on Spotify (used to have an awesome one on Prime until they changed their policy) which I listen to occasionally. But music is not really a part of my every day life anymore. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/183 "2024-01-17T15:39:01Z")
I wish I had a radio. I used to go to sleep every night to music. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/184 "2024-01-17T16:20:57Z")
I have to be careful when referring to a public phone booth as a metaphor\* as to size. Below a certain age, it just won’t “land”. - “_That fighter plane was so maneuverable it could fly around inside a phone booth_”. “_The rents there are so high, you’d pay 2000 dollars a month for a phone booth_” ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/185 "2024-01-17T16:33:41Z")
And that’s a pretty high age - I’m 60 and barely remember phone booths. Payphones were still around until fairly recently but kiosks started replacing booths in the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/186 "2024-01-17T17:09:29Z")
That may be a matter of local climate, but I sure agree w you as to SoCal where I grew up. When I started driving in 1974 almost all the true booths were already gone and a payphone was just in a little kiosk sort of thing: the armored phone itself, a tiny shelf, a storage slot for a phone book (now there’s an anachronism!), a 2’x2’ roof, and tapered “privacy” walls of thick but heavily graffitied plexiglass from belly level on up to the little roof thingy. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/187 "2024-01-17T17:29:09Z")
Coming up on 63 here. My old-personisms include: - referring to something as “back in the day” with alarming frequency. - constantly complaining that “they keep changing everything”. - related to the above, complaining that nobody sells (item) anymore. We could have a thread about obsolescence alone, like “I can hardly find carbide pellets for my miner’s lamp anymore”. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/188 "2024-01-17T17:30:56Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When I started driving in 1974 almost all the true booths were already gone When I was in college in the 80s, some of the older buildings still had elaborate indoor phone booth areas with doors that sealed tight, and even little benches to sit and relax while talking. Since I lived in a house off-campus with several other students, and had no privacy with the one public phone in a common area, I had scoped out all the private booths in the various campus buildings so I could talk at length with girlfriends without other students ribbing me or saying obscene things in the background while I talked to them. I spent many private hours talking in my little secret phone booth hideaways. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/189 "2024-01-17T17:46:17Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I just now realized that _ **‘smart as a whip’ is a pun** _. I guess everyone knew this but me. I Well, I didn’t know!! (Could someone 'splain, plz?) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/190 "2024-01-17T18:11:01Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > But the result is that i dont have a firm idea of what things “ought” to cost, unless i bought them last week and noticed. There was too much flux in my formative years. So i don’t do this. Ditto, with one major exception: I have the nagging feeling that a 12-oz can of soda “should” cost about 50 cents to $1 at most. When a restaurant sells me a can of soda (or those old-school little glass Coke bottles I see only in higher-end restaurants 🤨 ) for $2-4 I feel ripped off. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/191 "2024-01-17T18:12:20Z")
I never realized this until you pointed it out. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/192 "2024-01-17T18:12:52Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > And that’s a pretty high age - I’m 60 and barely remember phone booths. Payphones were still around until fairly recently but kiosks started replacing booths in the 70s. I’m 68 and remember the booths well. It’s sad that I now can’t teach kids how to use one to open a pop (or beer) bottle. Of course, most of those are twist-top mow. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Well, I didn’t know!! > > (Could someone 'splain, plz?) If you get hit with a whip - it smarts! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/193 "2024-01-17T18:14:41Z")
> [@solost](#): > > When I was in college in the 80s, some of the older buildings still had elaborate indoor phone booth areas with doors that sealed tight, and even little benches to sit and relax while talking. I remember seeing these literally once in my life during the pay phone era. Oddly enough when my company created their new building, they recreated these except without an actual phone, and clear glass instead of a thick wooden door, but it was exactly the same size as a large indoor phone booth and meant for cell phone conversations during work. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/194 "2024-01-17T18:52:50Z")
I don’t buy candy bars; haven’t for years. I had it in my mind that they cost about seventy-five cents. Imagine my surprise when I noticed them in the checkout lane the other day! More like two-fitty. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/195 "2024-01-17T19:30:51Z")
Hijack alert! > [@TriPolar](#): > > losing our first war (the one where we didn’t lose a single battle but marked it down as a loss, not the one where we lost every battle but chalked it up as a win), By the latter do you mean the Korean War? Because the North Koreans (with Chinese assistance, IIRC) made it nearly to the south end of the Korean peninsula (the phrase “Pusan Perimeter” sticks in my head, though I know that city is Busan now) but the war ended right around the 38th Parallel. I admit there was a long period of stalemate, but we had to have won _some_ battle to get to that stalemate. One doesn’t want to puff up the already-considerable ego of Gen’l MacArthur, even posthumously 😄 but I recall something about a amphibious landing at Inchon, which IIRC is now the suburbs of Seoul. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/196 "2024-01-17T20:10:25Z")
(Continuing the hijack) I’m pretty sure the US lost Red Cloud’s war, but covered it up by rolling it into one big war that ran from Beecher’s Island in 1868 until Wounded Knee in 1890. Or there was the Punitive Expedition of 1916: the US gave aid to Carranza against Villa. Villa retaliated by killing US mining engineers off a captured train, and shot up Columbus NM. The US sent the army south of the border but they never fully came to grips with Villa; Carranza wouldn’t let the Americans use Mexican railroads so everything was moved via mule. Wilson micromanaged everything from Washington, often contradicting his last order. Finally the Americans brought the Mexicans to battle, but it was with Carranza’s army, not Villa’s. And they beat the Americans. Our experience of bullshit wars hardly began in Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/197 "2024-01-17T20:59:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When I started driving in 1974 almost all the true booths were already gone _Superman: The Movie_ came out in 1978, and featured the visual joke of Clark Kent running up to a phone booth to become Superman, only to find that there was no booth there, just one of those little kiosks. So by that time, the vanishing of the phone booth was already established enough for the movies to do a gag about it. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/198 "2024-01-17T21:15:47Z")
I shared a house with some other college grads in the early 70s. We bought a phone booth in the local Public Radio/TV auction (haven’t seen one of those auctions in a while!). Friends would come over to see it (Where?). They had just hung up their coats in it. Fit perfectly in an alcove by the front entrance. If you closed the accordion door, the light would come on. Fully functional. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/199 "2024-01-17T23:06:44Z")
I was helping at the granddaughter’s middle school before classes started for the day, on the day before a major snowstorm was forecasted. I said I hope they cancel school the next day for a snow day, so kids could stay home and watch _The Price is Right_ like we used to do. Walking out of the building I remembered that kids that age don’t watch “normal” TV, preferring streaming or YouTube. I doubt she knows how to find TPIR. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/200 "2024-01-17T23:10:16Z")
A couple of years or so ago, DH and I were exploring out-of-the-way areas, and found ourselves in Volcano, CA. Very small settlement, about 120 people or so. We found a phone booth there, with amusing signage pointing out Superman needed it to change clothes. DH says he picked up the handset and got a dial tone, but we did not try to make an actual call. Still, at least somewhat functional phone booth in the wild in the 2020s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111.md?page=11)