Chesterfields and Checks

When did the English language change or when did I become a true old fogey? I really, in my heart believed, that I was quite with it, and would never be out of date. I taught high school, I stayed in touch with my kids, I read newspapers and contemporary literature. I assumed that I would not experience the generation gap that separated me and my parents.

I was never “flabbergasted” as my parents were, and I rolled my eyes when Mom said that miniskirts made you look like a “tart”. I was embarrassed when Dad gave me heck in front of friends for “tomfoolery”. My thinking was …they lived in times of pioneers and horses and buggies, for goodness sake – of course there would be a generation gap. Never with me! I was a cool parent and even a cool grandparent.

I knew that words like “groovy” and “copasetic” were words of an era and had disappeared. I was okay with that, I moved on too.

Suddenly, sometime in the past five to ten years, I have found myself joining the ranks of the “woefully antiquated.” Everything I seem to know and understand is “retro.” I see little grins tugging at the mouths of my family when I say something like “just set it on the chesterfield”, or “I’ll give you a cheque for that”. On occasion there has been a full-fledged belly laugh right at me when I am looking for my “thongs” on my way out the door.

What happened? How did I become so uncool that I am now using words that the next generations have to look up in a dictionary to understand? I am my parents! OMG!

Words like “sic” and “lit” do not roll easily off my tongue. I am not sure how to “unfriend” someone and I really believed “Netflix and chill” just meant to relax and watch a good movie. I understand cooperation and competition but am not sure I know how to grow my business with “co-opetition”.

Our language certainly does label us. A good thing about being an old broad is, I really am okay with it. Being cool is no longer a state I spend a lot of time aspiring to be. I will try not to talk about “back in my day” too often but I am going to continue to put on my “house-coat” when I get out of bed in the morning. I may slip up and talk about the show I taped last night, and I will probably still mail my “parcels”. I will “type” when I should be texting, and talk about the young couples that are “going steady. If I had my “druthers” I would be “cool” but I am not, so I guess a “curmudgeon” I will continue to be.