These expressions and phrases were used quite often while many of us were growing up in the 50s and 60s. Perhaps you heard your grandparents or parents use them or maybe you at one time have used these expressions of a more simpler time.
We have to include George Carlin’s Expressions
- You’re giving me the blues
- I got dibs on it.
- Women drivers, no survivors.
- May I speak to the man of the house please?
- “Do as I say, not as I do”
- The jig is up.
- I need a dime for the pay toilet!
- Reel to reel tape player.
- This channel has a ghost.
- Turn the antenna to fix the reception
- Fix your nylons – your seam is crooked.
- I am rubber, you are glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!
- Kindergarten baby, stick your head in gravy
- Step on a crack, break your mother’s back
- Step in a hole break your mother’s sugar bowl.
- Gotcha!
- “What time is it kids? It’s Howdy Doody Time!”
- “You make a better door then a window? I can’t see through you”.
- “You’re just like your father.” “Don’t be like your mother.”
- “When you get my age, you will understand.”
- “Just wait until we get home.”
- “You’re going to get it when you get home.”
- “We got a new typewriter at work, they are so cool, no more
keys, it has a new thing called the ‘selectric ball.” - “Meet me at Big Boy Friday night.”
- Remember when the movies was $1.00…that included 2 movies,
a cartoon, the news AND a coke and popcorn? - “My Dad bought us an 8-track player!”
- My car wont start because of vapor lock
- Galoshes – also known as “Wear your rubbers. It is raining.”
- “You bet your bippy!”
- “You’ve come a long way Baby!”
- Honey take the trash out to the pit. And don’t forget the matches, it’s getting pretty full.
- While you are at the drugstore pick me up a refill cartridge and a new tip for my fountain pen.
- I am going to order a new set of Encyclopedia Britannica for the kids , the old set will soon be out dated,
- “Sock it to me.”
- “Smoke Kents with the micro-nite filter.”
- Are ya havin a bad day bunky?
- Take it off, take it off, take it all off [razor commercial].
- Turn left at the Sinclair station.
- The S&H green stamps catalog is here.
- Let’s all go to A&W!
- Let’s get a push-up pop.
- Pull the stopper in the bathtub and let that dirty water out.
- Get the ice pick, the freezer is all frosted over.
- Parents, do you know where your children are?
- It’s Mr. Bubble, it leaves no bathtub ring.
- Royal Crown, the king of sodas.
- Drop some peanuts in your coke.
- Gee Whiz; Gosh; Golly.
- He is nutty as a fruitcake.
- It’s Beanie and Cecil time!
- Bring your six shooters and stick horse, we’re gonna play cowboys and Indians.
- How about a game of jacks?
- Shall we play hopscotch?
- Red rover, red rover, let…..come over.
- How bout a game of keep away?
- We got our polio oral vaccine at school today.
- Chew each bite 36 times or you’ll get a belly ache.
- God and the neighbors are watching, so behave.
- Nestle’s quik, its chocolatier.
- Get that tobboggin on your head or you’ll freeze your ears off.
- Idiot mittens
- Babushka
- Want to play badmitten?
- Want to play croquet?
- Lets get some Buster Brown shoes for this school year.
- Wear your Sunday shoes or clothes or best?
- Finders keepers, losers weepers.
- You’re gettin a lickin when you get home.
- Stay in the car till I come out.
- I need a new garter belt; this elastic is pretty stretched out.
- Slide over and sit next to me while I drive (front bench seat sedans).
- Women can’t do this kind of work.
- “Wunnerful, wunnerful…” (Lawrence Welk praising a well-performed act exiting the stage on The Lawrence Welk Show.
- I had the tire retreaded (recapped), just to get by for now.
- Be sure to get to the bank before it closes at three.
- Put some toothpowder in your palm, wet your brush, and lightly dip the bristles into the powder.
- They bought a new console that has a stereo, a turntable AND a color TV.
- Betty’s husband surprised her with a GORGEOUS fur coat. I think I’m going to die, I’m so jealous.
- Dress code mandates that girls’ hems be in the middle of their kneecaps. Girls are not permitted to wear pants or jeans.
- “Good night and God Bless” (The Red Skelton Show)
- “Number, please?”
- She started work as a gal-Friday.
- I’m a good secretary: I can type 50 words a minute using up to three carbon sheets, with no mistakes.
- My Sunday shoes are at the shoe repair getting re-soled.
- The typewriter ribbon has red AND black inks now. Hold the shift key and use your free hand to type red words on the paper.
- Ah, man, the typewriter letters jammed again.
- Let’s bronze the baby’s first walking shoes.
- When you swing the high chair tray up and over the baby’s head, watch you don’t hit her head.
- Mom works part time at the university as an IBM key punch operator.
- “Dishpan hands.”
- Static on the AM radio stations when the traffic light was changing.
- “Don’t forget to save some water to prime the pump for the next person to use.”
- Gulf Gas Commercial: “Give me 50 cents of Good Gulf.”
- If you think I am going to pick up after you, you have another think coming.”
- “I’ve run out of film for my camera”
- “I can’t go over 30mph for the first 500 miles as I am running the car in”
- “Just for that, you can’t watch TV for a week. You go straight to bed after dinner”
- “We have a flat, get the bumper jack out of the trunk.”
- “This program is brought to you in living color and black and white.”
- Music Coming from a transistor radio .
- SLAP – the sound of the screen door.
- “It’s raining out…wear your galoshes”.
- “You’re such a re-tard.”
- “If we all chip in a quarter, we’ll have enough gas to buzz ALL the drive-ins!”
- “Red Rover, Red Rover we dare you come over”
- “One potato, two potato, three potato, four”
- “And that’s the way it is” (sign off of Walter Cronkite)
- “I ran this off on the ditto machine” (copy machine or mimeograph)
- “Here’s a note for the grocery man to get buy (mom) me a package of cigarettes”
- “Jinx, you owe me a coke.”
- “Polish your shoes.”
- “Spit out that gum.”
- “You’re acting like a bunch of wild Indians.”
- “Change into your play clothes.”
- “Where’s my skate key?”
- “Don’t make me turn around.”
- “Wait till your father gets home.”
- “You spilled the salt …throw some over your shoulder for luck.”
- “See a penny, pick it up, all day you will have good luck…See a penny let it lay, all back luck will come you way.”
- “Let’s say grace.”
- “Can we go to the five and dime store?”
- “Cross your heart and hope to die.”
- “Mom is ironing”
- “I will give you back the hanky after I wash it.”
- “Let’s take our Sunday drive.”
- “Where’s my apron.”
- “Here’s a bobbie pin to keep your hair out of your eyes.”
- “It needs a new inner tube.”
- “My watch stopped, I forgot to rewind it today.”
- “You didn’t lick the stamp good enough.”
- “We can’t get ’em this time of year.”
- “Tincture of Iodine.”
- “Metal mouth” (braces)
- “Keep saying rabbit until you pass the graveyard.”
- “Flip the record/cassette over.”
- “You have a dirty carburetor.”
- “How do you sleep with those cap curlers.”
- “Beatnik”
- “Remove the wax from the homemade jelly.”
- “Brush your hair 100 strokes.”
- “That’s my smallpox vaccination scar.”
- “It’s for your wedding chest.”
- “The mumps make you look like a chipmunk.”
- “I called the doctor, he is on his way.”
- “We’ll drive or take the train, plane tickets are for the rich.”
- “Get white polish and make those sneakers look like new.”
- “You’ll need the exact change for the bus”
- “Wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which one gets filled the fastest.”
- “I need a 15 cents for the pop machine.”
- “Children are to be seen but not heard.”
- “We can get 3 plays for a quarter in the Juke box and a 15 cent egg cream and share it.”
- “Can I have 10 cents for a ride in the whip truck?”
- “We can get a double ice pop and each have half.”
- “I need to take these TV tubes down to the drugstores and test them to see which one is bad.”
- “Hey Dad,why do the windshield wipers slow down when the car speeds up?”
- “We need to get the brakes adjusted.”
- “Don’t scrape the whitewalls on the curb.”
- “Don’t eat the paste.”
- “Mimeograph paper sure smells good.”
- “Just leave some pennies in the mailbox. The mailman will put a stamp on for you.”
- “I sent that quarter and Ovaltine lid to Captain Midnight two months ago and he still hasn’t sent me my badge.”
- “You need the weed whip the back yard.”
- “See Dick Run.” Run Dick Run.”
- “Tag Your It!”
- “Mother May I?”
- “Get me popcorn and a coke when you go to the concession stand.” (at the drive-in movie).
- ‘Here’s a nickle, dime to go buy some candy at the store.” (and coming out with a bag of candy!)
- At soda fountains, “I’ll have a nickle coke
- The sound of baseball cards in bicycle spokes.
- You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.
- Brush up brush up brush up …here’s the new Ipana. With the brand new flavor. It’s dandy for your teeth.
- Remember, Serutan spelled backwards is natures
- Plop Plop Fizz Fizz oh what a relief it is
- See The USA in your Chevrolet
- 5 and dime stores
- Western Auto Stores
- I just put a new role of film in the camera – and it’s COLOR!
- Take these roles of film to the drugstore and get them developed.
- We just got a new COLOR TV!
- Put that phone down and quit listening to the neighbor’s talk!
- It’s May Day. Go hang these flowers on the neighbor’s door.
- Wow! His new record player is stereo!
- Can you believe it? Cigarettes are 35 cents a pack in that machine! Guess I have to quit.
- Mom, can I go to the movie on Saturday? I’ll have 25 cents for the ticket by then.
- I need to go on the roof and turn the antennae so we get better reception.
- Will you get up and change the channel for me?
- Give me flatop haircut
- I’m rubber and you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on you!
- Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!
- I’m done eating, may I be excused from the table?
- Do you think money grows on trees.
- I got to see a man about buying a dog.
- Be sure to put on clean underwear, you don’t want to have an accident and have and have on dirty underwear.
- You have to look nice so be sure to put on your Sunday best.
- Come in when the street lights come on.
- Can I carry your books for you?
- Don’t let me get my belt?
- Just wait until you grow up, get married and have children of your own I hope they act just like you!
- Were you born in a barn?
- I double dog dare you, I triple dog dare you.
- I used to have to walk to school in the snow, barefoot, uphill
- We will now be signing off.
- Liar, liar, pants on fire. Hangin’ on a telephone wire.
- Let’s all put our thinking caps on.
- Go hang the clothes on the line.
- The sound of dialing a rotary telephone
- Kids, get under your desks and cover the back of your head with your hands.
- It’s the smallest transistor radio you’ve ever seen!
- Stand still. I just have to change the flash bulb on the camera.
- Go outside and play
- Jinx or Jinks – something said when 2 people say the same thing at the same time… the first to say “Jinks”- leaves the other one to owe them a coke or donut. (
- Pinkie Swear – 2 people locking pinkies (last finger) to swear silence of a shared secret
- Filler up and check the oil? Save your green stamps?
- Don’t forget to hang the speaker back up on the rack before you leave the Drive-In
- Has anyone seen my sliderule?
- If you turn the TV antenna you can get a better reception.
- Fill ‘er up with Ethyl
- She’s flooded–wait a minute or so and try again.
- Pull the choke out about a quarter of the way and mash the gas pedal.
- Got a church key?
- I suppose if Billy stuck his head in a fire, you’d do the same
- Children are to be seen and not heard
- Get out your Think and Do Workbooks
- “Now we can have fun in this class but . . .”
- “You will stay after school and clean the blackboard.”
- “Go stand in the corner and face the wall.”
- “Today we will practice our penmanship.”
- “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America . . .”
- “Stop, Look both ways before crossing the street.”
- “I see London, I see France. I see someone’s underpants!”
- “Tattletale tit. Your tongue will be split and all the doggies in the town will have a little bit.”
- “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.”
- “___ is a part of nature. Nature is beautiful. Thank you for the compliment.”
- “I know you are but what am I?”
- “Nice little boys and girls don’t do that.”
- “Turn on the television and let it warm up.”
- “A tube must have burned out.”
- “Uh oh. We blew a fuse.”
- “You wash and I’ll dry and put away.”
- “Stay out of that mud puddle!”
- “Operator, I want to make a long distance call.”
- “Shall I check under the hood for you, sir?”
- “You’ll go to bed without your supper.”
- Leave a note for the milkman
- “The captain has turned off the No Smoking light . . .”
- “Kindly extinguish all smoking materials at this time”
- Be sure to dust the bedsprings
- Turn on the attic fan
- Time to defrost the freezer
- Now that we’re living in the jet age . . .
- Hit the carriage return
- Put the clothes through the mangle
- Look it up in the dictionary
- Look it up in the encyclopedia
- “Now I lay me down to sleep . . . “
- “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so . . .”
- Don’t keep making faces like that, if the wind changes, your face will stay that way
- If I’ve Told You Once I’ve Told You A Thousand Times……..
- Just you wait until your Father gets home (submitted by Garry Rogers of Thailand)
- Clean your plate, there are kids in China that are starving. (submitted by Mercado)
- Be sure you have clean underwear on in case you have an accident and have to go to the hospital (submitted by Garry Rogers of Thailand)
- Don’t run in the house with scissors in your hand you could fall and poke your eyes out (submitted by Garry Rogers of Thailand)
- Check and see if the mailman has gone, I want to get this letter out today.
- Don’t slam the screen door when you go out.
- Fill the icetrays we have company coming over tonight.
- Be sure to close the windows when you leave it looks like rain today.
- They want rain today.
- Don’t forget to wind the alarm clock before you go to bed.
- Wash your feet before going to bed. You have been playing outside all day barefoot.
- Remember before you ride your bike be sure to roll your pant legs up. You are tearing up your britches by getting them caught in the chain of your bicycle.
- You have torn your pants so much I can’t get a patch on them.
- Be sure to change your school clothes before your go out to play.
- Go comb your hair; it looks like a rat has nested in it.
- Pour the cream off the top of the milk when you open a new bottle.
- Take the empty bottle back to the store so we don’t have to pay the deposit on another one.
- Cover the cake with a dish towel so the flies won’t land on it.
- Don’t be jumping on the floor, I have a cake in the oven and I don’t want it to fall.
- Let me know when the Fuller Brush Man comes, I need to buy a few things from him.
- If the car doesn’t start I will need you to push so I can start it.
- Here’s a dollar go get my some gas for the car.
- It is getting hot in here, open the back door so we can get a breeze.
- You can walk to the store; exercise will do you some good.
- Don’t sit too close to the TV it is hard on your eyes.
- If you don’t behave, I will wear you out.
- Hold on to the button I will sew it on later.
- Don’t turn the radio on the battery is low.
- No I don’t have a quarter for you to go to the movies. Do you think money grows on trees?
- I don’t want to hear that kind of language again. If I do I will wash your mouth out with soap.
- It’s time to cleanse your system out so go get the castor oil.
- If you get a spanking at school, you will get another when you get home.
- Don’t cross your eyes they will get stuck.
- When you take your driver’s test, don’t forget to signal your turns. Left arm straight out for a left turn, left arm up for a right turn and left arm straight down for a stop.
- Don’t you ever forget when talking to adult it is “Yes Ma’am”, “No Ma’am” and “Yes Sir” , “No Sir.”
