"What time you kids stopping by?"

 

     Maybe it was the Irish in our blood but Greg and I spoke a common language that I hope will survive somewhat with these humble letters. Because I knew some phrases would tickle him I went out of my way to use them. One of my favorites that was used for at least thirty-seven years was calling Greg and Lissy "you kids." The older we got the more fun it was to use the expression and when I waited to be picked up for a blessed trip to Lawry's by a septugenarian couple I might make my inquiry "what time you  kids coming by?" While he did not laugh when I said the phrase I knew it tickled the old man to be called this antiquated term. We also loved to use some wording that would have been frowned on by common folk but to us it gave greater meaning and sometimes respect for the situation.

 We liked to call women both gals and broads with no intention of demeaning our betters. If Greg really liked a woman he might refer to her as "a great gal." As mentioned before I might request the possibility of the makings of a frankfurter sandwich in the refrigerator at Frances or mention a bowl of iced cream. When I accepted the welcome mat it was customary that I would have a cupful of iced cream when my old buddy threw challenges to his damn liver with wine poured in the kitchen from a large jug of the Woodbridge Cab which he sat down indelicately because he could not hear the thud he was making. He might express surprise about any situation by saying "Jeez Cripes" which was just for tomfoolery since the man took the lord's name in vain well and often. Pizza was always referred to as Pizza Pie and his fully-loaded dagwood would begin by his description as a "sangwich" just as Wednesday was always Wangsday. Initialing was also popular as in his affectionate title for Clairie the wonderful doggie as BPR or Mormons as LDSers or members of the Elks as BPOE (best people on earth). He would often refer to the Jesuit order as the Society of Jesus and mocked PC by calling black men "a colored fella" hearkening back to polite racism uttered when we were lads in  old South Gate. Greg married the right woman who hails from a family of unique nicknames and descriptors. Lissy will always describe our feline overlords as "pussy-cats" which is a term never used by my fellow ailurophiles in the southland. Eating was always "chumping" and cash as "mune." Some of the lexicography was handed down by the elders such as an effeminate man being a "panty-waist" or a "trencherman" referring to a big eater. There are other turns that seem to have vanished like a "Big muckety-muck" or "a live-wire" or "a goofball" that would not make sense to the current crop of English speakers.