Last week I did a discourse on some of the expressions or phrases that were prominent in our day, but are not so today. However, it is not just phrases. For example, it someone of the newest generation were to ask you what time it was and you replied “a quarter to six”, they would stare at you for a minute. If you were to say nothing further, you could watch their brains whirling as they tried to fathom what you meant. Normally, their face would clear as they realize that you mean 5:45. Some may even ask why you didn’t say that. Personally, I believe it is good to have a division between generations so I am happy to use the old words. I mean if there were no difference between generations, you might have to do something dreadful like enjoy listening to their music!
Then, sometimes one has to wonder about what happened to certain famous people from our youth. For example, Marjorie Daw, she of the see-saw fame. I guess that they still have see-saws at parks for kids. I would hate to think that Ms. Daw’s claim to fame had disappeared. On the other hand back when the poem was written in Merry England “Daw” was a word for a lazy person or an untidy woman. In fact, at least one of the poems about Marjorie was indeed far from flattering. Even in the kids poem she apparently was responsible for Jacky earning only a penny a day because he couldn’t work any faster. You would think that if someone writes a poem for kids to use when they are having fun would do better research. I guess that lack of responsibility has been a problem throughout human history. I might mention that there was a famous silent movie actress by the name of Marjorie Daw. She claimed no relationship to the untidy woman of see-saw fame. I wonder though!
I also find some troubling thoughts from my misspent youth reading comic books. One of my favorites was Captain Marvel. He was as strong as Superman, could fly and all of that. The poor guy did not have x-ray vision, but was a great comic book hero anyhow. He would pop up as a hero when a young lad by the name of Billy Batson would shout “SHAZAM” and transform into Captain Marvel and save the world or most of it at least. Captain Marvel’s family grew as the years passed – there was his sister Mary Marvel, three Lt. Marvels, a Marvel Bunny and the villainous Black Marvel.
Despite all this gaggle of muscular people the one I find the most amazing in looking back was Billy Batson. Billy started as a boy radio newsperson and then graduated to a television reporter. What made him so great was that he was unbiased in his reporting. He just gave out the facts and left interpretation to the listeners. Man, what a concept. Do you think that it might work today?
To return to Marjorie Daw for a moment, The Blonde in the house didn’t remember the see-saw poem until I recited the poem which was published back in 1765. She thought that perhaps Marjorie was a real person. I suppose that there is a person by that name – aside from the silent movie actress – sometime someplace. However, actresses are notorious for not using their own names. The Blonde was not a complete loss on this as she did know who Captain Marvel was. I found that surprising myself as she has always told me that her favorite comic book character was Bugs Bunny despite the fact that if Marvel Bunny had agreed to help out Elmer Fudd, Bugs would have been long gone. I have told her many times that if you are going to have a favorite character make certain that you pick the correct one.
Personally, I think that I am going with Billy Batson!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
