It seems there are still people wanting to know just what the old saying 'back in the day' means. Mostly it's the younger folks who are scratching their heads.
I don't think there is a clear definition as it seems to have changed with the newer generations. Is it just another one of those Bandera things? I've done a little bit of world traveling in my time and never encountered the term anywhere but here in my hometown.
Back in the day I certainly never heard folks from my mom and dad's generation ever mention it. Had it been posed to them, I feel certain that their response would have been a lot different than mine. I have been using and hearing those words since my high school days.
People around my son's age have heard and used the term too but surely it has a different meaning. For instance, most of them might be able to tell you what a counter check was back in the day, but I guarantee they never filled one out.
That always brings to mind a favorite story involving Jim Foster and my aunt Smokey Kindla and the check written out on a tortilla. The bank honored it because things in Bandera were truly different back in the day.
I hesitate to even venture a guess about my granddaughter's age group thoughts on the matter of back in the day things.
'What's a counter check, Bruh?'
In fairness, I have to admit I have never used a cash app or venmo either because I am from so far back in the day. I relied heavily on her assistance years ago as I struggled to learn about navigating the internet while entering the computer phase of my life.
Both of my grandfather's experiences of back in the day would have involved horse and buggies, chopping firewood with an axe but never even a thought of a man walking on the moon although they both lived to see it on tv. Amazing!
As they would say back in their days, 'Put that in your pipe and smoke it'.
Some more of the lost terms from back in their day that you aren't likely to hear being used nowdays would be, hornswoggle, rapscallion, reprobate, blowhard, scalawag, gadabout or mollycoddle. I don't recall the nuns ever mentioning those while I was receiving my early education at St. Joseph Catholic School in Bandera.
Then there were some harsh terms that might raise more than an eyebrow if used in modern day conversation.
Some things like nincompoop, skinflint, ignoramus, codger, coot, goodie two-shoes, fogey or hellion might get you popped on the old Schnozzola by some chicken-livered cockamamie scoundrel.
Unfortunately, I never got to know my grandma Kindla, but I heard that she was a flapper back in her day. Back when 'putting on the ritz' and 'the cat's pajama's' were common phrases. Her generation called a convertible car a breezer. How cool is that? That's one I had never heard of until recently while doing some research.
I just might start using some of those old sayings just for fun while I continue writing stories of growing up in Bandera back in the day.
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