When I was a teenager I tried to be a “far out groovy cat.” My ’55 Chevy was “cherry,” my school was “cool,” and my friends were “outta sight.” When I agreed with them, I would say, “right on, man.”

Every generation has its own slang vocabulary and in the ’60s we had a lot of slang.

Some slang terms carry over for generations and others come and go in a matter of years. “Broke” (as in no money) can be traced back to the 1930s but “salty” (as in “very nice”) appeared and died within the ’60s.

Back in the ’50s something that was very nice was “swell.” Television’s Theodore (Beaver) Cleaver might have said, “Gee, Wally, that’s a swell record.” The term was around before my time, but died shortly after the Beav went off the air in the ’60s.

When I was a teenager and had a good time at a party I “had a blast.” When I left the party I would “bug out” or “split.” If there was an admission charge I paid with “bread.”

If I could understand something, I could “dig” it. And if someone tattled on me he was a “fink” for “squealing.”

Someone who used too much hair tonic or butch wax was a “greaser” and if he took offense at you calling him such he might just “pound” you or, worse yet, give you a “wedgie.”

A foolish guy was a “spaz” and a dim-witted girl was a “ditz.” A weird person was a “flake.” Cops were the “fuzz” or the “heat.”

Our home was our “pad” and our clothing was our “threads.”

When driving away in our car we might “lay a patch” of tire rubber on the road and if we took a date to a drive-in movie we went to the “passion pit.” (Too many times it wasn’t.)

For years I tried to keep current with slang, but after I turned 40 our kids would come home with words or phrases I didn’t understand. I was relieved when they responded to my request for a definition immediately and without embarrassment. I still wonder how many times their answer was made up on the spot.

Some years ago a young person said to me, “Man, you rock!” I had heard young people refer to older guys as “fossils” so I was grateful to learn that “rock” had nothing to do with fossils. “You rock” means I had done something very well. Then again, rocks and fossils can be related. Hmmm.

Imagine my embarrassment when I learned that “thongs” are no longer the things you wear on your feet. What we used to call “thongs” are now called “flip-flops” and a “thong” is a pair of very skimpy underwear. I own neither.

A couple of decades ago a television commercial used a term I didn’t recognize: “badunkadunk.” Once again I turned to one of my offspring. Our daughter explained it was a slang term for a large posterior or, in more formal terms, “corpulence of the buttocks.” Silly me, I thought that was still “junk in the trunk.”

Slang is not peculiar to American culture. When I was a teenager, an uncle and aunt hosted an exchange student from Germany. Bert and I quickly became friends. Early on Bert said, “Arvid, there are some American terms I need to know. I believe you call them ‘slang.’ If you will teach me these words in English, I will teach them to you in German.”

Most of the slang terms we exchanged would not have met our mothers’ approval, but I helped Bert prepare for a successful American high school experience. It was my gift to international understanding.

I have long forgotten the German slang Bert taught me. It is surely obsolete by now.

Meanwhile, I’m working hard at keeping up with American slang as best I can. It’s a tough game.

These days “bussin” means cool. “Cheugy” defines an older person trying (but failing) to be bussin. “Bet” expresses agreement with something or someone. And that old 1960s favorite, “salty,” now means something witty, racy or coarse AND salty can also mean highly annoyed or grouchy.

Slang keeps changing. When I was a teenager money was bread. Later money was cake. Nowadays money can be called cabbage, cheddar or clams and “cake” now refers to a nice posterior. I can’t keep up with it.

I do know this: I am no longer a far-out groovy cat. S’up with that?

Arvid Huisman can be reached at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2024 by Huisman Communications.