The topic of conversation – and news has been how hot it is today, and maybe it’s the heat but on social media people do seem to have been quite snappy with each other – not just about the political situation, but whether it’s as hot as it was when they were young. Remember the summer of ’76! people write, while others say it’s hotter in other countries and then others reply that other countries know how to deal with the heat. Other people from those foreign countries will ask why we don’t all have air-con, or a siesta, or wear hats, and others will say it’s global warming which brings out the climate change deniers big time!
My friend Andrew, historian, writer and I have been “conversing” about different slang used to describe this torrid weather, and comparing what we old duffers say and what our young people say.
13:26
Andrew: Are you now in the Red Zone? … sack the ironing.
Lois: I think we must be! Typical Brit, I’ve just made us a cup of tea.
Andrew: LOL
Lois: Against advice I have opened the windows slightly, it was so stuffy.
Andrew: Yep, I know what you mean… I’m cooking in the kitchen so opened the window and just opened the curtains in the front room.
(Brief diversion to discuss what he was cooking – dhal with added mushroom and cream sauce)
it’s now 21:23
Lois: I wonder what has happened to “the cool, cool, cool of the evening?” It’s absolutely boiling here.
Andrew: It’s cooling a tad in the house, 27°. I wonder if ours is the last generation to use the expression “boiling” for very hot weather?
Lois: That’s an interesting thought! I will ask what’s current.
Andrew: I used it recently and it struck me as quaint!
Lois: Well, we are quaint!! (I always wonder if perfectly ordinary words like quaint have a current young person’s meaning which I don’t know)
Andrew: Yes and the degree to which those expressions are frozen in our youth and the period.
Lois: Yes! Something to write about maybe?
Andrew:
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/06/piffy-on-rock-bun-and-other-travels.html
Do have a read of Andrew’ blog, if only so you know what “piffy on a rock bun” means!
My reference to the cool, cool, cool of the evening, was about the song written by Hoagy Carmichael, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was written some time in the 1940’s but became popular after being used in a 1951 film’Here comes the groom’ starring Bing Crosby.
Lois Elsden 