I recently spent some time with my ten-year-old granddaughter who shared with me some of her Valentine candy. I was amused to see that her favorite treat had been mine when I was her age. It was the little sugar hearts with sayings written on them which at first seemed not to have changed much over the years. The classic ‘Be Mine’ was still there along with the obvious ‘Sweet’ and the saccharine ‘Cutie.’ I had delighted as does she in the use of letters for words as in ‘U R Mine’ and ‘Love U.’ And how my friends and I had giggled at ‘Kiss Me’ or ‘Hug Me.’
But then we hit some sayings that my former ten-year-self would not have heard of like ‘Rock Star’ My older self may know what it means, but it would have been incomprehensible in 1954. I probably would have thought it meant a star made of rock, or if I was sophisticated enough a super duper geologist. Then there was ‘Hang’ which I also recognize, but in my youth would certainly not had any more of a Valentine meaning than ‘Chill Out.’
But then I considered the sayings that we understood in the day, and are now long gone from the vernacular. How about ‘Peachy’ or ‘Bees Knees’ or ‘Keen’ or the ever wonderful ‘Cool Cat.’ My granddaughter, if presented with these, would puzzle over them for a moment, and then pop them in her mouth with a shrug. I could hang in through ‘TXT Me’ and ‘Google Me’ and even ‘LOL.’ But I was lost at ‘TTYL’ (apparently Talk to You Later) and horrified at ‘WTF’ which I quickly popped into my mouth. And while the sayings of old were perhaps too sweet as was the candy, it beat the rather jaundiced choices of the present such as ‘As If,’ ‘You Suck,’ or the charming ‘Go Away.’ I think I will just head back to the ‘Bees Knees,’ and put my head firmly in the candied sand of yesteryear. It is predictably comfortable there.