Back in January, my EC and I were passing through a small town called Garibaldi, on the Oregon Coast. We stopped for gas, and I went in to pay and acquire the requisite beverages. As I was waiting my turn, I noticed a glass counter that was filled with all things fried. Burritos, wedge fries, egg rolls, etc. In the middle, were some items, gloriously displayed on a tray. The hand-written sign said:
Pronto pups? Yes, Pronto Pups. I grew up eating homemade Pronto Pups. I distinctly remember helping my mom make them by putting the sticks in the hot dogs, and dipping them in the batter. She would then deep-fry them in what was probably a vat of saturated fat, because that’s how we rolled in the ’60’s. It has probably been 40 years since I had a Pronto Pup, and figured that they were just what I now call Corn Dogs.
I was wrong. We sat in the parking lot as I Googled Pronto Pups on my phone, (Can you even comprehend how patient my EC must be?) only to learn that they had actually been invented 5 miles further up the coast at Rockaway Beach. They were Oregon originals – as was my mother. It all made sense. In retrospect, I should have eaten one – missed opportunity.
Pronto Pups are different that Corn Dogs, in that Pups are made with a pancake-based batter, and Dogs are made with corn meal batter. Very different. Somewhere between my childhood and my young adult years, Pronto Pups were replaced in both my vocabulary, and my life. Corn Dogs have been the batter-coated, deep-fried hot dog ever since.
Pronto Pup no more. It’s Corn Dog.
Pop was a treat when I was a kid. Not even soda-pop, just pop. There was even an era where there was a store in our town that sold pop by the case in glass bottles, called the Pop Shoppe. You would take your empty case down to the shoppe, and fill it back up with full bottles from a dizzying array of flavors. There must have been a hundred. My parents let us kids pick out the flavors, because they knew that no matter what we picked out, they would be busy drinking their Pepsi Light or Sugar Free Dr. Pepper. (No cracks about “sins of our fathers.”)
I have no idea if the Pop Shoppe was affordable, or how it compared to regular pop, but we loved the adventure and the variety, and would swear that it was better than Shasta.
When I was 17 and went away to BYU, I made a bunch of new friends in the dorms that were from the East Coast. They were cool, they were kinda ‘Preppy” and they did not call pop “pop.” They called it “soda.” Being a willing victim of collegiate peer pressure, I quickly turned my back on my family legacy, and began referring to pop as soda. And it stuck.
When I married my beautiful bride, she called it pop. Now she calls it soda, as do all my children. Heritage lost. Now when I call it pop, my kids give me that “Oh great. Dad’s gonna put XM on the 70’s channel again” look.
Pop no more. It’s soda.
My dad worked his way through the University of Utah as a short-order cook. He had mad skills. He made the best breakfasts, featuring some of the best hotcakes you’ve ever had. Yes, you read that correctly: Hotcakes.
Not pancakes, not flapjacks, not griddlecakes – Hotcakes.
Thankfully, my Dad was able to graduate from the UofU and go on to BYU for his Masters, and he never worked as a cook again, but he retained his skills. I still remember one year that he cooked at a scout camporee. He had spent the morning making perfect bacon, and the most beautiful hashbrowns and eggs you’ve ever seen, only to have these feral Boy Scouts drown them with ketchup. It shook his faith in my generation, and I recall seeing a tear in his eye. But I, unlike my EC, refuse to corrupt breakfast with ketchup.
Somewhere along the way, probably at some roadside Denny’s somewhere, hotcakes became pancakes in my life. To this day my children call them pancakes, unaware that I tarnished the family legacy.
Hotcakes no more. They are pancakes.
Strange how our words change over the years. These are just three little names for food that shifted within the span of one generation. I’m sure there are more words, and likes, and dislikes, and tastes, and beliefs, and traditions that have changed – and I’m sure it’s the same way for you too.
Have maple bars given way to long johns?
Or sub sandwiches taken over for hoagies? Or vice versa?
It does leave me a little nostalgic, and a little homesick for a time gone by. Had I given it much thought years ago, I would have probably made an effort to retain some of those words, solely for the sake of tradition.
What words have changed for you?
My grandparents were from southern Utah, I was born in CA. My grandparents called it “pop”, my parents called it pop, and I called it pop until I was old enough to go to school and have the kids laugh because they had no idea what I was talking about. Then it became soda.
Fast forward 35 years, we’ve recently moved to southern Minnesota, and it’s “pop” not soda, and Phy Ed. (Fie ed), not P.E., and crick not creek. I’m mourning the loss of PE. I’ve slipped and called it that, and my kids have no idea what I’m talking about.
My 7th grader was really struggling to follow a class discussion in school because they were talking about some place called “Or-ay-gone”(Oregon). He listened intently until he figured out they were talking about “organ”, and corrected them. When a few didn’t believe him, another student piped up and said that yes, it’s true, he has a cousin who lives in “organ”.
And I doggedly stick to some of my foreign words, like rubbish, or I will lose my identity.
Can’t be bothered reading the 60 comments, so someone probably already corrected your peculiar spelling of “Garibaldi”, which is the least happening town on the coast of Oregon, with perhaps the exception of Yachats. Although the Garibaldi Inn is one of the nicest on the coast.
And surely you didn’t pass through our neck of the woods without meeting Britt. I mean, I know I wouldn’t merit a detour, but Dave is probably your biggest fan ever, and surely he wouldn’t give away your secret identity.
Oh, wait, maybe you DID see him and he’s all secretive about it.
Hmmm. I foresee an interrogation in his future.
I see no problem with my spelling of Garibaldi. But thanks for being the spelling police – there’s not enough of you out there. And I thought about visiting Dave, but in all honesty, he frightens me.
There’s another expression that I hear that I don’t understand at all. “Hamburger meat.” As in “Don’t forget to get some hamburger meat for the lasagna.”
What other kind of hamburger is there? You don’t say “pick up a nice t-bone steak meat for dinner.” Or “For Easter dinner we are having ham meat.”
Hamburger will suffice. (I feel so much better getting that of my chest.)
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I also grew up saying “pop” but it wasn’t until after I met/married my husband that I switched it to “soda”… I liked the sound of it a lot better, but after reading this I’m wondering if I should switch back! My boy’s still young enough… We also would call ground beef “hamburger” – this one also changed thanks to my husband’s influence and is now just “ground beef”.
Let’s see… As someone else commented, I also knew “flip flops” as “thongs”. I was OK with that change.
Last but not least, Top Ramen or Ramen noodles were ALWAYS referred to as “wiggly worms” in our house. I would LOVE to know if anyone called them that!
Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I have more than my fair share of weird words and expressions. We always said soda…the only thing we called pop-was my father-in-law! I still say ‘outten the light’ and most people have no idea what I’m talking about.
I appreciate your thoughts on this… I grew up in Oregon and to this day still ask for a pop. My mom still calls pancakes, hotcakes. My kids remind me of this whenever I make pancakes. Ive committed to keep “hotcakes” in the family.
I think most of the odd vocabulary that has stuck with me through the years is the stuff that my poor mother did her best to train out of her kids. For example, my dad’s calling Golden Crisp cereal “sugar boogers,” or my brother’s calling certain Hamburger Helpers “chili mac crap.” Not quite the same wistful nostalgia there, but definitely plenty of humorous memories.
I surely hope that some of my children read through all of this so that they know that their Mother is not the only one with a weird vocabulary. I’m a resident of Washington & may just talk my old guy into a trip to Oregon to taste a Pronto Pup.
My uncle used to refer to teenagers from Scottsdale as “camel drivers”. You don’t hear that one very much any more.
Anyone else know the word jimmies? I grew up in Massachusetts and we sprinkled jimmies on our ice cream and other treats. However we never understood why they were called jimmies while calling them sprinkles makes perfect sense.
Aunt Sue
Moms and school teachers in North Carolina would say to rude children, “Now stop acting ugly”.
This kind of stuff fascinates me.
Growing up in Utah, whenever we went camping we kids spent much of our time chasing and feeding “pot-guts.” You won’t find that term in any field guide to the Rockies (and actually I don’t know if it is a Utah thing or if my grandpa made it up). I learned later (after sounding like a complete country bumpkin in a college zoology class) that the proper name is ground squirrels, however that doesn’t stop people in Wyoming from calling them “chiselers.”
Also unique to where we are raised is the way we talk and say things. My mother was born and raised in Utah and as much as my Pennsylvanian father had corrected her and tried to teach us to talk properly as well, my Californian cousins still found fault with our speech, like the way we left off the t’s in mountain and things like that, and they even pointed out that we put emphasis on the U in utensils instead of the e (is that really a Utah thing?). (We didn’t point out their flagrant use of the word “like” because they were blonde, tan, California girls and we idolized them. It caught on quickly enough all across the nation anyway -thank you Hollywood).
When my husband and I first went to Wyoming, we laughed at the people for leaving off the “to be” and saying things like, “the lawn needs mowed” or “my hair needs brushed.” However, it seems to have spread like wildfire and we are hearing it everywhere. I actually just googled it and discovered that it is purported to have started in Pennsylvania –perhaps it was something my dad got pressured out of using when he moved to California along with “warsh.” Who knows?
Some things aren’t a matter of geographical location as much as they are passed down from generation to generation. My husband’s father served his mission in Germany, so my husband grew up calling his down comforter a federdecke (fay-der-deck-a). Instead of him losing that word, my children and I have adopted it. When I accidentally used it around my grandfather, he was surprised. That was the word he had heard his father use when he was young –his father being a German immigrant. However, his father -wanting to fit in here in America- had left that word and many others behind. I am proud to use it as it reflects my own heritage, and I hope my kids do too.
Maybe it’s not too late to resurrect some words for the sake of heritage after all.
I’ve lived in Utah my whole life. They were always pot guts for me as well. I remember being very confused when I learned that is not what they are really called. My mom has always said “warsh.” All her family is from Utah, but she was born in Washington State and lived there for a few years as a child. I have always wondered where “warsh” came from.
When I moved to NC, I realized all the regional language differences. They drink soda, mash the elevator button, put their groceries in buggies, keep (babysit/tend) kids, put icing on their cake, and take out the trash. A lot of these have stuck with me since I’ve moved back to Utah. Then there’s the “English” I had to learn when I was in South Africa! Flats, buggies and boots, petrol, etc. etc.
I remember my grandmother mourning the loss of the word “gay” in her vocabulary. We even had a primary song that used the word “gay”, and I believe it is no longer in our children’s song book. (I’m a gay tra-la-la…remember that one?} In my grandmother’s generation, gay meant happy. Today if you use the word gay to describe yourself, it has a totally different meaning. I hope this isn’t an offensive comment. It’s not about political correctness, it’s about a word that has changed.
Aunt Sue
My mother, the lifetime musician also bemoans the loss of the word gay. It rhymed with so many happy words.
The Pop Shoppe! I remember!!!!!!
And I refuse to google Lumpy Dick. That’s just asking for trouble.
I had to start calling “Jo-jos” “potato wedges” because when I moved to CA people didn’t know what I was talking about. I also had to change “pop” to “soda” and “thongs” to “flip-flops”. Though I admit the latter change is probably for the better.
Ah, yes. The age-old “pop or soda” question. I think this term, in particular is more geographical than generational. I grew up in the Los Angeles area. (insert comment about shallow Californians here) I always called it “soda”. I remember when I was about 14, we had a family move into our ward from Michigan, with a boy around my age. I distinctly remember that he referred to carbonated beverages as “pop”, and the other YM in our ward razzed him to no end when he slipped and made this social faux-pas.
Anyway, here is a link to a map showing how carbonated beverages are called throughout the US. Interesting.
http://mappery.com/map-of/Pop-vs-Soda-US-Map
little blip in Utah country indicates a possible California influence.
I guess “coke” is a Southern thing. I knew Floridians who said that, but I guess Texans, too. I only ever heard “soda” in NC.
I guess this post really pushed my button today, because I am going to add one more. Here in the South, where I am, a person used to be “ill” if they were not feeling well in an emotional way, not exclusively in a physical way. “Sick” was for a physical illness.
When I was growing up, we wore thongs on our feet. Now my children cringe if I slip up and call flip flops thongs.
I was going to say thongs as well. I finally got laughed at enough by my kids and mortified enough parents of my Young Women for talking about my new thongs. Who wants to call them flip flops? They were thongs my whole life until someone had to come ruin it.
My mom, as a woman in her late 50s and on the heavier side of things, was teaching a Beehive class and mentioned how much she loved thongs. She couldn’t figure out what the horrified looks were about till the other leader told her they were called flip flops now. She about died. Cracks me up thinking about it.
And while we are on the subject, no matter how many people start doing it, I absolutely refuse to call the Church magazine the “ensign” (a Coast Guard or Navy officer)when it is an “Ensign,” a flag or a banner.
Ha. Here’s a word that changed in the Church: Ether, as in the prophet in the Book of Mormon. In an old edition of the BOM I read as a reactivated teen the pronunciation guide said the first E was short like in the names Beth and Seth. Now everyone (and the pronunciation guide in newer editions) says Ether has a long E. I held out a long time, but this year I’ve decided to finally repent and conform.
Oh my goodness I need a comment editor, that should read, “I would EAT one of each”…instead I’m just going to eat my bad writing.
I grew up calling soda pop also, now I just call it evil bone destroyer. I loved the POP shoppe and you’re correct, it did seen like they had a 100 flavors. My favorites were Lime Ricky and Pineapple. It was very affordable because you recycled the bottles. They didn’t have POP shops in the East, I think it was a Western thing. I’d forgotten that Corn Dogs were called Pronto Pups, thanks for the reminder and the tutorial on the difference between the two. I would it one each right this very minute if they weren’t so full of calories, all of them unhealthy. Lucky Sharon to have access to both Pop and Pups.
Lol, I call it a Jockey Box too. Drives DH bonkers, but I can never remember to call it a Glove Box. DH’s family (and sometime DH) says “warsh” for wash. So, it’s a “warshing” machine instead of a washing machine. It’s not unusual to hear Missouri, pronounced “Mizzourah.” Evidently both pronunciations are correct.
Pop Shoppe Pop is alive and well in Oregon. And Pronto Pups — no trip to the coast is complete without a stop for a Pup. It’s as Oregonian as Clam Chowder. Nobody inland can seem to figure out how to make a Pronto Pup. All the corn dogs are baked or microwaved, which is downright heresy.
oh, and when I was in HS, a “45” was used to play music…
Lost words. How about “Soviet.” High school graduates today were born after the wall came down and view the word “Soviet” in the same general context as “Confederate” — something from history class.
Other words from my past: “IBM Compatible”, “10-speed”, “UHF”, “Modem”. I do not think my kids could put their hands on a typewritter if I gave them an hour and a hundred bucks.
As to regional words, I went to elementary school in SCal, but Jr High through HS in DC suburbs. It has always been ‘sub sandwich’, though I am familiar with ‘Hoggie’, ‘Hero’ and ‘Grinder’ (there is a subtle distinction here). And no one outside Philly can make a Cheese Steak correctly.
Au contraire on the typewriter…My junior high kids think my old manual typewriter is the coolest thing. To play with, of course; they wouldn’t want to do any of their real typing on it.
Growing up my Dad would occasionally request a hoagie for lunch, and Mom would get out the long buns and we would make ourselves hoagie sandwiches. But, being from California, we do call carbonated beverages soda. Always have, always will.
I grew up in Utah so it was always “pop” After I met my husband, from CA, he made fun of me for saying that instead of soda. But I didn’t change my ways because of one person. It was when we moved to Kansas after graduating from BYU that I noticed that everyone said soda so I converted at that point. Now we back in Utah and it seems like most people say soda. My three year old calls all of it root beer.
I’ve lived in the south for almost 8 years, and was so proud when my almost-2-year old said “buggy” today. I don’t have a sentimental attachment to my western use of shopping cart or “guys”. My oldest 2 children hate that I say “buggy” for shopping cart. But I think it’s fun!
How about fridge vs refrigerator. Why waste so much extra breath for the same machine? After all, it’s frigid in there, not “re-frigid”, so it should be a fridge! My mom’s aunts “retted” up the kitchen after meals, although it never happened in my house, we “tidied” the kitchen. The one that I get the most flack over is “jockey-box.” All cars and trucks have them. I tried to convert to “glove compartment” or “glove box,” but I simply can’t manage it consistently, I’m afraid. It’s a jockey box (and I couldn’t begin to tell you why it’s called that!)
I still call it a ‘jockey-box’ too!! I grew up in Wyoming and it was never a glove compartment, always and only a jockey-box.
Ah.. the pop shoppe! What a wondrous memory, we felt rich and decadent as kids during the years dad brought home cases of those magical flavors! Thanks for the trip down memory lane! BYU corrupted my “pop” into “soda.” But I resisted changing “shopping cart” to “buggy” when we lived in North Carolina.
They call carts “buggy” her in Colorado, too. But my kids know — it’s a cart. It’s always fun to hear the british sister in our branch call them “trolley”.
They’re “wagons” here in Hawaii. And we throw away “rubbish”.
“Make nice”. They didn’t say that in Idaho. The first time I went to Pittsburgh is the first time I’d ever heard that. The saying in Idaho was a bit stronger than that but meant the same thing. 🙂
I’m from Texas so all carbonated beverages are still cokes. We ate dinner, not lunch, and supper, not dinner. We also ate hotcakes. While we lived in Louisiana, we had snoballs, not snow cones. We ate chili dogs, never hot dogs (whoever heard of eating a weinie in a bun with no chili???) All garlic bread was french bread, even if it was an Italian loaf. We ate sugar toast, not cinnamon toast.
And the chili for the dogs has no beans in it. I’m from Utah, what is chili without beans?
When I left home, there were several things in my speech I consciously altered to avoid the nuisance of SOMEONE commenting EVERY time I said them (ex: apparently, most people don’t pronounce the word “creek” as “crick”, and you should hear the giggle when you pronounce bag, tag, flag, etc, with a long “a”). But one of the words I changed altogether was “pop”. I grew up drinking “pop”, but when I moved to Hawaii, all the Calfornia and other other mainland students would laugh at me drinking “pop”, so it became “soda”, and stayed that way when we moved to California–my older kids started learned “soda” as language came. Now that we’ve been in Montana for more than a year, all four kids call it “pop” and laugh at their dad when he says “soda”. Heritage regained 🙂
That being said, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of “lumpy dick”, but some food-related “traditions of our fathers” are worth losing. That being said, I’m pretty sure my kids and I are going to have to make some Pronto Pups at some point. One of our most cherished family traditions is cooking together, and trying out fun new foods in the process. I guess since we’re not terribly artistic, its our way of being creative.
I had to Google “lumpy dick.”
I think lumpy dick is like spotted dick minus the raisins, right? I’ll bet my starch-loving child self would have liked it a lot.
I grew up on lumpy dick as did my mom and her dad. Now my kids eat but we’ve changed the name per request of my EC. Lol!
I changed from “pop” to “soda” at BYU when I was mocked for being so “Utahn.”
Since my lovely wife is from the Pacific Northwest and I am from the East and my children have grown up in the Midwest, we go through these things all the time — not just with words, but even the pronunciation of words. I am always right, of course, though my children choose to ignore that fact… 😉
Some of the terminology of my childhood (gum bands instead of rubber bands and wretting up a room instead of straightening it or cleaning it) were used in my friends’ homes my not mind, since my mother tried to keep our language pure of our local vocabulary. We were not to sound like those kids from ….
Wretting up a room? New to me!
Aunt Sue
When I read stories set in Amish locations, they ret up a room. I once ordered two pancakes in a small Eastern Oregon cafe. I was pregnant and hungrey, and just knew that one pancake would not be enough. The waitress gave me an odd look. Well, the PANCAKES were so big around they were hanging off the plate, and 1/2 inch thick! And no, I could not finish them. Evidently, a pancake is one big one in a pan, and hotcakes are the smaller ones. I don’t know about flapjacks.
Aunt Sue
Here in Murray Utah we called them elastics or elastic bands, not rubber bands. In North Carolina, they had no idea what an elastic was. They did cut the lights on and cut the lights off. If you wanted a ride to church, your neighbor would be happy to carry you there.
In Pittsburgh-ese it still is redding up a room.
I am certain that “wretting” and “retting” and any other form of the word started out as “readying”, as ‘to ready up a room’ in preparation for guests. Getting it ready for guests. And because of slurring, and accents, and ignorance, the original spelling just kinda got lost and changed over time. But this is my opinion, and perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe “ret” is an Old English word, or a Medieval High German one. But I’m still right.
I said pop and still sometimes do to the chagrin of my EC who calls it soda. He’s from California.
We grew up on Hootenanis. We keep hearing German pancakes thrown around. My son on his mission in Ohio went to someone’s house for dinner and they were serving them. He exclaimed, “Hootenanis!” They looked at him blankly and said, no they’re German pancakes.” He schooled them. I raised that boy properly.
My husband can’t stand when I say pancake turner. He’s sure it’s a spatula.
I grew up with hoagies. Now they are subs more in this area. I think because of the popularity of Subway.
I grew up with hoagies and pancake turners, too. My mom always called rubber spatulas “child cheaters.”
For me it is the word “old”. I used to think it meant 50…
Tom
Nice!
All soda was ‘coke’ when I was growing up.
In Florida? The only people I ever knew who called all soda “coke” were from Florida.
Also Texas
also arkansas
MMM- Pronto pups live on in Minnesota, it is one of the staples at the Minnesota State Fair (I believe second largest after Texas- but don’t quote me on that).
It is. Texas is third. Iowa is first.
It is. Texas is third. Iowa is first.