The Generation Gap

The generation gap is sometimes wider than we think.

When it comes to use of language I’ve often had cause to blink.

Every and each era has its own ideology,

and a result is a change in the meaning of words.

Take today’s technology.

IT used to mean a thing thought to be the cream of the crop.

Today it refers to new-fangled things like computer, I-pod, X-box.

And sayings that conveyed one thing, back then when my Dad was a lad,

mean something totally different these days.

For example “sick” is no longer “bad.”

And ‘word’ at one time was something sung, said or writ.

Now it’s a whole program on our computer to fit.

So what a word meant then and what it means now makes English seem like new

and as if we’re speaking a different tongue.

I’m sure you can think of a few.

But did you know a word meaning “look” widely used in past generations

is today considered a way of cussing or describing fornication?

A story straight from my family album describes what I’m trying to say

And when we’re reminded of the incident

We laugh at it even today.

One day while expecting my sister to come straight home from school,

we were all packed for holiday, and impatience was the rule.

We were tired of waiting, in a hurry to go and the festivities begin.

Each in our turn kept going outside

in the hope she could be seen..

 Pop disappeared from the company and we figured he’d gone for a squiz.

 He was away for a while, and when he returned he reduced us to laughing fits.

He said in his old fashioned slang “I don’t want that you should fret

but I just went and had a screw up the road

and she’s not coming yet,”