A baby boomer reminiscing...

In my posting yesterday, I used the slang phrase "duck's egg", to depict getting a zero grading (the shape is like a duck's egg, meh) in a test or exam. I had quite a few in my time (to quote Bart Simpson, "Underachiever and proud of it!").

But it seemed that not everyone is familiar with such a usage today, certainly not the post-baby boomers. It was common during my schooldays (we used to get more duck's eggs then; but not today's schoolkids?).

I started recalling some of the terms coined and that became currency in my youth. A favourite of mine was RTS. Back then, there was Radio Television Singapore. Someone hijacked it to describe layabouts: "Roaming the street".

Raging hormones were part of growing up, so sizing up the girls was a pastime of me and my buddies. Someone well-endowed was a TNT (twin nuts terror) while "Airport" is self-explanatory. Some were "good from far but far from good". We were merciless.

But I am sure the girls had a similar lexicon to cut us down to size, but I never did find out.

Waiting for the buses back then brought this on: "One no come, all no come. One come, all come". Today, we have BMW -- bus, MRT, walk.

National Service of course ushered in a slew of new terms, from skiving (to shirk or escape from a task) to boh-boh king (someone who can't shoot straight) to "shag". I will not explain this last one.

A good dictionary of slangs will be helpful. But many young men and women, even today, seem to use it as a euphemism for "tired" -- which it is. But one should check out the slang meaning, and one might then be more circumspect about using it.

Then there was this Hokkien usage which I could not figure out -- "gor kor luck", literally $5.60. One day, a pre-baby boomer explained it to me. In the backlanes of Desker Road (in the 1950s?) one going price was $5.60 -- 60 cents was for the prophylactic!

Having touched on a Hokkien term, I'll wrap up today's musing with this, which I found on the Web:

Learning Hokkien is as easy as ABC
Children is kina kia
Boy is da boh kia
Girl is zha boh kia
Bird is chiao kia
Korean car is Kia
Give birth is seh kia
Furniture is Ikea
Police is mata kia
Small house is chu kia
Handphone is Nokia
You are Hokkien kia
Malay is huan kia
Hindu is keh leng kia
Kuai lou is angmohkia
Chinese is deng lang kia
Japanese is jit pun kia
Bad guy is pai kia
Good guy is ho kia
Person who read this is gong kia
If you laugh, you are siao kia