Truckin' like the doodah man

Somewhere along the line, a bit of a roundup of 1970s slang caught my eye. Having been there, and at least partially done that, I thought I'd take a look and see whether any of this slang had been in my vocabulary. 

Well, yeah. Somewhat. 

I used to say "book" for "leave quickly" but I think we mostly said "book passage." And didn't everyone say "Book 'em, Danno" when making fun of cop shows in general and Jack Lord on Hawaii 5-0 in particular. 

"10-4",  as in "10-4, good buddy" was only used when making fun of trucker movies or in facetious reference to the song "Convoy." The term was CB radio short hand for message received. But we (me and my peeps - a word that didn't exist then) didn't use 10-4 in real life.

Nor did we use "Keep on truckin'," which had nothing to do with trucking, but plenty to do with cartoonist R. Crumb, his character Mr. Natural, and the Grateful Dead. I'm not sure that Mr. Natural was the Doodah Man, but close enough. Again, I only remember using this term to go into make-fun mode, leaning back Mr. Natural style, waving my finger, and truckin' like the Doodah Man. 

Was "go bananas" a term from the 1970s? I guess if they say so. And I did and have used it, although I've been more apt to say "go nuts" than "go bananas."

Not sure when "hardball" entered my vocabulary, but unlike "book," let along "keep on truckin'," it's still there. Very useful when talking business or politics. As in "I wish the Democrats knew how to play hardball." (Sigh.)

Never used "primo," even when referring to good weed, which I occasionally indulged in. Much more apt to use the word "prime."

With so few words mentioned in this brief little bit o' content, I thought I'd look around for more 70s slang. 

Some of the slang I found in a Yahoo list, I've never heard before. As in "keep on steppin'" and "freaky deaky"

Others, I was familiar with and had used. But whenever I used the words "far out" or "groovy," it was when I was eye-rollingly making fun of the hippie folks we referred to as "oh wowers." If I were using "far out" or "groovy" it was always with "air quotes." (Sounds like I did a lot of making fun of back in the day. Guess some things never change."

As for "stoked," I thought only surfers used that word, dude. 

Did I ever say "good vibes?" Yes, I did and do. But I'm equally apt to say that someone was giving off "bad vibes." I also used/use the word "lowdown." And while I haven't used the word "space cadet" in a while, I used it plenty during the day. Either it's way passed its prime - or primo - or there are fewer "space cadets" around these days. (I'm guessing the former.)

"Bummer" and "take a chill pill" have crossed my lips plenty of times. For some reason, my non-slang using mother adopted the word "bummer," only she used it to refer to a person doing something she disapproved of, not to refer to something crappy that happened. 

And speaking of my mother, two of the 70s slang terms on the Yahoo list were "copacetic" and "Jeepers Creepers," both of which I associate with my mother's youth, not mine. 

Another list I found was from a post on the lingoda blog. Some of their terms were repeats ("copacetic," "jeepers creepers," et al.), and there were a few that have pretty much made a permanent place for themselves in (my) everyday convo: "fake me out," "down with," and "rip off." 

But some of their other terms: "flat leaver" for ditching someone; and "Hertz donut" for "hurts, don't it." Nope. Never heard either of those gems. Maybe I wasn't paying attention. 

Anyway, catch you later. Don't go bananas. Keep on truckin'.