Somewhere I read or heard or latched onto the idea that Donald J. Trump's mother had been involved in a well-documented and fairly lengthy religious revival that had occurred on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. I was wrong. She wasn't.
Mary Trump neé MacLeod was indeed born in the village of Tong, four miles from the town of Stornoway (home of blogger Graham Barry Edwards) on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1912. In 1932 she emigrated to the United States, met and married Fred Trump, and bore several children, the youngest of whom, Donald John, was born on June 14 (Flag Day) in 1946. President number 45/47 took the oath of office in 2017 with his hand placed on his mother's Bible. For some reason, I was under the impression that the fairly well-known revival involving Duncan Campbell took place in the 1930s when two elderly sisters, aged 82 and 84, began praying. I discovered only recently that the revival in fact occurred during the years 1949 to 1953, long after Mary MacLeod was no longer there. I do think her Scottish upbringing accounts for the fact that Donald called himself a Presbyterian when he entered the political arena. He no longer does, by the way.
All of which is neither here nor there; I just threw it in as an interesting factoid. Here are two more [factoids]: Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon's mother was a devout Quaker. Dwight Eisenhower's mother was a River Brethren pacifist whose son became a five-star General and Supreme Allied Commander Europe before he was elected president.
Sometimes, apparently, the apple manages to distance itself from the tree.
Wikipedia states that Eisenhower's mother joined a Bible study group that later evolved into the Jehovah's Witnesses. Although her home became a meeting place for the group, none of her children ever joined it.
As I said, sometimes the apple manages to distance itself from the tree. I will now quote from the song "Some Enchanted Evening" by Oscar Hammerstein II: "Who can explain it? Who can tell you why? Fools give you reasons; wise men never try."
Let's move on.
Time, as you undoubtedly have noticed, marches on. People come, people go, and so do words. Some words remain in use for a very long time but some become archaic. Here are a few English words that you will probably not be hearing any time soon:
anon
forsooth
odd's bodkin!
daguerrotype
stereopticon
nickelodeon
lavaliere
antimacassar
floppy disc
eight-track tape
reel-to-reel
pompadour
Can you think of other words that have fallen by the wayside?
Well, I'm old and here are five of these that are not familiar to me.
ReplyDeletePlease name which five. Thank you, Red!
DeleteI use 'anon' all the time!
ReplyDeleteI cannot think of any outdated words at present, but probably will in the middle of the night.
Either you didn’t receive the memo or you are the re-incarnation of a long-dead Elizabethan. I jest. I am keeping a list of people who say ‘anon’ and so far it has one person on it. Do you also say ‘whence’, ‘hence’, and ‘thence’? Thank you, Janice!
DeleteI have happy memories of stereopticons. They were often included in junk boxes at auctions. I wish I had them now.
ReplyDeleteI was given a Viewmaster Stereoscope, a sort of latter-day improvement on the original stereopticon, and I had well over a hundred reels that afforded 3-D views of national parks and scenes in big cities of the world. Very educational and one of my favorite pass-the-time activities when young. Now kids are glued to their cellphones. Thank you, Emma!
DeleteWe use anon in Britain and also hence.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea. I learn something new every day. Do you also say ‘whither’ and ‘thither’? Thank you, Rachel.
DeleteBoth hence and anon are widely used. Hither and thither are used together and one would not get a funny look using them . Whither and thither no, not used.
DeleteI have heard and have said myself, ‘hither, thither, and yon’ but if a Southerner or Westerner says ‘over yonder’ it is considered humorously provincial by Northerners and Easterners, who think they are superior. The only time I have encountered‘whither’ is in the wedding song “Whither thou goest, I will go” which is from the Old Testament book of Ruth in the King James Version of 1611. Oddly enough, the words are not spoken by a bride to a groom but by Ruth to her mother-in-law Naomi. Thank you, Rachel.
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