Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV
At least into the 1980s, people in my family referred to lights left "burning" ...
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I was looking at old TV print advertisements the other day online and saw an old ad from the '50s for Admiral "Son-R" remote control televisions. The ad stated that, unlike most other TV remote control systems, the Son-R remote turned the television completely off (except for the remote receiver) as well as on, and that
"No tubes (are) left burning in the set!"
Also, there were some folks who still referred to refrigerators as "ice boxes" as late as the 1970s. Oscar Madison (played by Jack Klugman) in the 1970s ABC television series "The Odd Couple" was one of them, with his roommate, Felix Unger (the late Tony Randall) being another. I suppose there were many people who grew up in the '20s or earlier who still used the term "ice box" (out of force of habit, no doubt) for years or decades as well, even after GE introduced its "Monitor Top" electric refrigerators in the '30s. Again, it was largely out of force of habit; these older folks became so accustomed to using the term "ice box" when they had one that, when the electric refrigerator came out and the old ice box was scrapped, the term stuck.
As far as "tin foil" goes, however, I am at a loss to explain why this phrase was still being used even into the 1970s to describe foil which is, nowadays, anything but tin -- unless it
was actually made of tin when it was first marketed in the US. Today, however, we know that this type of foil is actually aluminum, but as with the term "ice box", the phrase "tin foil" was used for years by some older people, again purely out of force of habit. When a phrase is used often enough, many times it becomes common in the language and is used for years, decades or even generations before it finally falls out of favor and is replaced by another. I can think of a few crude phrases still being used by some folks these days that originated perhaps thirty, forty or more years ago, and that refuse to die.