11 Saying Kids Today Just Don't Understand

One of the easiest ways to make yourself feel old is to use an expression from your childhood and watch your children's faces turn blank.

If you joke that someone chatty was "vaccinated with a phonograph needle" odds are nobody will laugh, and if you say "let's get down to brass tacks" they'll have no idea what you mean.

But not all phrases go out of style just because they're uncool. Some are related to technology that nobody uses anymore, while others have really obscure meanings. See if you recognize the meanings of every expression on this list!

1. Rewind that!

The age of VCRs and VHS tapes is officially over now that they're not making them any more. But we still "rewind" DVDs and even live TV when we need to replay something.

2. When an alarm "rings"

Odds are unless you have an old fashioned alarm clock, it doesn't ring to wake you up in the morning, it beeps. Still, in a world of digital noises we keep saying everything's "ringing."

3. Roll the window down

Kids these days are so spoiled! Making the car window go up or down used to be a real arm workout, now we can do it with the touch of a button.

4. Using the CC feature when you send an email

Good luck explaining this one to your kids: it's hard enough for them to imagine a world before e-mail, but the idea of making copies manually with carbon paper must seem like ancient history.

5. Turn that off

Do you still own a TV with knobs? Probably not, but pretty much everyone still turns their electronics on and off, without ever thinking of what they're "turning." Now that we use buttons, we should start saying "push the TV on!"

6. Close but no cigar

You may not know this one either. Everyone learns growing up that this phrase means "almost but not quite," but not that people used to  win cigars by playing carnival games. Now that makes sense!

7. Ring up my purchase

If you listen closely to this antique cash register you can hear the bell inside ring when the total comes up. We still say that cashiers "ring up" a purchase, even though most machines don't make this classic sound anymore.

8. Dialing a number and hanging up a phone

Here's a fun game: ask your kids to point out where the "dial" is on their cellphone and see how they react. We still use this old term to make calls, and when we finish we hang up the phone. Well, not really, but we still say we're "hanging up" when we end a call.

9. You sound like a broken record

Vinyl has become a very popular way to listen to music again, but if you tell your kids they sound like a broken record, they won't know you mean they keep repeating themselves.

10. Catch you on the flip side

Another musical term that lives on in modern times - even if the younger generation doesn't know what it means - is the "flip side." Cassette tapes were the last thing anyone had to flip and they're practically forgotten today, so if you grew up with CDs instead of records or tapes, there's no way to know where exactly the flip side is!

11. Put through a wringer

Very few young people could recognize a laundry wringer, even if you gave them a hint what it was for. Oddly, this phrase meaning "to go through a tough experience," is still used all the time.

Share this list if you knew all of these!