In article , Leo
writes:
On 11 Jun 2004 20:27:22 GMT, (Len Over 21) wrote:
snip
1955 was 49 years ago.
Unfortunately true, as I was reminded on my birthday back in May....
snip
LHA / WMD
73, Leo
No, FORTUNATELY!
Glad you made it! Now the FUN begins. :-)
After you've lived and experienced a few eras in anything, you'll
find lots and lots of "experts" in that anything, who either "know
all about (from reading a book or seeing a movie)" or are some-
how so gifted in their relative youth that they are divine
messengers sent to enlighten all the hoi polloi and the koi.
:-)
Just the same, in 1955 we in the U.S. military got some mass-
mimeos on the "new" NATO phonetic alphabet to memorize
since it would become effective in a few months from that issue.
[the xerocopy machine wasn't a thing then and all orders, etc.,
were done in mimeograph form...which were "cut" on a type-
writer...hence the term "cutting orders (for this or that)."]
Good for some guffaws in discussion...like "foxtrot" for "fox"
(even the term "fox trot" had gone out of style in dancing in
favor of Latin American dances in that year...the "twist" had
several years to appear and Chubby Checker was probably
still thin). We learned "love" was out and "lima" was in (a lot
of beans that). Since we all knew "how," the "H" still became
"hotel." "Quebec" was a nice touch favoring the Canadians.
We learned a bit more respect for "mama" and "papa" and
"juliet" (for those of us who knew here, too).
"Zulu time" entered the military jargon (for the Z time zone
equal to GMT) and eventually entered TV entertainment through
the series "JAG." Scientists and metrologists were just then
beginning to argue UTC or Coordinated Universal Time (instead
of Zulu...smarts folks thought they were too good for the military
or something, which we would see in the 60s).
I sort of liked the old phonetic alphabet since my initials came
out Love How Able! "Lima Hotel Alpha" just doesn't have any
zing to it. (hi, hi...hotel india, hotel india...)
Hang in there for 50-plus! :-)