There was probably a big 50-year anniversary celebration of the end of World War I in 1968, but I wasn’t born until the year after that so I missed it. I was here for the 100-year anniversary of the Nov. 11 armistice, though, now celebrated as Veterans Day.
Folks started commemorating Great War anniversaries four years ago, marking the 1914 start of the world-wide conflict. It didn’t seem as long as it would have 100 years ago during the War to End All Wars, but it seemed long enough, marking centennials of each offensive, milestone, and advancement in technology.
U.S. troops didn’t start arriving in France and fighting much before last summer, 100 years ago, but there were still 204,000 Americans wounded, and 110,000 Americans killed.
Hard to imagine. There were still World War I veterans around when I was little, who went through that. They’d come to the school to share some of their stories, or were just at church or other gatherings. I remember one or two World War I veterans at VFW meetings in the early 1990s.
The century anniversary of 1918 means the 20s are right around the corner. I’ve long been fascinated with the Roaring ’20s, with its zoot-suited gangsters and G-men, all duking it out with Tommy guns in their trenchcoats and fedoras, flapper girls with their bobbed hair, dancing to jazz with their fellas.
Mostly because of the Star Trek episode “A Piece of the Action,” with Kirk and Spock taking over a planet of prohibition-era gangsters.
Poppy the flapper ghost is my favorite character on Netflix’s “Haunting of Hill House,” talking about “screaming meemies” and telling victims to “shake a leg” when seducing them to the dark side.
And the junior high kids are getting into the act, with their theatrical production of “Thoroughly Modern Miller Jr.”
Hopefully the 2020s won’t roar as much as the 1920s, but bringing back some of the slang would be fun, things like “sockdollager” for an event or action of great importance; “everything’s jake” for “it’s fine”; or “ossified,” “on a toot,” “spifflicated,” or “zozzled,” which all mean being drunk.