Sturm and Drang: “storm and stress”- an 18th century German literary movement
Stoop: porch or step
Hop-head: wino
Terrazo: mosaic floor tiles
Skid Row: district of people near the bottom of a downward spiral
Klutz: a clumsy person
The Wolfman: Wolfman Jack- famous Rock ‘n’ Roll DJ
Slinging hash: working in a cheap restaurant
George Washington Carver: black American scientist and inventor
Levittown: 50s utopian housing estate, now somewhat decayed
Tract House: matchbox house built on a one-quarter acre site
Betty Crocker: 50s TV cook, famous for her cake mixes
Donna Reed: 50s TV glamourous sitcom housewife
Pine-Sol: a disinfectant
Lucy: Lucille Ball of “I love Lucy”
December Bride: 50s TV sitcom character a little past the marrying age
Howdy Doody: 50s TV puppet character
Howard Johnson’s: a chain of motorway restaurants
Vitalis: a greasy hair preparation used for creating 50s ducktail hairdos
BB gun: air rifle
Holy Rollers: Black Christian revivalists given to wild singing and dancing
ADA: American Dental Association
DDS: Doctor of Dental Surgery
Mench: a good person
FTD: Federal Tax Department
Mishegoss: foolish
Schmendrik: a schlemiel/poor sweet sap/sad sack
Eighty-six: fix (ie kill)
Off the guy: as above
Jack Parr: host of The Tonight Show
Hedy Lamarr: glamorous star- Helen of Troy in the film The Face The Launched a Thousand Ships
Condo: a luxury apartment
Putz: a bore
King Tut: Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen
Harley Machine: motorbike (Harley Davidson)
Toolin’ around: fixing a car or motorbike
Novocain: an anaesthetic
Senior Prom: big dance held prior to graduation from High School
Ninth and Vine: famous road junction in New York
Rose Bowl: an annual American Football event featuring hundreds of floats covered in flowers
Grand Marshall: leader of the Rose Bowl parade
Shiva: in the Jewish faith, a period of mourning
Grade school: junior school
Ace bandages: plasters
NBC: a national TV company
William Morris: theatrical agents
Sominex: a sleeping pill
Slop the trough: feed the pigs