Friday, April 14, 2006

LYLAS vs. BFF

My blogger audience is a diverse bunch. Just from what I know about my demographic, my age range goes from 18 - over 50. So, today's entry should appeal to my wide range of faithful blog readers.

Back in the Fall, I started working wih the college age ministry at my church. Nothing will make you feel as old as you really are than working with people that could biologically be your children. But, I love them nonetheless and they keep me hip and young. Although, I like to think I was hip and young before I started working with them...

One of their standard lingo-isms is a little acronym known as "BFF." It took me a while to find out what it stood for (you know, the pledge, the initiation, the coolness factor), but now I know..."Best Friends Forever." I chuckled because it reminded me of an acronym from my youth...LYLAS.

There is a point and time in your life where you really don't want to admit how old you are, but once you hit a certain point, being the age you are, living in the time you did, makes you somewhat popular. I was watching a movie with one of my college girl peeps, "13 Going on 30" and the date of May 12, 1987, popped on the screen. She said, "I was four months old." I gupled and said, "I had graduated college by then." Interestingly enough, my college girlies are enamoured by the 80s. To them, the 80s are like the 50s were to my generation. We were caught up in Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and had crushes on Fonzie and Chachi (I personally still have a thing for Chachi).

I've introduced some of them to LYLAS - which in 80s-speak is the equivalent of BFF - it stands for "Love Ya Like a Sister." Similar to the BFF insignia, we'd sign our yearbooks, "LYLAS!" If you garnered a "LYLAS" from somebody, you were tight. Not everyone earned that sign-off. Some of you may remember LYLAS and can share other 80s-isms that I've forgotten. For those of you who know only of BFF, consider this your history lesson. And, the moral of the story is, in the immortal words of that 80s music king Huey Lewis, "It's Hip to be Square."

9 comments:

Erin Nicole said...

it stretched into the 90's...i signed yearbooks LYLAS. had forgotten about that until you brought it up! thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Karen Schmautz said...

I never heard of LYLAS, but since I have a 15 year old I was aware of BFF, although she doesn't use that lingo.

Snaps!

Thanks for stopping by. Blessings to you this holiday weekend. He is risen...

SheThinker said...

Perhaps it's that you're hip and young that we LET you work with us... Hmm...

Is there going to be BRAT Pack during the summer? Because in like 2 weeks, I'll be free of the shackles school/work has put on me, and will be able to spend most of my time doing as I please. At least the evenings. Daddy got the bright idea to get me a job in the Parking Office during the summer, so I'd have money to spend in DC.

RosieBoo said...

Erin,

Nice to know LYLAS is a bit timeless...

Hick,

Thanks for the post....I enjoyed your blog a lot!

Rebekah,
Thanks for letting me work with ya. :) Yes, BRAT Pack will continue during the summer....I've missed you being there!

Anonymous said...

Rosie, Rosie, Rosie...we did the BFF thing, too...maybe you downloaded it. There was also a variation on LYLAS...LYLASA! A-always....."love ya like a sister always." There was also one that some of the gals at LMHS did with one giant S with the words sorry so sloppy or sorry so short written off of the big S...so the words were stacked on top of each other, know what I mean?

Anyway, another popular yearbook thing in our day was RMA...remember me always...Why do I know this? Because my yearbooks from Male are sitting on the shelf next to the computer, and so I cracked them open...and my "memories" book...so explain this to me, because I really don't remember...WHY did you tell me to remember Mr. Dant's class and "Coke Is It!" What's the story on that? I forgot! And while no one else on here will know...I DO remember your obsession with quoting "Square Pegs." (Totally different head! Totally!)

Moving along...:OD

RosieBoo said...

Jules,

I don't remember BFF back in the day, but ok, maybe. :) I do remember RMA! Ok, I'm really old because I can't remember why I said to remember Mr. Dant's class. Without my yearbook in front of me, all I can conjur up is a Groucho-like looking guy. Something must have occured to cause me to cite that in the yearbook. As far as Coke is it! I think it referred to your snorting ability in laughter, which led to some commentary about "coke" being it. But, I'm not sure on that one either! :)

Bobby said...

Most of my closest friends came of age in the glorious 80s, so we call ourselves "The Nightriders", off of that David Hasselhoff show "Knightrider" (we didn't change the spelling on purpose -- by the time we remembered the correct way to spell the show's name, we'd already gotten each other gag T-shirts with "Nightriders" printed on the front).

Katrina said...

I totally remember LYLAS (written in purple pen on the outside of those complex, puzzle-folded notes with the tab sticking out!) The inside usually said something like, "Come over after school and we can read my new Teen Beat magazine. It has a full page poster of KIRK CAMERON! I am totally tearing my Menudo poster down to make room."

Thanks for the memories!

RosieBoo said...

Bobby,

Gee, you really excelled in spelling, eh? ;)

Katrina,

More memories....My Mom used to get mad about the scotch tape marks left on walls and closet doors from all my Tiger Beat posters. And, those creases made the posters just rip way too easily. :)