"I'm sorry," "you're welcome," and other anachronisms

One of the more subtle, but telling, markers of time’s passage is the evolution of the language we use during simple, everyday exchanges.

Recently, for example, a young man preoccupied with his smart phone almost bumped into me as I was leaving the supermarket. To his credit, he was a polite fellow, and he realized he was at fault for not paying attention to his surroundings.

Back in the day, someone in his situation would have said "I'm sorry," or “excuse me,” or, going even farther back in time, “pardon me.” But not in this case.

“My bad, sir,” this fellow said by way of apology. He was perfectly sincere and I was perfectly content. But his wording did take me aback for a second or two. It's not that I was unfamiliar with the term, but that I'm more accustomed to seeing it in print than hearing it in conversation.

Later that day, when I was paying for lunch at a sandwich shop, the clerk counted out my change and gave it to me.

“Thank you,” I said.

When the world was young, the clerk would have replied by saying “you’re welcome,” or, more recently, “no problem.”

But here, too, times have changed.

“Have a good one,” she replied. It was courteous, but oddly so, a least to an old timer like me.