The Gay Divorcee - Back When "Gay" Was Different

I'm, what I call, a retired 'Old Fart' here in the Big Town of Savage.  As much as I dislike paying my cable TV/internet bill each month, I do appreciate the excellent, trouble-free internet service and manage to find some excellent, entertaining shows, especially the older movies on the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) channel.

During a quiet spell this morning I was perusing the TiVo programming guide for the TCM channel and set a few movies to record.  One of them was 'The Gay Divorcee', a movie made in 1934.  The DVD case cover image, shown above, shows a woman and a man glancing at each other with smiles.

It occurred to me that many young people in today's society may be ignorant of the 1934 definition of the word "gay" when it was primarily used as an adjective describing a lighthearted and carefree personality.  Today's accepted definition describes 'gay' as a, now politically correct, adjective/noun describing a homosexual; with the 1934 definition relegated to the second adjective definition shown below.

But, there I go again thinking that today's young folks might be perusing movies made 80 years ago before even I was born.  Most of that group probably wouldn't give them a second thought, but there may be a few and likely they already know the derivation of the term 'gay' as used in today's language.

Occasionally I catch myself contrasting today's world with the world I lived in 50 years ago.  I guess that's just part of the whole aging process for folks.  We see today's happenings, but they don't always make sense to us and we wonder why they had to change.  I find myself thinking that it might be nice to tell someone "what a gay ol' time I had last nite" and have them intuitively know what I mean to say without them having to think about it, or ask me what I meant.

JD, having a time-travel moment from my computer chair here in the BToS.

PS - I also can't get used to the current usage of the word 'fun' compared to 20 years ago.