Gracie : 'Flip-flops' in 1978?

In the first scene, Johnny and the guys are talking about knocking a bottle off of a car fender with a soccer ball from 20 yards. Gracie says she can't do it because of her footwear, which she calls "flip-flops." That's the current term for what she was wearing, but I don't remember hearing it in the USA in 1978 (I'm a couple of years older than Elisabeth Shue). I remember them being called "thongs."

We've always called them flip flops in California. And I was 11 years old in 1978.

"Why don't you have another beer?"-Scott Stevens

I grew up in California and graduated from high school in 1970. They were "thongs"!!!

We were(still are)in Kings County. Flip flops here!

"Why don't you have another beer?"-Scott Stevens

It has nothing to do with where you live as if you call them flip flops or thongs, it's all about personal preference. One guy could call them flip flops and his next door neighbor calls them thongs.

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I grew up in California and graduated from high school in 1970. They were "thongs"!!!

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Oh yeah?! I grew up in SoCal and graduated in 1968 and I called them "go-aheads"!
To paraphrase Shakespeare from Romeo and Juliet, "That which we call a go-ahead by any other name would smell as stinky."

I grew up in Ohio and we called them Flip-Flops in 1960!

First pair i ever saw I got by mail-order from an ad in Seventeen magazine.

I always knew them as flip-flops. I was born in 1979.

Well Margaritaville was written in 1977


"I blew out my flip-flop
Stepped on a pop-top
Cut my heel had to cruise on back home
But there's booze in the blender
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on"

It all depends on where you were living in the country - I lived in Colorado and was born in 68 and they were called thongs. But now thongs have a new meaning and flip flops won out.

We called em flip flops in Florida in the late 60's

I'm from the Maritimes, and in the 60's, we called them sandals!!!

I/we wore "flip-flops" during 1957/1959 when in Malaysia, doing National Service in the Army, so the term is nothing new. "Thongs" IMO are the briefest type of underwear.

Yeah, I was also raised in South Florida (although I was in school in the 1970s, not the 60s)definitely "flip-flops" there at that time.



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In California in the mid-60s, everybody I knew called them thongs.

Sean

I was born in 1967 and grew up in Texas. We always called them flip-flops.

same here - flip-flops.

when I was in the Marines (1979-83), they were called shower shoes.

In 1963, in Memphis, Tenn we wore flip-flops at the pool and in the showers.
Never in public!

I was born in 1917 and when I was a little girl we called them thong-flops.

zjbell700, u r my GODDESS :D


-
the METAL!!!

it comes from HELL!!!

Maybe it depends where in the US you're from. I was from Long Island and they were always flip-flops.

Yep, I remember then as thongs.

In Hawii in 1950, they were go-aheads. Never could figure out whether they were thongs or flip-flops after that.

It may be a moot point given the age of this thread, but I grew up in OH (born 1967) and there were two distinct versions and therefore names, for these type of "sandals."

1.) Flip-Flops - A piece of sub-base "sole" (usually some type of foam) with a strap going over the mid-foot area to hold it in place. (i.e. ONE strap across foot)

2.) Thongs - Similar to the above, but with a strap that goes between the big toe and the rest of the toes. (i.e. two smaller straps that meet between the big toe, or one strap that is divided by a post between the big toe and the rest of the toes.)

I never wore thongs because they rubbed my toes and gave me blisters. I have worn flip-flops for as long as I can remember.

At least, this is my memory/recollection of this type of footwear. I think the common name today is simply "flip-flop" and I couldn't see the characters foot enough to see what variety she was wearing.

EDIT: I just had another observation, I think the naming change stems from the fact that in the mid-late 80's, undergarments called "thongs" came to be, and have gained popularity from there forward. Note the similarity of the strap going between something with the two versions. That could be one reason why the name "thong" has fallen to the way-side in reference to "flip-flops."

also, since it's made for people in the 2000's, and there are underwear called thongs, if she would been like "i'm wearing thongs." and her brother was like "take them off." SOMETHING would've seemed wrong.

I am a little younger than Elisabeth, and I definitely remember the term "flip-slops" growing up, in fact I owned a pair of them.

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

Grew up in NJ during the 1970s not far from where this movie takes place. They were always called flip flops here, never thongs.

I also grew up in NJ in the 70's, and we called them flip-flops, too.

I grew up in the 50's and they were flip-flops then. There were no designer flip-flops, just plain old vinyl or rubber ones. But, they were great for the beach or to keep sand spurs out of your feet.
And, you wore them with peddle pushers, not capris :)

I live in Illinois and was born in 1976. We called them either/or, but mostly thongs. But as soon as the underwear thong became popular, they became just flip-flops. Now, my kids would definitely be confused if shoes were refered to as thongs.

I grew up on the same beaches as Elisabeth, and they've ALWAYS been flip-flops.

1968 here

On Long Island we called them thongs but the term flip flops was used too..

and I am just going to have to feel this way until I DON'T feel this way ANYMORE!

we called them Zories