Some of the old sayings are fading from use.

In one of my not very scientific "Little" surveys of family and friends, I have learned that few people under 30 use those proverbs, sayings, saws or idioms anymore.

And, further, they don't have a clue what most of them mean.

We're losing old friends by not seeing those sayings in print anymore and seldom hearing them in normal conversation.

Proof of the pudding (there's one) is a recent e-mail from my friend Jack. His letter began: "I always look for the pony in the pile of road apples."

I chuckled. I hadn't thought of that one in years. Out of a clear blue sky (there's another one), I asked Kaye if she had heard of "road apples." She looked up from her crossword puzzle and tried to focus on one of my two faces, answering, "What in the world are you talking about?"

She had never heard of horse manure on the street referred to as "road apples." If you didn't know from road apples, you couldn't fathom the impact of finding a pony in the midst of them.

Our daughter-in-law Judy Baker was brought up on a farm with lots of horses. She says when she was small, her mother often used a humorous saying to get them out of the house: "Why don't you kids go outside and play in the road apples?

My friend Richard offered, "Get off my stoop."

Does your house even have a stoop?

HORNSWAGGLED

Kaye recognized almost all the ones I came up with; but when I tried them on our children and grandchildren, I was greeted with blank stares typical of today's young people who are tolerant but puzzled by us old geezers.

Jack's next note contained a saying that would be lost on the post-horse-and-buggy generation. In referring to the so-called "bailout" in Washington, he said, "The House will follow in trace tomorrow."

Another phrase my mother used is, "Never look a gift horse in the mouth."

Its meaning is pretty much lost today.