We all love a good bargain. There's nothing quite like getting a compliment on something you recently purchased opening the door for you to say, "thanks, it was only five bucks, can you believe it?!" One of the best places to get a good deal on vintage items are thrift stores like Goodwill. It's easy to walk in there planning to just browse and walk out with a few bags of things you suddenly needed.

When Angelina Palumbo did her Goodwill run to find a few classic records, she expected to bring her purchase home to enjoy some jazz music. But the Cincinnati woman got a little more than she bargained for, now she's on a mission to locate the family of two strangers.

Palumbo has an affinity for old jazz vinyl records and is starting to amass a pretty nice collection. One of the ways she is able to keep up with her hobby of collecting this old school jazz music is to purchase it at thrift stores. This time, her recent rummage through the Goodwill record bin left her with a delightful surprise. Inside the record sleeve were two small records, but not just any records.

man and woman walking on road during daytime Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

The records that had likely found themselves inside the much larger record sleeve for safe keeping, were actually voice-o-graphs. An old way of essentially leaving a voicemail. According to NPR, "in the 1940s, it was the only way to send a voice message. It allowed people to record their own voices onto a vinyl disk and send it to friends or relatives."

Palumbo's rare find was recorded in 1954 according to the dates on the envelopes. One was sent by Airman Douglas Hoybook Jr. who was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonia, Texas. The voice-o-graph was being sent to his wife back home in Isanti, Minnesota, and the second record has the recording of a message she sent him. It's unclear why the pair were apart but since Lackland is a training base and his rank appears to be low level, it would stand to reason that he was likely in basic training.

person playing record on Victrola turntable Photo by Victrola Record Players on Unsplash

"I could not find any contact information, I tried looking them up on Facebook. I just haven't been able to find anybody to contact, cause I don't know if their family is still in Minnesota, if they're out in California, so I'm hoping this news story will reach the right people," Palumbo tells WKRC Local 12.

The recordings are very clear, so a family member would certainly recognize their voices even more than 70 years after they were recorded. The thrifty shopper explains that she lost her grandparents at a young age and would give a lot to hear her grandparents' voices if someone had found old recordings of them.

"Closure. Kinda get closure for the family and me a little bit because this is such a valuable piece of history for them. It's family history. And this is 1954, this is pre-voicemail, pre-social media, this is how they would communicate," she says.

Palumbo surmises that the recordings were left behind by mistake, likely stuffed inside the record sleeve during a move and forgotten about. Hopefully the stories about the recordings make it to the family of the two lovebirds so they can enjoy hearing their loved ones' voices when they were young and in love.

I've always really liked cliches, idioms, proverbs, and common phrases that we like to use over and over. They can get repetitive at times, but they're crucial tools in communication. They allow us to convey so much meaning in so few words — a commonly understood shorthand that can get complex points across quickly.

The only problem is that many of the most popular idioms in common use date back hundreds of years. In that time, they've either become outdated, or seen their words adopt new meanings. In some cases the idioms have been shortened or reversed, losing important context. So when someone tells you to "bite the bullet," you may inherently know what they mean — but if you really stop and think about it, you have no idea why it means what it means.

If you're a word nerd like me, you'll be absolutely fascinated by the origin and evolution of some of these common idioms, and how they came to mean what they mean today.

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Ever have a cold and tell someone you're "sicker than a dog?" Kind of rude to dogs, in my opinion, and a little strange. I've had dogs my whole life and can't remember any of them coming down with the flu.

Sick as a dog actually originates hundreds of years ago, if not longer. Some explanations say that in the 1700s, stray dogs were responsible for the spread of many diseases, along with rats and other gutter critters. There are also references as far back as the Bible to dogs eating their own vomit — sounds pretty sick to me.

What about working like a dog? Dogs are the laziest creatures around! For this one you have to remember that dogs as "pleasure pets" is a relatively recent phenomenon, and before that they had to earn their keep by working tirelessly on the farm to herd and protect the animals.

This is an extremely common idiom that we all use and accept. There's just one problem with it. Pigs don't sweat!

So... what gives? You might be surprised to hear that 'sweating like a pig' actually has nothing to do with farm animals.

According to McGill University: "The term is actually derived from the iron smelting process in which hot iron poured on sand cools and solidifies with the pieces resembling a sow and piglets. Hence 'pig iron'. As the iron cools, the surrounding air reaches its dew point, and beads of moisture form on the surface of the 'pigs'. 'Sweating like a pig' indicates that the "pig" (ie iron) has cooled enough to be safely handled. And that's a "pig" you wouldn't want to eat."

Biting the bullet refers to sucking it up and doing something hard, something you don't want to do but is necessary, and accepting the difficult consequences and/or pain that comes with it. But what does that have to do with biting a bullet?

There are different theories on this. One common explanation is that in the olden days it was common for soldiers on the battlefield receiving surgery to bite down on a lead bullet. You've probably seen people in moving biting down on a piece of wood or leather strap. Since lead is a softer metal, it would give just a little bit between their teeth and not damage them. So the idiom 'biting the bullet' means, okay, this is going to suck, just bite down and get through it.

This one has always confused me. As a layman, it seems like horses are prone to injury and have trouble recovering when they hurt themselves. More research shows that horses can not vomit, which means they are highly at risk for deadly colic episodes. Doesn't sound super healthy!

The best explanation I can find for healthy as a horse is that, again, in the olden days, horses were symbols of health and strength and vitality. Which checks out — they're really powerful, majestic creatures.

To many parents, this common idiom is rage-inducing. If babies sleep so well, why am I so exhausted all the time?!

Yes, babies are notorious for waking up every few hours or at the first sign of hunger or a dirty diaper. It puts their parents through the wringer (another strange idiom!). But to the outside observer, a sleeping baby is pure bliss. They are so innocent and blissfully unaware of anything going on around them — after all, if they're not sitting in a dirty diaper they really don't have too many other things to worry about. Also, despite all their shenanigans, babies do sleep a lot — around 17 hours a day or so. When you put it that way, the idiom starts to make a little sense.

Clams are a lot of things. Some people find them delicious, others disgusting. One thing I think we can all agree on is that clams don't seem particularly happy, which makes this idiom a bit of a conundrum.

The truth is that this phrase is actually derived from the full version: "Happy as a clam at high water."

At low water, or low tide, clams are exposed to predators. At high tide, they're safe in deeper water. That's about as happy as mollusk can get!

Hey, we all love pudding. But what the heck does........

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