Given a function $s\colon\mathbb R\to\mathbb R$ such that $\int_{-\infty}^\infty s(\tau)\,\mathrm d\tau$ exists, note that for any $z\in\mathbb R$ we have
$$
\int_{-\infty}^\infty s(\tau)\,\mathrm d\tau = \int_{-\infty}^\infty s(\tau-z)\,\mathrm d\tau
$$
by substitution.
Hence, for the convolution:
\begin{align*}
f(t) * g(t) &= \int_{-\infty}^\infty f(\tau)\,g(t-\tau)\,\mathrm d\tau \\
&= \int_{-\infty}^\infty f(\tau-z)\,g(t-\tau+z)\,\mathrm d\tau \\
&= f(t-z)*g(t+z).
\end{align*}
For $z=1$ this yields $f(t)*g(t) = f(t-1)*g(t+1)$.
I agree that "$f(t) * g(t)$" can be considered a bad notation, since $f(t)$ is just a real number, not a function. Here we used $f(t)$ as a shorthand for the function $t\mapsto f(t)$ and $f(t-z)$ as a shorthand for the function $t\mapsto f(t-z)$.
In the notation you suggested, this result might be written as
$$
f * g = T_z f * T_{-z} g,
$$
where $(T_z s)(t) := s(t-z)$.