I too remember "catywampus." For something crooked we used "leaning towards fisher's." Does anyone know if this is a PD expression? Maybe just one of my ancester's live next door to Fisher's and crooked things "leaned toward Fisher's." > How about the word "WOPPERJAWED" for something that is crooked? Mary Jo Ed Hake wrote:> > ..Yes in our house it was "WoppeeJawed"(sp) the Idea being with a ee sound > insted of a er sound... > ...I also remember "katee-wampus"(sp) for something that was messed up... > ...everything was all "katee-wampus"... > -- Nancy Hallberg Continuing & Distance Education Penn State 103 Mitchell Building 814-865-5403

HELLO ALL; I hope you will forgive ONE more Washday story. This is a story of my great grandmother Bessie LITTLE COURTRIGHT. Her husband Charles Henry Courtright's father was born in Wilkes Barre, Luzerne Co, PA. My grandmother, their daughter, Pearl used to use Warsh, Rinch, and You'ins--just for the kids there. Charles's grandmother was a Klinetop also b in Luzerne Co, PA and she spoke very broken English. Her language was German. Below was written by Delce Courtright Copeland, my grandmothers sister. My grandmother was dead at the time of this writing so I have none of these types of writings except for the stories she used to tell me when I was young. I wish she would have told me more, but I usually got to sit with the grownups if I did not talk, that is how I heard the stories--so I could not ask questions. One thing my grandmother always said, was that their house was so full of love, laughter, and music, greatgrandmother played a mean piano, and ggrandfather played a wicked violin(my grandmothers words). They had 9 children, two who died by the age of one. They raised their family in Payne/Noble Co, OK and were in the first land rush in IT(as children though). Great Aunt Delce's Story: "It's Monday of any week, that means washday. Rush to get breakfast over and the dishes washed and put away. Put beans on to cook for dinner. Strip the beds of sheets, there is probably only one pair to a bed. While Mother is doing these "small" chores one of the kids, or two if they are small, is out at the old pump filling a wash tub full of water. Then mother builds a fire under the old black cast iron kettle which is filled with water.(MY NOTE--IT IS HARD TO PICTURE MY TEENY TINY LITTLE GGRANDMOTHER DOING ALL OF THIS). The order of the day from then on: If it is warm weather the wash tubs and the old wash board is placed under a tree. Clothes to be washed are in assorted piles according to color. The sheets or white things are washed first. Using a cake of homemade lye soap, you wash on the rubboard hoping you don't scrape your knuckles.(that hurt's) You rub on the board, rub generously with lye soap up and down, until it is really clean. No spots! Wring it out and place in tub of rinse water. (MY NOTE--THEY MADE THEIR OWN LYE SOAP-ANOTHER STORY) When the first rinse tub is full, the clothes are rinsed up and down, wrung out and put in the kettle of hot water which has cut up lye soap in it. Then while boiling, a stick(usually an old cut off broom handle) is used to stir the clothes, from the boiling water with this same stick. They are put in a tub of cold water. The soap is rinsed out again, wrung out and placed in a tub of bluing water. This helps keep the white things white. Then you rinse again, put in a basket carry to the clothes line and hang up to dry. Then you start again on the other "batches" of clothes. Changing water when the one is no longer deemed to be clean enough. The men's work clothes are washed last because they are the darkest and dirtiest. Things that need starch, such as dresses, dresser scarves, men shirts, etc, are taken into the house. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford "Faultless" starch you use that. Otherwise a starch is made of a little flour and water cooked on the wood stove and weakened down, according to the amount of stiffening wanted in the garment. These are hung on the line. The men come in from the fields for dinner. At our house it was usually the beans and homemade bread or corn bread, if there is time. Maybe something from the jars in the cellar pickled beets, canned peaches, pickles from the pickle barrell or some homemade sourkraut from a large crockery jar. The beans are seasoned with salt port or ham. All in all it's a very good meal. Then it was the dishes and back to the old rub board. The other clothes taken off the line and folded and put away. The sheets are put back on the beds. The starched pieces are brought in and put in a pile. You fill a bowl full of water and dip your fingers in the bowl and one at a time sprinkle the clothes to be ironed. Then roll each and put in a bushel basket. Then it's time for supper. Eggs to gather, wood to be brought in, chicken's to feed, go to the pasture and bring in the cows, and the lamps to be filled with oil. The mem feed the livestock and milk the cows. Then after the dishes are washed someone brings out the violin or harmonica. We sing and dance around and have a little fun. Then the kids gather around the dining table and study. It's the end of another wash day. Tomorrow we iron with the old flat irons heated on the stove. I remember often I was in in my own home years later thanking God for my electric iron and now I thank God for my automatic washers and clothes dryers and especially for dacron and polyester. I have more wash days but I still have time to bake a batch of cookies or a cake(using a cake mix), watch a favorite TV program or just sit and think about "THE GOOD OLD DAYS." Signed "Delce (Courtright) Copeland"(sister to Pearl Courtright Clancy) and daughter of Charles Henry Courtright and Bessie Little Courtright. I hope you enjoyed my little treasure, (it is that to me). Sincerely Carolyn Leverich Atkinson / email: catkinsn@ecity.net 1602 York /In replying send copy of our correspondence. Des Moines, IA 50316 Provider has occasional bouncing problems, please resend later/next day. __________________________________________________ To join the JACKSON/CLAY/OVERTON CO, TN List, email catkinsn@ecity.net with JACKSON/CLAY/OVERTON CO, TN in subject. ___________________________________________________

In addition to warsh..our grease was pronounced with a z as in greaze.....as in greazed the car and changed the oil...also liggle (rhymes with wiggle) for legal...and how about rolling the blind up. Perhaps I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and blaming the Penna. Dutch. Which reminds me..in Baltimore I was told it was the German influence which put a k at the end of what normally would be an ing. Where are you goink...what are you doink. That is the only place I ever heard it. Ed.

Hi Group, Well, I think it very timely indeed, that my copy of the SMITHSONIAN magazine arrived today, with a picture on the cover of Frances Drake, (remember her ?) and an assortment of irons used as props from Paramount movies in 1933. It reminded me of some of these irons, used by my grandmother, that had to be heated on the coal stove for ironing the clothes. Some of them had removable handles for several bottom plates that would be heating, while another was being used. It reminded me of my Mothers' struggles with the washboard, my own skinned knuckles trying to help, the Octagon soap used long before Oxydol and Rinso, and yes, "renching" out the clothes. I also remember my Mother's first electric wringer washing machine, and how we cried all the way to school that first morning because Mother wouldn't let us stay home from school to watch her wash the clothes! SMITHSONIAN magazine quotes an old rhyme: "They that wash on Monday/ Have all the week to dry, They that wash on Tuesday/ Are not so much awry,... They that wash on Friday/ Wash in need, And they that wash on Saturday/ OH! they're (bad word) indeed." Evelyn

Greetings PD Rooters: This is my first time posting, although I have been lurking for weeks. I, too, learned to red/read up the house - but have no idea how my parents/grandmother would have spelled it if they had to leave me a note. So, all I have is the "sound" of it. I also remember "outening" the lights. I think that my mother remembered some of these sayings from her childhood early in the century, when she would have known a number of good Mennonite/Evangelical kinfolk who came to Kent County Michigan from Waterloo County, Ontario - the Kitchener and Breslau areas where the PD from Lancaster and Montgomery Co, PA migrated right after 1800. I remember one that always delighted us - a story about someone who "jumped the bed out and ran the stairs down" If anyone needs lookups I own the Ezra Eby book on "A Biographical History of Waterloo Township" (of Waterloo County, ONT) which includes several thousand PD names and descent of those who moved from PA to Ontario, including lots and lots of Baumanns, Betzners and Clemens, which were my own particular lines. Allan E. Green <allagreen@aol.com>

Very interesting about how the butchering was done. I used to love cracklings and even had some from the farm when my kids were little in the early 60s. I wouldn't dare eat them now what with all that fat, but gosh they were good. Nothing like the ones you can get in the grocery called "pig rinds" or whatever they. Thanks, Brenda for these posts. If your grandmother wrote lots of them down, please share more. Pat in Fort Wayne

Monday has been "warsh" day since way back. Per "Our Own Snug Fireplace" by Jane C. Nylander whose book covers 1760-1860(excuse the typos): Laundry was always a difficult task, especially for large families and for those caring for infants or the cronically ill. Family members dreaded laundry day, which was often the subject of jokes and satire focused on bad tempers, cold food, and exhausted women. If men and boys were advised to keep out of the house on laudry day, it was for good reason. Mondays were the favored day for this hard work, probably because women were relatively rested after the tranquility of the Sabbath, and they wished to complete the heaviest part of their work early in the week. In the best of weather, doing laundry meant a day outdoors carrying large quantities of water in heavy and awkward wooden containers, maintaining fires, and tiresome lifting, rubbing, and scrubbing. In wintertime, when laundry was done inside, warm steam from the boiling water filled the room, but spilled water might freeze on the floor, and drying was never accomplished easily. In the coldest waeather, clothes put out to dry would freeze stiff. The recommended washday procedure was: "Assort the clothes, and put the white ones to soak the night before in warm water. In assorting the clothes, the flannels are to be put in one lot, the colored clothes in another, the coarser white clothes in a third, and the fine clothes in a fourth lot. Wash the fine clothes first in suds and throw them, when wrung, into another tub of suds. Then wash them in the second suds, turning them wrong side out. Then put them in the boiling bag and let them boil in strong soapsuds for half and hour, moving them about with the wash-stick to keep them from getting yellow in spots. Take them out of the boiling water into a tub, and rub the dirtiest spots. Then rinse them, throwing them, when wrung, into a tub of blueing-water....Then wash the courser white articles in the same manner. Then wash the colored clothes....Lastly wash the flannels". This is an utterly fascinating book. It's primarily about New England homes, however, when New England subject matter is lacking, the author looks to Pennsylvania German sources to fill in the gaps. Almost makes you appreciate the days of the wringer-washer.....(well almost!). Sue (Miller) Bosevich

Dear Friends , you can stop worrying about me. I can read Rods page. I twiddled and tweeked my computer until I was satisfied. I have bigger fonts and although I found the place that said it would change the background colors my computer wouldn't do that. Anyway--I am now happy and can use the page and also know more about my computer. Plus I found out what I already knew- You are a great bunch of people. Thanks to everyone. I am searching for surnames--Herche/Harkey---- Barringer----Bost----Lipe---and House. Mary Russell bird@scrtc.blue.net tomrussell@mindless.com Glasgow Kentucky

> << My wife, who will be 60 in about 50 more days, still eats cottage cheese > with sugar on it. >> > And here I have been eating it all these years with apple butter. > To add to this list, I also use JAM! We use Warsh, Warshington, read up, and also used the "elbow grease" to crank the hand ringer between the double aluminum warsh tubs! AND... experienced "raw" knuckles while using the warsh boards, even had a glass one since I lived in the glass capital! Stirred the starch with a wooden spoon on the gas stove and mixed it into the water so the curtains were stiff enough to use those "picky" curtain stretchers that we used to up together in the back yard, the sun also had to bleach those buggers even though we used blueing! If all went well, on Sunday, we would dress up in our "Cinderella" flocks for church and a trip to Grandma's house for a dinner of pork roast cooked along with that beef roast! So.............PD, German and a little Scotch thrown in for good measure!! (penny wise is a penny earned!) And engineers that I worked with, that were world wise thought that I was from the east coast due to my accent? <G> All this wonderful heritage makes for one "happy camper"...... Regards, SEE from NW OHIO BAEHR, EHRLICHMAN, KINSEL, NELSON, SHUMAKER, STAUFFER , along with many other cousins!

Here is the second story I wanted to share with the mailing list. If you didn't know about butchering, you will learn with this story! Had you ever wondered where the term "pork barrel" came from? This storry tells you what a pork barrel is. :-) Butchering When the hogs were butchered, it was necessary for the whole family to pitch in to get the meat processed quickly as there were no freezers then and many people did not even have an ice box. The animal was not fed for about two days, being given plenty of water to help flush out its insides. The family would have to watch the weather reports for it must be cold, in the fourty degree area, but not quite freezing or it would be too hard to work. Water was heated over an open fire, if possible to the point of boiling to be ready to scald the carcass as it was lowered into the barrel. The hog was usually stabbed in the jugular vein and then led to the corn crib where it was hoisted on a block and tackle to hang over the scalding barrel. There were some who made what was called blood sausage and they would hang the carcass over a pail to catch the blood, but we didn't do that. It was more common among the French people. Years ago there was a market for lard since Spry, Crisco, etc. were not on the grocery shelves, so the hogs were usually quite fat. As the layers of fat were cut off, runners (usually the 8 to 15 year olds) hurried them to the house in milk pails where they were cut into small chunks and fried out. Both the kitchen and basement stoves were going and all of the cast iron skillets were put into use. As the lard was melted, it was poured through a cheese cloth in a colander into 20 gallon crocks. Then the residue was put into the press to get every bit of lard out. This was kept seperate because it might be a bit discolored, not pretty and white as the first batch, which might be sold as surplus -- at maybe 5 cents a pound. Meanwhile, someone was cutting up the meat. The side meat (bacon so fat you'd never buy it now) was salted down. Sometimes, if more than one animal was being butchered, some hams were salted down also, because there wouldn't be time to prevent spoilage. The loin was cut carefully from the bones and the bones were cooked for supper. The loin was sliced into small slices and seasoned and gently fried. A small amount of melted lard was poured into a five-gallon crock, and a layer of loin slices laid in it. Then another layer of lard and slices until the crock was full to about two inches from the top. Then an inch of lard was added. As it congealed in the cold cellar the lard preserved the meat. Other meat from the carcass was cut into small pieces for the sausage. This was sometimes funny because Pa was partial to fat and threw in lots of fatty chunks and Ma would reach in and grab them and put them into the skillets where the lard was rendering. After they were all drained and cooled, these cracklins were very tasty. The pieces were put through the meat grinder which was clamped to the old basement table. It was hard work and each person had to take turns grinding. About 1930 Frank and Clarence had figured out how to jack up the Model T and run a pulley to the feed grinder and then devised a way to hook up the meat grinder the same way. It seems to me that we couldn't keep up with it, running the pails full of chunks out and bringing in the ground meat. It saved hours of work and muscle ache. The meat was seasoned with salt and pepper and a little sage and maybe a few secret spices that I don't know about and a sample fried until Pa was satisfied it tasted just right. Sometimes it was fried in patties and put down in lard like the tenderloin was. Sometimes it was put into casings. Casings could be bought at the butcher shop but, now and then, maybe because we had no money, we had to clean our own. The reason you starved the animal is because the intestines were used for casings. They were seperated from the other entrails and put into a pail of soapy water. They were washed several times, then brought in. Here the fun begins. And end is laid across a cutting board and it is scraped inch-by-inch with the dull side of a knife to get all of the fat off of the whole length, yards and yards. They they were washed some more. One end was tied shut and the whole thing was turned inside out over a piece of broom stick. When it had all been pushed onto the stick, the same procedure was done to clean the insides as it was slowly pulled off the stick. When done they were put to soak in salt water until the sausage was ready. The lard press was a small version of the cider press. It held about two gallons and there was a spigot at one side of the bottom. And extension about 8 to 10 inches long was screwed onto the spigot and the casing put on it, pushing as much of it as could be made to fit. The end hanging off was tied shut and as the plate was forced down by a set of gears and a crank, sausage was pushed into the casing, filling it and pulling more lengths off of the the extension. If you wanted you could give the sausage a twist every few inches or let it go for a couple feet and curl it into the bottom of a 5-gallon crock that was set in place below it, and covered by melted lard to keep it from spoiling, just as the tenderloin was. Whenever we would use the meat, we scraped the lard off, removed the amount we needed, then melted the lard and covered the meat again. This way we had some fresh meat and some cured so there would be a variety. We used the brains, heart, liver, tongue and when we butched a veal, we had sweet breads. These were called variety mets and we had to eat them right away because there was no good way to keep them. I remember having liver once covered with lard, but it must have been because we had too much and it would have spoiled. It wasn't the best that way, so what we usually did was give some to the neighbors. Then, when they butchered, we would usually receive some of theirs that they couldn't keep. Of course, you can see that our cuts of meat were different than in a butcher shop. Usually, beef was cut into cubes about one inch and packed into fruit jars and processed like vegetables. It was just beef, not steak or roast. The broth in the fruit jars made the most delactable gravy I have ever eaten. (c)1992 Lillian G. Merkle Hebert

I was very fortunate that my grandmother (half German, half Irish) compiled a collection of stories she remembered about her family, my grandfather's family (French-Canadian), their family and family legends she heard growing up as a child. My grandmother passed away this last April. I hope you enjoy a couple stories she related in her notebook of stories, "Recollections and Other Stuff." My Special Washday Dress It was back in the days when I washed with a wringer washer and hung clothes on the line. In order to save my pretty starched housedresses, I had a special outfit I wore on wash days that consisted of an old blouse whose ornate collar and sleeves had been cut off, over which I wore a tattered jumper whose suspenders were so ragged they were held together with safety pins. I usually had the whole wash on the line by the time the older children came in for lunch, and as soon as they left I bedded the little ones down, took a bath and put on fresh clothes, so my husband had never seen me in the old shabby outfit. His job kept him out of town during the day. He made an unscheduled stop at noon one wash day, ook one look at me and burst out laughing, "Throw those clothes in the rags so I won't have to look at them again." I laughed along with him but ignored his directions and continued to wear them. Several weeks went by and, on a wash day, he stopped in again at lunch time, saw me standing by the table, and in mock horror exclaimed, "I told you I didn't want to see those clothes again!" He pulled the blouse at the back of my neck, tearing it off, yanked the suspenders of the jumper, and ripe to the hilt, it tore into several pieces, leaving me standing in my slip. All the while, the children were falling off of their chairs with laughter. A few days went by and one evening as we were sitting around the livingroom, our second oldest son, about 8 or 9, started to chuckle, buiding up to an uncontrollable giggle. His father asked him what was so funny. Gasping, he said, "I was just thinking about how Sister Mary Gerald laughed when I told her you tore Mama's clothes off." (c)1992 Lillian G. Merkle Hebert

Hi everyone, We may be getting carried away, trying to claim "warsh" as PA-Dutch. Surely you have heard Senator Kennedy speak, or heard Norm Abram of "This Old House" tell you that you can receive "measured drawrings" for a project. :-) Sandra bigband@oceana.net ---------- > From: lamparte@juno.com > You've given your mother's origins away - waRsh is a western PA > pronunciation. At least I don't recall hearing this pronunciation among > our Lancaster county family.

My Granny Moll would say to me "Roll up the floor", meaning use the carpet sweeper on the rugs, do you know I am so Dutch, this city slicker still says" roll up the floor" for sweep the rugs. Sylvia Graybill

Please reply to the list because I am researching Burns also: Leroy Burns, ca 1810 TN or AL etc. Thanks, Win Terrell On Mon, 1 Sep 1997 21:19:36 +0000 "Ron Yount, Jr." <RonYo-Ala.@worldnet.att.net> writes: >Whoever posted information of Sylvester Burns, please re-post or >e-mail me >privately. I have a g-grandfather with this name and am looking for >information on him, I mistakenly deleted the message today. Thanks, >Ron >Yount, Jr. > >

>Delivered-To: ltmiller@postoffice.ptd.net >Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 01:52:11 -0400 (EDT) >From: Maxard@aol.com >To: ltmiller@postoffice.ptd.net >Subject: Re: Monday Was Warsh Day! > >ANY ONE REMEMBER A CERTYAIN KIND OF MOLLASSES THAT DISAPPEARED IN THE '60'S >THAT YOU PUT ON BUTTERED BREAD? CAN'T REPLACE THAT TASTE. > I think Turkey Syrup comes close, now. -Linnea

-- [ From: John Getz * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- -------- REPLY, Original message follows -------- Date: Tuesday, 02-Sep-97 10:33 AM From: Bruce Ludwig \ Internet: (bludwig@ptialaska.net) To: marcia wilson \ Internet: (mwilson@injersey.com) To: Penna-Dutch \ Internet: (penna-dutch-l@rootsweb.com) Subject: Re: "Read up" the house Anybody else "lift the meat" for supper?? Bruce At 01:49 PM 9/2/97 -0400, marcia wilson wrote: >>Brent coy wrote: >>Besides learning how to do the "warsh", I was taught to "read up" the >>house. I always thought that this came from "ready", as in "getting the >>place ready for company". >> >i was told to "red" the table, meaning clear the table. do you suppose that >is PD? marcia > >marcia wilson >please check out my web page: >http://nj5.injersey.com/~mwilson/ > > > > -------- REPLY, End of original message -------- My grandfathers German housekeeper said: " "Quickly I must redd the table off; spritz the dishes, run the stairs up, get dressed to go the town down, look the windows in, cause they're running things off." How could I ever learn to never end a sentence with? John -- John L. Getz, M.D. 266 Egret Lane Vero Beach, FL 32963-2623 561-234-5364 Searching: GETZ, BARBEHENN, FAHS, HOFF, LANIUS, KNAUSS BORTNER, CORNMAN, BUSER, WALBORN, BATDORF, UPDEGRAFF, REISINGER, WENTZ, ILGENFRITZ, GROFF/GROVE STRAUSBAUGH, GANTZ, etc. 27,000 data base. http://www.nmt.net/gen/biographies/john_getz.html http://www.nmt.net/gen/pictures/JGetz/index.html http://www.nmt.net/gen/Ahnetafel/Getz-ahnetafel.html

In a message dated 97-09-02 20:43:34 EDT, you write: << My wife, who will be 60 in about 50 more days, still eats cottage cheese with sugar on it. >> And here I have been eating it all these years with apple butter. Joan Myers Young

How about the word "WOPPERJAWED" for something that is crooked? Mary Jo ..Yes in our house it was "WoppeeJawed"(sp) the Idea being with a ee sound insted of a er sound... ...I also remember "katee-wampus"(sp) for something that was messed up... ...everything was all "katee-wampus"... Ed Hake +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Ed Hake bear@centercomp.com | | Alden-VT,NY,MN/ Denney/Denny-VA,KY,IN,OR/ Farwell-NY,MN/ | | Hoech/Höch/Hock/Hake-Hanau H.Germany,PA,WI,MN/ | | Hathaway-MN,WA,OR,Australia/ Hicklin-VA,IN,OR/ | | King-IN,OR/ Walling/Wallen-MA,CT,NY,VA,IL,OR/ | | http://www.centercomp.com/bear/ | +-----------------------------------------------------------+

Joan Myers Young responded: >In a message dated 97-09-02 20:43:34 EDT, you write: > ><< My wife, who will be 60 in about 50 more days, still eats cottage cheese > with sugar on it. >> >And here I have been eating it all these years with apple butter. > >Joan Myers Young Is that "schmearkäse"?? (sp?) - [cottage cheese w/ apple butter] -Linnea

>In a message dated 97-09-02 15:32:02 EDT, PENNA-DUTCH-L@rootsweb.com writes: > ><< i was told to "red" the table, meaning clear the table. do you suppose >that > >is PD? >> > >I guess I missed that one since it was my dad and not my mom who was Penna >Dutch. However, when we were out of potatoes they were "all,"--not "all >gone"--just "all," and when you wanted the light turned off you would "outen" >it. > > Yes, to "red up" something is similar to clean it up or get it ready (at least these days!) I love how these people talk about getting their "hairs" cut (note the plural!!) And we can't forget doing something "thisafter"! (That's all one word, without the "noon".) I had mentioned this before, but I tried for YEARS to find "Tar City" - it finally hit me that they were speaking of "TOWER City"!! The day I came home from college and said "yous" (for more than one of you) I thought Mom would DIE! -Linnea