>> 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 like this etomology; my mother also "Redd up the house." - that was >how I thought of it as being spelled, no idea why. If you spell it your >way then your etomology makes a lot of sense.Yes, one could also redd up >a table or a room, it didn't haveto be a whole house. > I was one of three kids. One warshed the dishes, one dried and put away, and the third had to red/read/redd up the table. We generally had to clean and dust the house. Here on the edge of Amish/Mennonite country EVERYONE called it warsh. Had been wondering if someone would mention redding up. I'm much more Swiss than Pa-Dutch, tho I have some on each side of the family. This area of Ohio has always been called little Switzerland. And I'm beginning to really see why. <G> Wrootchy - the kids have ants in their pants, can't sit still -(spielkuss in Yiddish) or Wrootching - squirming as in "wrootching in your seat" And here we called it scrootching around... ginseng@sssnet.com