Sunday, September 9, 2018

Time Flies

Yesterday, Saturday, seemed like a busy day. I actually mopped the kitchen floor, did some redding up.

I heard that term when I was in grade school from the mother of one of my friends - Janet. I think Mrs. Bidstrup was Swedish, I had never heard that word used. She used to say she was going to red up the kitchen.

So with Google's help I found out that it is an old term, possibly Swedish, that means to tidy up.
My husband's maternal grandmother was from Sweden but I never heard his mom use that term.

Another term that I hadn't heard in a long time was monkey around. A politician used it saying, "Monkey up" but my dad used it to tell me to keep my hands off something he was working on. "Don't monkey around with that" or "We were just monkeying down at the shop." I understood the last example to mean "hanging out."

Languages are fascinating. I loved taking Latin I and II, Spanish for six years in high school and college. My plan was to teach it. Plans don't work out sometimes but I have enjoyed hearing it spoken and trying to translate with very little success.  Three years of French were thrown in there too but it wasn't my favorite.  Later I took some German at a night class at a junior college. That was fun and I was able to use a tiny bit of it on my one and only trip to Germany in 1989.

I think languages should be started for kids in the early grades...basic phrases. That's when they can learn that part the most easily. Maybe they do that now. I've been away from the education system for a long time!

Oh. And now there's Babel!




1 comment:

  1. I have not heard redding up, interesting! I have been accused of Monkeying around sometimes:)

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