Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Dutch Stories

     I asked my Dutch-born father for three Dutch sayings from his childhood and he said, "Don't!", "Take your hands off that!" and "Bedtime!"  were three that were much used when he was little.

     My Dutch grandmother, Oma, as we called her, first learned to speak English by using the King James Version of the Bible, so for a while she spoke King James English, according to my mother.

     When Oma came to visit me in England when we were there and I was a little girl, my parents nearly died of embarrassment when they discovered that I made her walk with me through the forest to the next village with her new hip replacement.  She was most uncomplaining.  She didn't give up.

     Dag!  (That's "good-day" in Dutch!)

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