We'll "pass" on this theme song

When I was at Baxter Christian
there was a morning ritual called
the sentence prayer that was very much in vogue
(remember, this was the 60s).
The idea was to include the students,
and what a novel idea since we were,
after all, in school.

This is how it usually unfolded ....


Teacher: "Teddy, will you begin our sentence prayer today?"

Teddy: "Sure, Mrs. Vander Schmandersma"

Teddy prayerfully intones,
"Dear Lord, please be with our boys in Viet Nam"
Sally (who sits directly behind Teddy) adds,
".... and all the starving children in Biafra"
Freddy, who's next in the row, contributes,
".... and all the starving children in China"
Betsy likewise intones,
".... and all the starving children in India"
Ricky whispers in a strangulated voice, "pass"
Davy, future missionary, Calvin Sem 1983, pleads,
".... and all the starving children in Outer Mongolia"
Patsy barely gasps, "pass"
and etcetera etcetera etcetera
(all the names have been changed to protect the innocent)

Well, that's kind of how I feel about This Song.

If Mrs. Vander Schmandersma let's us pass on this song
I think I'll take her up on it.

And, if nothing else, this video proves
once and for all
that white people cannot dance.
Please, Dutch white people, do not even attempt to
move with music!
Take it from someone who grew up in the ghetto.


Photo courtesy of Holland Chamber of Commerce

KEEK US and KATOOTLE !!

Katootle is a Hofman word that we use
in place of dang or rats
or for cryin' out loud!

If some event or occasion or procedure
is hopelessly confusing and muddled up
Hofmans exclaim, "What a katootalie business!"

At least,
I think that's what we exclaim
because both of these words are of uncertain origin,
vaguely Dutch sounding,
and used by no one else but us.
I don't even know how to spell them.

but ............

that's what I thought about other Hofmanisms, too,
such as luppee, feese, bahnout, poppetje,
ferfailent, keek us, and last but not least, the heavily used
"Stop your seussing and sonicking!"

and then, y'all,

I discovered that these are REAL WORDS

all of them

and not Hofmanisms or some weirdly mutated
bastardized form of the Teutonic slash Saxon language.

Regardez!!!!

Luppee = lapje, a small piece of cloth.
Feese = vies, meaning filthy or dirty
Bahnout = benauwd, meaning stuffy
Poppetje = poppetje!, little doll
Ferfailent = vervelend, annoying and unpleasant
Keek Us = kijk es, to look
and ... and .... and .... AND

Seuss and Sonic = zoesen en zanikken, meaning to worry, bore, tease,
and to unnecessarily talk about the same subject over and over.
(Insert young child whining, repetitively, "Mama, mama, mama, mama...")

Now,
harken back and
remember how Grandma and the aunts used to whisper,
"Keek us!",
sotto voce,
when a little poppetje was doing something naughty
like getting really vies by jumping in mud puddles,
but you didn't want the little seuss and soniker
to know that you'd noticed
so you went all default language instead?

Yup. I thought you'd remember.

Yes Yes.
I do have a point and
this is it:

KEEK US and KATOOTLE !!

Here we have Sandra Vermeer and Barbara Hoogstrate
and
"KEEK US"
Barbie has a Boa Constrictor Around Her Neck
and Sandy is just really very copacetic with that.


Now we are going to fast forward
and Keek Us a little more.
Here is Barb with her grandson, Donovan,
not really encircling her neck but
kind of clutching at her bosom
and, as you can clearly see,
Barb stills weighs the same as she did
when she was 16
which is just ridiculous
but isn't that little poppetje sweet?

Donovan is the son of Barbie's son Steve,

although in the photo below
I'm pretending to be his mother
(notice pained expression on Steve's face)
with my sister Karen "keek ussing"

Here is Steve a few years later,
free from my clutches

and here he is again
just a couple of decades later
with his andere poppetje, Olivia,
and even though he is a doctor in Oregon
brownie points for wearing that Tiger baseball hat!

Finally, we have the entire Phelps family:
Andree, Donovan, Steve & Olivia
and nobody is seussing or sonicking
but Donovan looks like he just realized
he lost his luppee!

And P.S.
this is really kinda cool because
Donovan & Olivia are the FIFTH GENERATION
of Hofmans at Big Star Lake.