Note: Christine Purves writes about Swiss dialect words, phrases and stories, which relate to the history of this community. Her column is printed with permission by the Swiss Community Historical Society.
By Christine Habegger Purves
I never heard my grandmother use the word "rheumatism," but she came close. She would say, "I got some rheumatic fer shoor."
Or more specifically, "I ha jetszt es haxaschuss, und es duet mi viel rookveh." Literally this means, "I have a witch's shot and it gives me a big pain in the back."
It was a lazy Sunday afternoon. My friend Mary and I had just left another friend's home where we had enjoyed lunch together. One of our table conversations had been about the spiffy new "Motter Metro Park" sign that had recently appeared along Grove Road, just across from Maple Grove Cemetery.
None of us had remembered seeing anything in the news about it. What was this new park in our midst?
