A Father's Day memory:
My dad served his mission in Holland and picked up a lifetime habit of saying the popular Dutch phrase "Eets makelijk!" before every single meal, right after the blessing on the food. "Eets makelijk" translates as "Eat hearty!" and it sounds like "Eat smock lick" - I never knew how it was really spelled until a Google search about two minutes ago. Hearing "Eets makelijk" was such an established part of the dinnertime ritual that it just seemed normal to me for my whole childhood and it wasn't until I was older that I realized that not every family said it before each meal and I finally thought to ask Dad what a "smock lick" was and why we should eat it.
All those years of "Eets makelijk" must have made an impression, because starting a few weeks ago I have frequently found myself saying it before meals. I have no idea why I suddenly picked up the habit, but I have found it to be a good icebreaker/transition after the prayer on the food, because sometimes after the prayer there can be a few awkward moments before people start conversing and dishing up food.
So Happy Father's Day, Dad. May you always "Eets makelijk!"
16 years ago
3 comments:
No one can corrput you quite like your parents.
My version is 'boat'. When we were kids, being told to 'boat' something meant to throw it away. It wasn't used often, but it was used enough that it became a part of our language. It wasn't until I was in my teens that I heard my father use and realized it wasn't really an english definition. My father served a mission in Chile, where the spanish word botar can mean (among other things) to throw something away. It had degenerated in our family lexicon and become 'boat' sometime in my early childhood.
I still say it on occasion.
Funny, I would have phoneticized it as "eats a mall lick".
Wait, no, it's "eats a mock lick"?
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