Oley Valley High School - Olean Yearbook (Oley, PA)

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FACULTY SENICRS CLASSES ACTIVITIES ALUMNI

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0I.El1N 1945

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FOREWCDRD Four THE HERITAGE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH What is the heritage of the Pennsylvania Dutch? We are generally of middle class origin. most of our forebears being simple, hard-working peasants from the Palatinate valley in Germany. who brought with them a background and a culture that have played a major role in shaping and enriching our life. The farmer folk knew good land by instinct and headed directly for the limestone valleys of southeastern Pennsylvania, where the rich, dark soil soon yielded abundant crops to iill the great Swiss bams. But with them, too, came artisans, scholars, potters, printers, weavers, glass- makers, ministers, gunsmiths-men from every walk of life, imprinting the trade-marks of their profession on the life of the people. They brought their Bibles with them, and their deep religious feeling, and their music that was part of everyday devotion. But paramount among the rest, they brought their love of color and decoration-hearts, tulips, peacocks and distelfinks, painted in bright blues. earthy reds, and brilliant greens: animals and stars and trees of life, and other native symbolism dating back into the past. Here they once again set down the old familiar themes-on barns. birth certificates. chairs, dower chests, pottery, clocks, spatterware. quilts, toleware, in lovely fractur painting on manuscripts-the priceless articles of honest workmanship that only today we fully appreciate. They brought their love of hearty eating with them also, and that generous hospitality that finds its outlet in a table laden with wholesome, delicious food-with the familiar seven sweets and seven sours , shooily pie, pannhas. chow-chow, schnitz und knepp , potato filling. schmiercase , fasnachts, coleslaw, lattwarrick , and other typical examples of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. They brought with them, too, their characteristic traits-their strong individualism, their conservatism, their economic thrift, their love of home-all of which have made their way to their descendants. And they brought their own distinctive dialect, handed down by ear alone. But if you ask any Pennsylvania Dutchman anywhere: Schwetscht Deitsch? he will always understand and answer with a smiling Ia, gewiss! Wherever they live, there the fields are rich and fertile: huge red barns loom over neat stone houses, furnished with lovely Dutch handcrait: and tempting odors drift from bright, clean kitchens. Here, in a land of peace and plenty, live those staunch and sturdy citizens who helped greatly in the making of America. Such, then, is our heritage.