Lady Mondragon and Other NW Pa Matters

[Carter Rila]

Growing up in the 1940s in the upper Alleghany Valley Area. Venango Country, the local Catholic Parish had an elementary through high school system. 
I always heard the term parochial as "profield" used by the principal of my city elementary school. And so did others.
In 1951 the Catholic parish closed the high school and we first encountered our fellow citizens of non-protestant faith. The assimilation was quick and unremarkable.
In 1952 the city of Franklin School District merged with the Sugar Creek Township and all those folks were brought in on big Yellow school busess. Again they all soon fit in. Except for the fact that after school detention could not be imposed on the bus riders.
Now since the sixties the old schools in the city were sold off and only the old jr high remains as an elementary school, and the "townies" are bussed to a spacious multibuilding school located on the plateau, with room for playing fields, etc.
As to the use of localisms, one of the local former railroad station sites, was still referred to as the "Lake Shore" site (the station was long gone) though the boarding area still remained) even though the NYC had absorbed the LSMS in 1914 in a merger. An example of the persistence of long gone names.
Then there was the local pronunciation of Seneca as "Senecky" by my parents and grandparents and many others
A common term used in our area was "red up" for tidying up. An episode of Criminal Intent led Goren to the origins of a pair of murderous maids,
When I moved to Erie in 1953, red up was never used and I long forgot to use it, About fifteen years ago the term came back to me when someone at the office asked me why I was staying late and it turned out he was from the area too
Now I use it all the time and mayhaps it will spread. I used to stay with my aunt in Youngstown, Ohio, and don't recall the term ever used there.
Carter Rila, aka Charles Franklin Carter.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org