We were brought up with the attitude that if you are not 20 minutes early you are late. BUT you arrive exactly on time.
10am appointment, you are parked outside the place and at 9:58 you exit the car, adjust your clothing, make sure you have everything you need and walk to the door. You ring the bell (or of a business location you enter exactly at 10am…NOT 9:59, NOT 10:01, but 10:00am.
This comes from my Yekke mother.
Just as Chicken soup is made with dill
Yiddish never spoken in the house…..it was used/learned for business, but as OMA called it a gutter language it remained outside.
BTW>>>>>before someone chimes in with what the Germans did to Jews who were so comfortable in Germany in the 1930s and 40s, our family left Germany for America in the 1860s. Our Litvish family were latecomers, arriving at Castle Garden (Battery Park) in 1872.