Larchmont

Our first temporary home in the U.S. was in Larchmont, NY—right outside New York City.  It was early March 1957, I had just turned 7  and didn’t yet speak any English.  My American father registered me in the local public school about three blocks away.  Each morning I would walk down the block, around the corner, and across the street.  My mother—who didn’t yet speak much English—worried about me.  “Do the other kids make fun of your language?  Are they mean?” she would ask me in Spanish.  I would tell her what my teachers and the helpers at school taught me:  “No, mama, if they laugh at me it’s only because they don’t understand.  Some people are afraid of what they don’t understand.  One day I will make them see how much fun I am.  The teachers told me this.”  I made friends with a crossing guard who slowly and with a lot of hand signals taught me about rules of crossing streets and about buses (I had never seen a school bus before.).  At school I was part of a new program for recent immigrants.  It provided reading and language special help, guidance programs for adjusting to this new country, and a program to teach the fundamentals of government to prepare for citizenship.  I loved all of these classes and teachers and learned their lessons quickly.  I didn’t get to play with other kids very much, but gradually during recess I started to be included in some of the games and loved running and jumping rope and  giggling .  At the end of the school year that June, my teachers gave me a small American flag in a little ceremony and told me to "grow tall and strong like our fine oak trees."  Spontaneously all the kids cheered.  That August when we moved to Passaic, NJ,  I was enrolled in public school there and was given a number of tests to see where I would be placed.  Third grade.  I was placed in third grade.  I had advanced so much in a few months that I skipped second grade entirely!  I owe a great deal to the Larchmont public school system and have been grateful my entire life for their help, concern, and care.  Much later when I was awarded my PhD in English, I thanked them, along with so many others, who helped me become someone I hoped would make them proud: A very grateful American. I had my small flag with me.  I still do.

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