Have you every thought about yourself during the time you were walking through the educational system?  Were you so fascinated by the studies that you were involved in and that you worked as if you were in a fever?  Did you think that every minute you were not studying was a minute lost?  Were you too shy to make friends and took refuge in your studies rather than make friends?  Did you ever realize there were people in  your first grade class that did not speak English?  Have you ever known people who read the dictionary instead of books?  There are people out there who are in this situation.

Why this story intrigued me was that I was one of those people!  My family immigrated from the Czech Republic and the family spoke only Czech.  My Mom spoke perfect English but reserved that for outside the home. Therefore, when we moved to the new town, my brother and I  would be starting school. Recalling that first day of school and observing our new world and not understanding one word of this new world.  

Our teacher, Mrs. Simmons, welcomed us to the first grade.  Her words were not understood; but, later told my Mom that it was such a joy to teach children from scratch because there were no bad habits to break.  Learning the alphabet seemed so easy and the words flowed like water from a facet. The humorous part was injecting a few words of Czech into this new world that was opened up to us.  Walking thru this world each day was like Spring and the blossoming of flowers for both of us.  It seemed the older we became a new challenge always sat in front of us just waiting to be grasped.  People looked on us as “Pollyanna’s.” Laughing at us – thinking how foolish are these two young people.  All the while, waking up, going out to meet the world, and having that smile on our face just waiting for our next challenge. 

The twelve years were years of endearment for us by all of  folks who touched our lives from the teachers who encouraged us that the sky is the limit, to the students who made us laugh and cry, the customers who were a part of our newspaper service, the owner at the gas station, Mr. Adams, who pumped our seventy-five cents of gas in that ’39 Chevrolet – just to get us to school and work, the owner of the pharmacy, Mr. Scarborough,  who employed this young girl and giving her an opportunity to learn the trade of handling money and people – trusting her in this part-time job, the college scholarship to push this young girl even further, and, lastly, all of the people at that big oil company who hired this young girl who was petrified – not realizing, this company would become a member of her whole family – who were also employed.  All of these family members grew to be contributors to the economy as well as raising families who had flourished to a life style that all of us just dreamed about.   What a wonderful world!   

Now I look back and think that this country has so much to offer and so few people take advantage of a thing called “work.”  Their mind has missed so much by not having exercised that part of the brain called challenge.  And as we walk that walk through this thing called life we have to thank all of those people who touched our lives and thank God for this opportunity called life.

As my family talk about the many joys and sadness we witnessed, it is sad that so many of this new generation will never have the chance to experience the fun, play, and work that surrounded our lives!  And, some of you wonder why some of us are so angry that we have betrayed our ancestors, after their sacrifices, by letting this one person with our knowledge slowly change our country.  That is not acceptable!

kommonsentsjane