Coming to Colorado: A Young Immigrantâ??s Journey to Become an American Flyer

CHAPTER 9. East High School

East High School CHAPTER 9 { 109 } EAST HIGH SCHOOL Between classes at Opportunity School I met an older German man. We greeted each other in the hallways, exchanged a few words now and then, but never stopped to really talk. One day he stopped me and asked my name and where I lived. “I have a son your age,” he said. “He goes to North High School. Why are you here? You should be going to East High School.” “I don’t know,” I said. “I will check it out.” At lunch time I went to see Ms. Redford and asked her if I shouldn’t be going to East High School instead of Opportunity School. She smiled and said, “Wolfgang, you are not quite ready. I will tell you when.” With that she got up from behind her desk and ushered me out of her office. “You will be ready soon,” she said, as she held the door for me, “soon.” Summer came. I continued to attend classes at Opportunity School. One day Ms. Redford called me to her office and informed me that she thought I was ready to transfer to East High School. “I’ve spoken to all of your teachers, and they agree that you should enter a regular high school this fall. I will miss you, Wolfgang. We will all miss you. But it is time for you to be with youngsters your own age.” I was both thrilled and saddened to leave, especially my kind and generous teachers. It was customary in Germany when leaving one place for another to have classmates and admired teachers sign their names in an autograph book, usually accompanied by a verse of poetry, a custom similar to the practice of signing high school or college yearbooks in the United States. My German classmates usually chose a stanza from one of Germany’s many great poets such as Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, or Heinrich Heine. Heine was by far my favorite. He wrote in a lucid, readable style I could identify with, while Goethe and Schiller seemed more remote, old fashioned. When summer school ended, I asked my teachers at Opportunity School to sign my autograph book. They didn’t quote poets, but simply expressed their heartfelt wishes for my future. Ms. Whitney, my social studies teacher, wrote, “It has been so very pleasant knowing you. Your interest and cooperation in this ‘new’ world to you has been inspiring to the teachers as well as to the pupils.” My algebra teacher, Ms. Elsie Gross, wrote, “A very serious lad is my Wolfgang today. { 110 } EAST HIGH SCHOOL Hope he never changes.” Winona Norton advised, “Give your best effort to all you do and life will reward you—and America will be glad you came to us.” And my principal, Ms. Redford, wrote poetically, “God bless you, giving you time for the task, peace for the pathway, wisdom for the work, friends for the fireside, love to the last.” Tears came to my eyes as I read their words. Leila Yamamoto took my autograph book home with her, and when she returned it, she lowered her eyes as she handed it back to me. “I will miss you, Wolfgang Samuel,” Leila said, two big tears running down her cheeks. She turned around and walked away quickly. Leila quoted a passage from Rudyard Kipling, writing, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, and make allowance for their doubting too; if you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about don’t deal in lies; or being hated don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good nor talk too wise.” In her parting words Leila mirrored her own personal pain inflicted by a doubting nation, as well as her struggle to regain her identity as a patriotic American. I loved Leila in the way friends love each other. I knew I would miss her greatly. Impish Dolores revealed herself as well, writing “I choose a friend not from the books. I choose a friend not for the looks; but, Hi ya Joe, I’d like to say, and hear him answer the same way. To a friend so true.” She ended her comments in Spanish...