South High School - Oriole Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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THE MELTIN6 POT .... ln the little village of Zuirblaukia, Lithuania, there are twenty-five or thirty houses with a great number of barns and cattle sheds. Most of the houses are built of wooden logs and are generally thatched on the roof. In one of these peasant cottages I was born. The room in which I first saw the light of day was bare except for a huge stove and several wooden benches ranged against the wall. From the ceiling, attached to a branch, was a long bas- ket made of birch boughs. This was my cradle. As the branch was very elastic, I was rocked to and fro while my mother was busy with her household tasks. Outside in the fields, my father sang while he plowed his acres, he sang about his straight furrow and the lark above his head. In the forest my brother, john. brought the timber from the great woods on a raft down the river. At the end of the day when the outside work was done, the men would come into the house and wash up while mother prepared our simple meals. Before a large and elaborately carved cross father said grace, and then we were ready to sit down to our meal of creamed beet soup and rye bread. After the supper dishes were cleared away, our neighbors would gather outside our door and we entertained ourselves by singing and dancing until eight o'clock, when we all retired. In such an atmosphere I grew up. We all worked hard in both the house and the fields, but still we always seemed to have time to celebrate the many holi- days in true Lithuanian fashion. One festival day, Vainikinas, as it was called, stands out vividly in my mind. On this occasion I wore my best clothes. These consisted of short woolen many-colored skirt, a white blouse and a tight em- broidered sleeveless bodice. My hair was elaborately plaited and on my hands were rings of silver, tin, and brass. Vainikinas means binding of wreathes. Accordingly, about sunset my two friends and I set out for the forest where we gathered flowers and made them into wreaths. Adorned with these we then went in search of two young birch trees. Having secured them, we entwined them together and made a per- fect triumphal arch. The men, in the meantime, had made a similar arch. When these had been erected, we marched through them, singing appropriate songs, as the couples met, they kissed and marched on. The day came, however, when our family packed its few trunks, said good- bye to our dear friends, and set out upon our long journey to America, the long- discussed Land of Freedom. Unfortunately, we had succeeded in getting only one pass. This enabled my mother and father to cross the border line of Lithua- nia into Prussia, but made no provision for my brother and me. Leaving us at home was out of the question, of course, so we were hidden under the straw in the cart. In this way we crossed the border without detection and boarded a train which took us to Amsterdam. Then we climbed the gangplank to the pol- ished, shiny deck ofa great steamer. Never shall l forget that memorable trip across the Atlantic. After we had located our quarters, we lay down to take a little rest. I awoke to find my stom- ach soaring up and down, and the next thing I knew my mother had boiled some ramuliu tea, which changed my seasickness to a feeling of hunger. We dined upon cream cheese, onions, black bread and thick cream. With my appetite appeased, I strolled along the deck and gazed wide-eyed at the strange men who, with sleeves and pants legs rolled up, were washing the decks. Everything was very fascinating. The second day out l became acquainted with a Lithua- nian professor who was coming to America to teach our language in a large New England college. I-le had already spent several years in America and had a thor- ough understanding ofthe English language. To him am I indebted for the foun- dation of my education as an American. For several hours each day during that two weeks' trip, this new-found friend labored with me. I was indeed proud to

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. '2'fIf-:cf . -. : .TV-,':-5'1-:t uf- 0 Q-'.'.:.g :jWgf. 2Q, . V ., 'IH I Qg:f:':Qf W' , 5'-lil IQ 4 ,.- , - lmi 1 gi fi'-L' .9f:5'3f,li ' I it llNf'2'3Lni5ifi.21:'6 T g it -.I-Vey -'TP' 1 Wi-'i N S ii its-.if Lidi'5'P'i: V -::,:5 mm lV'XX Q X 2 l :XXII xx 'Fix x S qilllll in ii X imx 2 1 illlll' ' I i , lm l Ui. ,X wi ,, i' '- , 2 'EE L 6 I, t5-EJ-.2.,,3..EE3iif3rm5-5 1. 4 - ' - -' - QF? j ri M' ll Q f -:rf-si:-fl 'lllj -r' iijefi' 45: u N.-1 lllli 1 5555. display at the end of each lesson my increasing knowledge of English. ln the evenings I helped my brother, and together we struggled over the primer our professor friend had given us. At last our steamer made portg she had come in during the night and l arose in the morning to look upon the Statue of Liberty. As l looked over the rail at the miles of streets, the stir of ferry boats, the grim skyline formed by the towering buildings, my hopes rose high and l prayed that somewhere in this busy world there would be a place for me. Would l, with my Lithuanian cus- toms and my Lithuanian background, ever become truly Americanized? Little did I dream of what an important part the public school was to play in my life. Twelve hours later we were in the Pennsylva- nia Station in Pittsburgh. Our cousins met us and no one will ever realize just what my emotions were when l saw a familiar face among that vast throng of people hurrying to and from the trains. How I envied them their easy familiarity with the American language and customs. They had preceded us by just three years, but were in- deed our American cousins now. Their colorful Lithuanian clothes had been exchanged for the more somber clothing of the American. The girls' hair, in- stead of being in long plaits, was bobbed according to the prevailing American style. Their fingers were bare of the many ringslso dear to Lithuanians. They spoke the English language without even a hesitancy in their speech, and were much amused at our futile efforts to follow them. We boarded a street car and were on the way home when suddenly my cous- ins said, Cla yra musu mokykla, which means, There is our school. l peered out into the darkness and was able to see what seemed to me a gigantic struc- ture of red brick behind a tall iron fence. How little we know of what the future holds in store for us: this structure of red brick was later to become my Alma Mater, dear old South High. We went directly to my uncle's home, where we were to stay until we had sufficient time to locate a home of our own. My uncle and aunt were watching for us as we came down the street, and what a reunion we all had when we met in their tiny front hall. My cousins soon carried me off to their room, where we talked until daybreak. How eagerly l listened to their stories of school. The dresses they wore they had made in the sewing department and they assured me they would help me make one just like theirs. My first disappointment came when they told me that l couldn't enter school before the following September. lt seemed there would be only one more month of school before the term ended. l could not hope to enter until l had learned to speak and write the English lan- guage. However, they promised me that as soon as I had gotten settled they would take me up to visit the high school. That summer brought many changes in my life. ln june my father succeeded in getting a position in the mills of jones G Laughlin. We then moved into a little home on Thirtieth Street, where we could be conveniently near father's work. My mother missed the farm at firstg she couldn't become accustomed to looking out on brick walls instead of rolling fieldsg but when she realized how much more prosperous we could be on American soil, she soon ceased to long for the things we had left behind. My brother went to work with a construction gang who were putting in a new county road. He and father together earned as eight