Where Is Your Sister, Virginia?

In 1952 I was enrolled in third grade in a two-room country school known as Radhost School. My younger sister, Virginia, was just starting school and having a bad start to the school year. When I started the first grade in school, I absolutely knew not one word of English. The Sisters who taught us knew the Czech language but were forbidden to speak it with us. To converse with us, we spoke Czech to them but they could only answer in English. We had no choice but to learn English and to learn it quick. You can imagine how far behind most of us were in learning the basic 1-23s and A-B-Cs.

In today’s modern world, I find that my grandson and granddaughters knew more before they started school than I did in the third grade. In those days, my parents figured my education would start in school and if I did know my 1-2-3s and A-B-Cs, I knew it in Czech and that didn’t do me any good in school.

Back to my sister in 1st grade … She was at that time and remained so the rest of her days, a strong-willed and open-minded gal. Whenever something bothered her, she would not say much, but just clammed up and stared into space.

On one occasion at the beginning of her first year of school, something came over her and she just went into her “trance.” Her teacher scolded her at first but after Virginia didn’t respond, she threatened her with a peach tree switch.

Switching a student was a usual procedure in those days, and when Virginia realized she might get a switching on her bare legs, she jumped up and out of an open window. None of the schoolroom windows had screens on them so it was one easy exit for Virginia.

Well, the teacher had a room full of students to contend with so she ordered me to bring her back, which was easier said than done because Virginia was nowhere to be found. I looked for her in the outside girls’ restroom, the boys’ restroom, the garage, and the wood shed, but no Virginia. I looked down the road towards home and didn’t see her there either. My last resort was to look under the school house, and there she was.

The school house was set on concrete blocks about 2024” high. During recess my classmates and I would crawl under the school, dig a hole in the ground and fill it with water. Then, we would catch crawfish in nearby ditches and deposit them into our manmade crawfish holes. We kept them there as pets.

Well, there sat Virginia, next to the crawfish hole, poking a stick into it. Talking to her didn’t do much, so I physically had to drag her out from under school house and back into the classroom.