N'ombre, me acuerdo............



No pudo ayar un picture de Leyendecker pero asi mas o menos se miraba Laredo en ese tiempo-mas or menos.

 Written in my native tongue,Tex-Mex, just because. Misspellings and all

N'ombre, me acuerdo cuando primero entre a la escuela en Leyendecker, tenia seis anos cuando entre a first grade. En ese tiempo, no se si habia kinder or no, pero yo empeze en first grade y me toco Ms. Cuellar. No sabianos mucho Ingles por que en ese tiempo pos hablabamos puro Espanol en la casa. Nadie hablaba Ingles en los barrios, pos de que yo me acuerde-no.

Me acuerdo que la maestra tenia un chart con muchos pictures y les apuntaba y nos decia la palabra en Ingles....estaba como un vaso y un carro, o quiensabe que mas, so estabamos.....glass, car y asi. Me acuerdo las letters que estaban arriba todo alredor del cuarto y las los chalkboards negros con sus chalks y erasers.

No tenia air conditioner en ese tiempo pero siempre tenian las ventanas abiertas y uno o dos abanicos prendidos. No eran cieling fans, eran nomas de esos fans viejitos, cortitos pero hechaban fregos de aire.

Tenia hermanos mayores en otros grades ayi y me acuerdo que uno de ellos se peleo una vez y lo llevaron a la office. La principal te pegaba si te pescaban haciendo algo mal y tenias que decir tu nombre por el loudspeaker y por que te iban a pegar; "Ny name is.. ... and I'm going to be whipped for fighting". En serio, tenias que decir whipped. Pero, pos ya no hacen eso y ala mejor por eso estan los kids como estan.

Translation

I remember when I first entered school at Leyendecker. I was six years old when I entered first grade. I don't even recall if there was Kinder back then, but I started in first grade with Ms. Cuellar. We hardly knew any English because we spoke only Spanish at home. Nobody spoke any English in the barrios, well none that I can remember.

I remember the teacher had a chart with pictures of objects such as a glass or a car or who know what else. And we would be there..."glass....car". I remember the letters (alphabet) above us all around the room and the black chalkboards with it's chalk pieces and erasers.

It didn't have any air conditioning back then but they always had the windows open and one or two fans on. They weren't ceiling fans, they were just the old, short fans but they blew quite a breeze.

I had older brothers at the school and one of them got into a fight one time and they took him to the office. The principal would spank you (with a board) if you were caught doing something wrong and you had to say your name over the P.A. system and why you being spanked. "My name is.... and I'm going to be whipped for fighting". Seriously, you had to say "whipped". Well, but they don't that anymore and maybe that's why the kids are the way they are.