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1iss!Itri Tomei
TEACEER RETIRED
hecorded Illoters, sect/ in
FL _411G On FlleL
Alice Boardman pushed back wisps of yellow -Cray hair and
removed a pair of silver -rimmed glasses, She wrapped the glasses
in a scrap of white cloth and laid them carefully in a black
leather case. This CA placed on the low, glossy oak book case
tat ran along two walls of the room, length and width. 1*,yond
was a kitchenette. To the left a partly opened door revealed
a narrow bed, the coverlets neatly turned down though it was
but four in the afternoon. "I'm always finding myself with
tire on my hands," Misr. Boardman said. "Three small room aren't
halfenouish to keep me busy during the day. T get my bed ready
for n!cht right after lunch."
"When my brother was alive we lived over on Orange Ctreet.
so had six lar,ly rooms, I used to complain that there was too
muall house work:: to be done after school hours. I stopped teach
in cI years &co. Now I 7142,VC all the time in Vie world to do
und I dolltt know wi,,At to do except, perhaps, read. Vy
brother died two years ago. I :is him, e was all I had left
of the faLlily. There's a sister out Vest. 2he went tbere to
teael, in a mission school, I haven't seen her for fl-teon 'dears,
1 aloat forget she's part of the family. never been to
Vermont, and I've never visited the Dakotas. It's strange, isn't
It, how two people can drift apart? .4e were so close as child-
ren. len I came to •preciised to send in an applicat-
Ion I7or t e first yaeanc-4, In school. hut the next year a
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chum of here went West, and Rose went, too.
"I was born in Everett, Massachusetts. I taught there seven-
teen years. Seventeen years puts you into too deep a rut. I
think that's why I came to Barre. That and the fact that it
was a sure job." ries Boardman's eyes held a ghost of a twinkle.
"Father was a good friend of the school superintendent. I don't
suppose tines have changed so much after all. The right contacts
get you the right jobs.
"Yy first glimpse of Barre was by night, and it was only
the residential section I saw, I'd been accustomed to Everett
and Boston. Cities. Orange Street by moonlight seemed a cosy
cluster of white houses. In my first letter to my sister I re-
member describing Barre az a little white nest in a green mount-
ain valley, I suppose this description was prompted somewhat
by my recent study of the region, because actually I hadn't seen
much of the terrain, coming through as I did at night. In my
second letter a meek later I explained that it certainly was a
little nest, a bees' nest, a kive humming with active workers,
For seventeen years I'd been teaching Passachusetts fifth graders
that Barre, Vermont was a granite center, but I hadn't told them
that it was no more typical of Vermont than, well."Venice is
of Italy,
"I wrote my alter that she could go on picturing a green,
pastoral Vermont, with milk cans, lumber -jacks, sugar -making,
peaceful little towns, but when she got to the core of the Green
Mountains, to Barre City, then I advised her to shift the scene.
I told her that Barre was a one -industry town, the industry was
granite, and tbat granite had brought more nationalities to the
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town than any other industry in Vermont. Italians* Spanish*
French* Swedes, Irish. 'Vermont's outlander,' our ex -mayor
calls Barre.
"Through the fifteen years that I've taught in Barre I'd
say t:lat on an average half of my pupils' parents were foreign
born.
Yost of them European born* except for the Prendh. The
french who came to the Barre sheds and quarries were mostly
Canadian born. Today you're hardly able to distinguish one
nationality from the other. Valan I first came here to touch,
some of the children dressed old country style. ;:.e.me of the
little Spanish and Italian girls wore gold earrings. Today only
a few do. I remember a little Italian girl, Monica was her name.
;The teaches school in Burlington now. She was shy, very sen-
sitive; at Ce recess perlod she kept to herself in a corner.
winter there was a whole week she didn't appear at school.
iler parents sent me no news of her. One of the pupils from her
neighborhood told me she'd seen ,.!onicigt making a snowman in the
backyard that morning and ended with, 'she wouldn't be doing
that if she had a cold* would the?'
"That evening I walled on Monica's mother. Before I was
inside the door I heard a scampering of feet on bare* wooden
steps* and I had a hunch that Yoniea had recognized my voice
and had gone upstairs in hiding*
"No* Monica 'a mother assured me* Z.:onica did not have a
cold; it was the earrings that kept her from school. he came
Lome one afternoon crying that two classmates had laughed and
made fun of them* and she beL,ged her mother to let her take
them off. Monica's mother would not take them off. They were
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sent from Brien*, Italy, by her husband's mother. The father
had pierced Monloats ears and put the rings there himself.
Fed been away all week. Monday to was coming book. Monica's
mother Shrugged her Shoulders. If be wanted to remove them
When he came batik*, all right. If not, well they stayed there.
As for the days Monica hadlnissed at sehool„ wells she demanded
of me, Monica got good marks didn't she? Besides, the two young-
er children were having colds ana Monies could help with them.
*I asked her: suppose your husband insists that ihe wear
them? She'll have to go to school, you know.
'Tess Menial's mother understood that, and she smiled crate-
fUlly eten I promised there would be no more fun poked at opica's
earrings,
*Monica came to aehool Monday morning minus the gold ear
rings, In Monica's young mind the discarding of these earrings
must 1ave been the final step towards Americanisation. he
lost her shyness and solfconaciousness. At mesas she left her
corner and played with the rest of the.dhildren Speaking of
Americanisation, for two years Americanisation classes were held
in the Casa Italians' of °Air Community House, for adult Italians.
The granite-outtieg Barre Italians come from northern Italy,
they're a higher class than the southerners who flock to Mass-
adhusetts and New York. They adapt themselves more easily to
their new home, and AmeriCan customs.
*You'd be surprised how many mothers warned their children
to stay away from theirl4m and mz classmates. 'X mean year'
ago. Today ti_ey inter.wmartry„ like that.* Miss Boardman snapped
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her fingers,
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'Most of these children had healthy bodies and did well
in school* **My of them didn't stop with a high school ed-
ucation* ftme have gone into professional fields* We have
five or six young Ittlian doctors in Barre, and perhaps as many
lawyers* All Barre born* And you'll find that most of the
fathers were at acme time in the granite became** Common laborers,
or carvers, or perhaps abed owners* You'll find several sheds
owned by men who'd been cutting stone themselves not so many
years ago. Italian names are women today on the High Schools
athletic tames. Baseball, basketball, football* They're good
athletes* Often acme Italian boy receives a scholarship for
some college or university*
"I liked the Swedes," Miss Boardman confided* *Most of
them were sunny -faced and always happy. It was hard to break
them of the broken English they spoke at home* And /Ivo seen
French children cling to a French accent through the eighth
grades and in some instances through high school*
*The Italians and Spanish shone during the singing hour*
They had rich, sure voioes and they were quick to oat0h an air.
We've had real musical talent from Barre. One Italian girl I
know studied music abroad, now shoots giving consorts in the
States. One evening last year she played and sang here in Barre*
The hall was filled,
'Barre schools are good* At one time all the children
attended the public schools we have several of them for small
Children but now the Catholics have their own parochial graded
school. I suppose that before long they'll have a Catholic
high school, too. I'm told that during the last four c& five
years some of 'our Barre Catholic children have commuted to Mont»
paler** attend St* Michael's litio School.
*1 miss teaching* "I miss young life around me* The woman
downstairs has three children* Tbe little boy use a friendly
chap* He used to *one up and visit with me* This spring append-
icitie kept him from edhool. He had a dread of not being able
to keep up vith his class. I offered to teadh him* I wasn't
very successful. The tutoring vas successfUl0 he made his class,
but I loot a lively little friend* ever gime that month of
teaching he's lost his ease with me, hes been very reserved
remembering always that hes the pupil and 1 the teacher ---11
Miss Boardman smiled ruefully,