A new creative experience

I was told about a site on the Internet where we can make your own books.  So I tried it out.  It was very easy even for one who is not a techy.  I used some of my photographs from the last visit to São Miguel to show some of my favorite places. 

I can't wait to receive the paper copy of the book!

Here is the link where you can preview it.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1810596

From Rua do Saco in São Miguel to the United States to Cascais, Portugal ... it's a small world!

In his comments to my post "A walk around my old neighborhood in São Miguel", my brother described our neighbors on either side of our house and across the street.  Here is a picture of him and our playmate Lisete who lived across the street.  The picture was taken in  1952. 

We've all heard and said the expression "It's a small world" to describe the situation of people from distant places who happen to meet each other.

Lisete had two older brothers but my brother and I  had little interaction with them because of the difference in our ages.  We left Rua do Saco in São Miguel in 1960 and eventually lost contact with Lisete.

In 1992, I came to settle in Cascais with my family.  A couple of years later at a 4th of July bash thrown by the then American Ambassador, I met a woman (Ana) who as it turned out used to live in Attleboro on the first floor of the doubledecker where my cousins lived after moving there from São Miguel.  I remember jumping rope with her in their yard.  We had not seen each other since our teens when I use to go visit my cousins.  Ana and I became friends.

My daughter and her son were in the same class at the old American School in Carnaxide.   When her son's birthday came around, my daughter was invited to the party.  As I was leaving the house, a couple was arriving to drop off their son.  Ana said to me, "and here's another one from São Miguel" as she introduced me to the man.  I told him I was from Ponta Delgada and he said, "me too".  Then I told him I lived on Rua do Saco and he said "me too".   Then I told him that across the street from us lived a girl named Lisete, and he said, "that's my sister"!  Henrique told me he remembered as a little girl but I didn't remember him at all.  He told me that Lisete had already died.

Henrique and his family have become dear friends since that chance meeting many years ago.  It has become a tradition for our families to celebrate Christmas day together.

It's a small world and you never know who from the past will cross your path.

A Walk Around My Old Neighborhood in São Miguel

Rua do Saco

Rua do Saco nº41

House where my friends used to live 

In the summer of 2010 I visited São Miguel and went to walk around the neighborhood where I was born. I was born at nº 41 of Rua do Saco (now Rua Coronel Miranda) off Largo 2 de Março in Ponta Delgada. Sadly the exterior look of many of the houses has been modernized making them devoid of any character (like the house where I was born).  The houses were traditionally painted white with dark gray trims around the doors and windows and at the base of the house near the sidewalk (like the house across the street where my friends lived). Many of them now just have one color or some one color on the bottom half and another on the other half.

As in past years, the cars are still parked bumper to bumper.  Like in any other city with too many cars, finding a parking space can be exasperating.  There's no need to use the car because from this street, you have everything you want within walking distance except ... the malls.

Largo 2 de Março used to be a nice open plaza with all different kinds of shops and cafes.   Many are still there like Farmácia Garcia but it is also full of parked cars.

At the end of the street behind Largo 2 de Março is a little park where my mother or my aunt used to take my brother and me.  

Largo 2 de Março

Coliseu

To the right of the street and a few blocks away is the Coliseu.  That's the place where the upper class and various business groups held their social events, mainly formal balls.  When movies came around, it was also a movie house.

O Quartel/The Fort

Down the street from the Coliseu you arrive at Campo São Francisco (renamed Praça 5 de Outubro).  This was the gathering place for kids and families.  Kids played while grownups chatted.  Here were held summer concerts by military bands as well the philarmonics from all over the island.  There were the popcorn and cotton candy carts to the delight of us kids. 

Convento da Esperança

Around Campo São Francisco were located four important buildings: the fort, the church of the Parish of São José, the Convent of the Esperença which houses the most holy statue of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, and the Hospital (which has since moved to a modern facility). 

My school, Colégio Sâo Francisco Xavier was also here as part of the convent.  The school  moved to new facilities in my last year there.

Campo São Francisco

It was a nostalgic walk which brought back many childhood memories which I had forgotten since starting my new life in America. 

The Start of a New Life-School

8th Grade Diploma from the Putnam School

After getting settled with the living accommodations, my brother and I had to go to school. In 1960 Cambridge was already ahead of its time,  it had one ESL class for the whole city located in a basement classroom of the Longfellow School on Broadway and that's where we ended up. There was one teacher and maybe 20 students from 5 to 18 years of age.  It was a multicultural, multilingual, and multilevel classroom: Portuguese, Chinese, Italians.  There were probably others but I don't remember now.  Like today, students arrived in the class at different times of the school year and with different levels of English but somehow the teacher managed.  At the end of that school year my brother and I were declared ready to be mainstreamed with the students at our neighborhood school.  

I have fond memories of my days in the ESL class.  I remember this girl who used to peer into our classroom through the window on the door.  One day, she finally approached me and we became friends.  Her name was Anita and she was like my big sister.  At the end of that school year we went to different schools, she to high school and me to my neighborhood school but she didn't forget me. She never forgot my birthday. We continued to see each other for many years.  The last time we were together was in Austria maybe ten years ago.  We went to a dog show near Vienna where she was living and she, her husband and their daughter came out to spend the day with me and my family. It was great to see her again especially as she was leaving Europe after many years to return to the states.

Years later I encountered two classmates from the ESL class.  My first car was a Renault 16 and at some point it needed work.  I found a garage which worked on French cars.  When I took the car there I thought I recognized the mechanics.  Sure enought it was Charlie and his brother Frank! The Souza Brothers. They remained my mechanics until I left the states.  I went to visit their shop on one of my recent trips and the years had caught up with Charlie.  He had had open heart surgery and didn't know how long he could keep working.

In September we were registered at the Putnam Grammar School on Otis Street just one block from our house.   Mr. Toomey was the Master of the School but I think that the person who really ran the school was Miss Kelly, the much feared 8th grade teacher. 

There were no placement tests to check either academic level or English language competence. To figure out where we should be placed, we were asked how many years of schooling we had completed before leaving the Azores.  I said 4 years so I was placed in the fifth grade.

The fifth grade teacher was a man (young and handsome)! I had never had a male teacher before.  In the Azores I went to an all girls catholic school and all the teachers were women and my ESL teacher was also a woman.  I soon got over that initial shock and enjoyed having him as a teacher even though I felt the work was too easy.  I generally got the best grades in the class which earned me the praise and attention of Mr. Gearty, which I didn't mind at all.  Of course, I also earned the envy of mostly the other girls in the class who among other things called me "the teachers' pet".

The Putnam School had a diverse student population which reflected the residents of the neighborhood: Irish, Italians, Polish and Portuguese.

I can still remember the names of my teachers: Mr. Gearty, Miss Walsh, Mr. Morris, Miss Kelly, Mr. Sheehan, Mr. Caufield, the French teacher.  French was one of my favorite classes and Mr. Caulfield like having such an enthusiastic student.  At the beginning of the year he gave each student big card with his/her equivalent French name and we had to put the cards on our desk at the beginning of each of his classes.  Since there is no French equivalent for my name he named me Nannette.  So for the next four years I was Nannette at least in the French class..

There was also the nurse, Mrs. Young and the custodian, Mr. Dottin from Jamaica.  Many years later when I worked in the Cambridge Public Schools, I got to work at the same school as Mr. Gearty. I still thought of him as my teacher even though we were now colleagues.

My best friend was Mary Costa and she lived on Second Street in East Cambridge with her parents and brothers.  Her  parents were from the same island as me, São Miguel. 

I graduated from the 8th grade at the Putnam School in June of 1964

3 February 1960: The Start of a New Life... na América.

My family (me, my mother, brother, and aunt) arrived at Boston's Logan Airport on February 3, 1960 on a TWA flight from Santa Maria, Açores.  I remember that the flight took all night( probably at least 9 hours).  I also remember that it was a rough flight with turbulence and lightning. I was scared and couldn't wait to get to our destination.

We landed in Boston and there was some snow on the ground.  It was very cold and windy.  When we stepped out of the plane, a gust of wind blew my brother's new woolen cap off his head.

None of us spoke any English so I don't know (and don't remember) how we made it through immigration and customs.

Out waiting for us were our cousins,  the two sons- Junior and Arnold- of my mother's uncle (tio Fernando, one of her father's seven siblings).  We had never met them before except in pictures which their father would send to my mother. They spoke enough Portuguese to welcome us and make conversation on our ride to east Cambridge where they lived and where we would live also.

The ride was a bit of a disappointment through the streets of the North End with their dark brick buildings and mounds of dirty brown snow. In the few american movies I had seen the houses were light in color and the snow was pure white. In east Cambridge the houses were wooden three story buildings closely set next to each other. No yards with lawns and no picket fences like in the movies.

We arrived at Thorndike Street where the family lived in a 3-story house, tio Fernando on one floor and the other two occupied by his sons and their respective family.(Later I found that it was the typical extended family arrangement of the families in that neighborhood).

We met the cousins' wives and children and there was a table of food waiting for us in Junior's kitchen. It was all very different but very exciting.

 Our passport pictures