My Life and Times · Chapter 3 of 10

School days

So eventually ended our carefree pre-school time. I often think that that was the only time in my life when I had no worries. With the beginning of school started responsibilities. My mother was a proud woman and at first put me into a private school where she had to pay tuition. Later, when things got more difficult financially, I went to the public school in town. I did not notice any difference in the teaching. I liked this school because the girls called me by my first name “Elvīra” whereas in the previous school they called me “Sirlaciņa” a diminutive slur of my last name “Sirlaks” because I was the shortest one in the class. This nickname thus signified a lack of respect. Once mother came to school on some business and I was scared that someone embarrass me by calling me by this derogatory name.

On Ash Wednesday we sewed little bags that we filled with ashes. At school we tried to hang them onto the teachers’ clothes, and then follow around giggling and laughing. Ash Wednesday was in February. At Christmas time, we had 2 weeks vacation. There would be social evenings at school where the kids would put on a skit, Christmas songs and poetry recitals. Once there was a play with some elves. Since I was short, I was made the 7th elf, the smallest one. I had a bag of ashes on my back, but somehow the stitches came open and the ashes began to fall out. This was still in rehearsal. I was replaced with another girl, for which I was very sad. Mother was looking for me in the play but I wasn’t there and later she questioned me about why I was not in it.

I also remember an incident with a new teacher, Kārlis Streips, a tall young man with a handsome face, who had just finished the teachers’ institute. All the girls were infatuated with him. It so happened that he was planning to get married to a woman whom we considered to be an old maid. The wedding was to take place in the living room of the bride’s house. Just before the ceremony, we gathered outside the window and yelled at the top of our lungs, “Karl, Karl, reconsider” Later when we had finished grade school. This teacher took us for a walk at midnight around the park at Cēsis castle to celebrate the occasion. We felt very happy and elated and forgave him for getting married. Our heads were full of thoughts of going to high school.