Life in the 40s

When I was in the California school system in the thirties and the forties, they were many ethnic groups there.

You might say, that’s nothing new, our schools today have the same thing. But what you don't know is, I came from the south where schools was divided into a color coded system, where whites went to a segregated white’s only schoo

I didn't think anything about it, one way or the other. Neither did I think anything about there being different races in my classes in California. There were Italians, Portuguese, Mexicans, some blacks, and many others. There were some other kids that seem to catch my attention and they were the Greek kids.

In studying world history, I found that the Greeks at one time were rulers of the then known world. Alexander the great was the conqueror of Persian Empire and established the Hellenistic kingdoms. He died at the age of 32, but made his place in history. When the Roman Empire captured most of the known world they also inherited the Greek culture, art and literature.

The reason I mention this brief history is because knowing about those smart Greeks of yesterday, I always wondered if the kids in my class was as smart as them. They had a little different accent from my southern talk and they had a little different complexion from me in fact theirs had a little yellowish cast, while I had the genuine red neck color.

Their first names were like Joseph but their last names were unbelievable!  It sounded like something they had made up just to be different. I knew them for several grades and we were friends, not good friends because they kind of stayed apart from the others.

There was one other thing that I couldn’t quite get, and that was, while we were about the same age, I had to look real hard to see if I had any peach fuzz on my face, while they were already shaving. Each day by the time school was out; they had black whiskers coming out of their face. Oh well, I didn't like to shave anyhow!

In many respects the world was a better place in the early years of my life. Compared to today, it was almost an age of innocence.

The scripture says now abides Faith (toward GOD) Hope (for all things) and Love, love being the greatest of these.

There is one thing I would like to add and that is Respect (of all men) for when these four things are in pre-eminence, all is well in the world