16 March 1981 - Orlando Joseph Lucero's funeral. Had Lando in school. His little old mother was a friend. She once said, "Mr. Butler, since you like us Mexicans so much, how come you never learned to speak Mexican?"
He then wrote a little bit about the Lucero family. It was very apparent that he cared a lot for this family. We get more of their story recorded later with all of Lou's school stories.
Lou Butler, principal1954
It seemed that every new Kindergarten child (all 40 of them) had his mother, an aunt or two, and at least one grandmother with him for the first day of school. They all stayed for a long time! I finally asked all who could, to please let us take care of them and step out of the room onto the playground. If their children did not put up a fuss, to please go home and come back at 11:30 when the children would be dismissed.
Most of them went outside, but stayed and visited with family and friends. I soon learned that the school was a real center for the community. They attended all of our programs, had a good active PTA, and were all very friendly and supportive.
Mrs. Lucero had brought two or three younger children with her, and as she left she said, “When the littler ones get tired playing in the kindergarten playhouse, just send them home. They know their way home.” I was surprised, but not too surprised to say, “No, please take them home with you. We have our hands full here with the Kindergarten children.” So she did.
I guess Mrs. Lucero wasn’t offended, as she was back often, and when I returned to Bessemer after 20 years at Park View School, she said to me, “Mr. Butler, you like us Mexican people so much, why didn’t you ever learn to speak Spanish?”
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And almost as an afterthought, written at the end of the entry for his birthday in 1981:Birthday dinner with Toodie, Pinky, Beth, Kari and Kristi.
1 comment:
I love this picture of Lou. It was evidently taken before the ladies in the Bessemer school cafeteria decided he was too thin. They started feeding him all the cafeteria food they could get him to eat. It wasn't all their fault. He loved to eat. Those parents loved and respected him. When they had a dinner at school, nobody ate until the principal was served. When I took paper plates for our family to eat on, they got him a china plate from the school kitchen. Their principal could not eat on a paper plate. When he moved on to Parkview School, he was treated like everybody else. He always told me that I could remember how to spell princiPAL, because the principal was a pal. I always thought he was teasing. Happy Birthday Lou. I guess I should go have a rack of ribs to celebrate. I know that's what you would want to do.
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