Figure 1.--.

I was born in Puerto Rico during 1959. We lived on Puerto Rico untill 1969 when we moved to Harford, Connecticut. Even after moving to Connecticut, we shuttled back and forth during the 70s to visit relatives.

Puerto Rico

As it is even today, all school children in both private and public schools wore uniforms. I remember going to my sister's Head Start Program. (She was 2 years older than me.) Before I started at Head Start, I recall the basic uniform for most of the rest of the decade. It was a short sleeved cotton shirt, sdtarched and pressed with short dress pants. They usually came with a matching (self) belt. I wore white dress socks with a colored stripe to match my pants which were mostly grey, navy blue, or green with color coordinated clip-on bow tie. I also had well polished Bustern Brown shoes. Brown for green or brown pants and black when I wore blur or grey pants. Mom used to starch my shirts by hand in a big stainless steel tubwith Niagra powdered starch and then iron them. I remember that I would walk to school with my arms very still so I wouldn't ruin the crease. From 1st Grade on, most schools had white shirts worn with ties and navy blue pants. Most boys wore short pants until about 3rd-5th grade, this varied from family to family. Fridays were special. We all wore the "Gala" uniform on Friday. The Gala uniform was wehite from head to toe, including the shoes. In those days, everything on the Island closed at noon for an hour. Eating meat on Friday was a sin. Boys were not allowed to take off their ties during school hours. I liked wearing the Gala uniform, but hated the Friday lunch. They always served the same thing which I hated--rice and dried cod (bacalau). I also remember the only thing open at noon was church. If my mom forgot her mantilla, she had to put a kleenex or her head or she couldn't go in.

Connecticut

Once we moved to Harford in 1969 or 70, school was completely different. There was no school uniform. I was in 6th grade an now picking out my own clothes. I ws the only one of my classmates who wore a different outfit every day and whose clothese were always pressed. I used to work the school nurse, Mrs. Putini and got sent home without suspicion when I'd fake being sick because I was always so well dressed. I learned how differently people would treat you depending on how you looked and what you were wearing.

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Crerated: 2:39 AM 4/21/2006
Last updated: 2:39 AM 4/21/2006