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EVERYBODY’S DANISH – How Trinity Lutheran happened!
By fred | May 8, 2009
The worst time in my young life was the three years I spendt at Trinity Lutheran school, my three junior high school years. Instead of a fun, wonderful experience it was like a concentration camp, just like that, at least for me.
Is it any wonder that I think of my years at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School as almost the high point in my young life, after the darkness of Trinity Lutheran it was like stepping into the sunshine at last. I guess winning and marrying Sally was the highlight of my younger life, still Poly High is where I found her, and the friendships made there have lasted well over sixty years.
When I entered Poly High I did not know one person, only one, that was Dale, we had gone to the Danish Lutheran church Sunday schools together, not played together as friends.
The kids at Poly took a young 14 year old that was very short on self confidence, in three years they elected him their S-47 senior class president and a co captain of their varsity football team, honors I am very proud of. I me, I owe my self esteem, my confidence in facing life’s many challenges, and every damn thing you can think of to those that were fellow classmates, teammates, and fellow students. Poly High did it all – but it all began with the darkest three years of my life -the German Iron Fist at Trinity Lutheran German School.
CHAPTER – HOW TRINITY LUTHERAN HAPPENED!
From Vermont Avenue Grammar School we were to go to Berendo Junior High School, that was until someone started filling my Mom full of bull about Berendo. The way they were talking about it, there were straight razor fights kids smoking funny stuff, a regular den of inequity. Mom was not going to have her precious child go to the awful school. I begged her to let me go to Berendo, but Mom was determined, I was not going to that ‘awful’ school.
First off, we visited the Saint Agnes Catholic School, on the corner of Vermont and Adams Boulevard. Mom knew several of the priests because of our store. Often there were charity doings for the church and school, and Mom had always been contributing even if we weren’t of the Catholic faith. Mom’s old friend, the priest told her, “Helga, we can’t even admit all of the kids that are Catholic, the classes are just to full.” Mom was awful disappointed, and the old priest knew it. He said, “Have you tried Trinity Lutheran School, it is right off Washington Blvd, it would be no problem for Fred to get to, they have grammar school and junior high school combined. If you can get Fred in he can be there until he goes to high school.”
Mom looked up the school and called, yes, they had an opening. First however, they wanted to interview the parent and child before a decision was made. The next day we drove to Washington Blvd and turned on the street Mom found on the map. There was a huge brick building on the corner, it was the Trinity Lutheran Church. We turned the corner and next to the church was a huge frame house, we later learned this was the home of the pastor of the church. Next to that house was a fairly large old frame building, with some very wide wooden steps leading to the front double doors, the building was two floors, with one of those half basements, where windows were almost at ground level. There were only four large classrooms in that huge building.
I am not lying when I say I had reservations about the dark gloomy building even then. We walked up the stairs, and entered a dark hall. The first door on the left said ‘PRINCIPAL’ so we knocked on the door. A tall, heavy-set man in a very dark suit opened the door. The guy scared the heck out of me, he just did not smile. He and Mom discussed the monthly fee, and Mom agreed, and that was that, except, he stressed that it was a Lutheran school. The students were expected to live and maintain a Christian life. I was following the conversation, but it sure didn’t mean much to me. Heck, Mom was a Christian, aren’t we all? Also, all students have at least an hour each morning of Bible study. Mom seemed to think all that was all right so I was enrolled.
All I can think of was that my three years of prison confinement started the next day. Marvin, my neighbor buddy was going to Berendo and having a great time. None of that stuff Mom had heard about ever happened, at least Marvin never heard about it. I remember begging Mom to let me go to Berendo next year, but she felt that we had made a three-year commitment, and I was going to go to Trinity for three years or else.
I spent three years in that one classroom, you stayed in the one room for all subjects, and only one teacher taught all subjects. You did not talk to another student in that class, if you did you could get sent to the principals office and get swats with a long stick. Oh, did I forget to tell you, the real name was Trinity ‘German’ Lutheran School – the German iron fist in teaching that’s for sure.
Being a naturally friendly guy I was sent to the principal’s office quite a few times the first few weeks until I learned better and finally shut up in class. When I think back on it, I think of fifty students at least in that large classroom and never a sound. The only noise was if the teacher talked or asked you to recite a lesson. By the way, if you did not know a lesson, there was a phone call to your parents immediately, that very day. They did not wait for some quarterly report or some such like the public schools. You knew the lesson or your parents were told of your transgressions.
I will not go into the day by day of this school that I have always thought of as my prison for three years, but I will tell you of some events that happened.
After the first week I was there I was to be tested, not by the teachers, but by my fellow students, their leader, a guy by the name of David. Here I have to say that as a young kid I was not the ugliest young man, in fact, I think I was a good looking guy even if I have to say so myself. There were several girls that while not quite up to the high standards of my former dream girl Dorothy, in grammar school, still they were lovely young ladies. They seemed to share my interest and I found I could talk to them with out being tongue-tied.
One of the young ladies, Helen Hiller, it turned out was the girl or rather the class bully David ‘wanted’ her to be his girl friend. He was big, about my size, much heavier, kind of fat with what I always think of as pig eyes. I could tell he was giving me all sorts of dirty looks. His family and the families of most of my classmates knew each other since they were little kids in ‘Sunday school’ and church social events, he was the designated leader.
The toilet, for the boys and girls was a separate long building in the back of the schoolyard, so even in the rain you had to cross the small school yard to enter. Inside the boys ‘john’ there was a long trough of sheet medal to pee in, and some enclosed toilets to the left, with wash sinks on the other end. The whole ‘john’ was fairly narrow with only one door as the entrance.
About the third day or so, I was walking through the narrow door of the ‘john’ and this guy, David, steps in front of me and shoved me aside. To tell you the truth I had been expecting something from him. All I could think of was Paul, the bully in grammar school, and going through months of worry, and bullying before doing anything. So—I turned and shoved him as hard as I could, if there had to be fight I figured lets get it over with.
He went flying against the urinal, and fell on the floor. I figured that he would be flying at me, and we would start fighting. Instead, as is the case with so many bullies, I could see fear in his eyes. “What did you do that for?” he was half-crying. Unfortunately a teacher was not far away and came running, he had seen me shove David but had not seen David push me, so I was labeled the trouble maker – and I had my third trip to the principals office. I was told that they would not tolerate a troublemaker in the school and that I had better watch out.
Several things happened from this. I was ‘made,’ the other kids figured I was a tough guy – no one ever challenged me to a fight again. Nobody ever gave me a hard time in that school again – also I had no real boys as friends, not one buddy that was male. I was an outsider, my parents and I did not attend or were in the congregation of Trinity German Lutheran Church there was no social life of family or church to tie me in. During that whole three years I never remember a real friend, a close buddy, except for the girl Helen Heller, sweetheart of a girl.
Helen was certainly attractive, in fact beautiful, she was tall, slender, with a good figure. She was very intelligent, but for some reason there was no spark, the sex thing, the spark was just not there. She was a friend and that was it, nothing more. Helen did do one thing for me by the ‘dates’ we had, the long streetcar rides to picture shows, the dinner or lunch on a weekend at Clifton’s cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. I learned how to talk to a lady, how to act with a girl, very important to a young man. I certainly hope that Helen had a good life – she was certainly a fine lady, and my one bright spot at Trinity Lutheran school.
Now you don’t have to feel sorry for me, besides Helen at school, when I got home Marvin was generally already home, so I had him and Billy Rice that lived behind our house on twenty fifth street as buddies. I thank God that Trinity was not a twenty-four hour event.
MORE ON TRINITY NEXT WEEK – Bet you can’t wait! Fred
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