Double the Learning During Schooldays

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Since my parents were immigrants from Latvia arriving in NYC in 1951 they made sure that they found out where all of their Latvian friends were settled. Then the families helped each other out, The ones with no children often donated clothes and toys to those with children and so on, My parents arrived with nothing and set up a nice household getting what they needed as time went on. After I came along I was raised as an American Latvian and when I went to kindergarten I did not speak a word of English. When I was in first grade I spoke English better than those who spoke it at home because it was my second language, The hardest part of my growing up was that Monday through Friday I went to grade school and on Saturday to Latvian school. It was double everything from grammar to literature to history and even geography, It was also double the homework but somehow I managed it all and even graduated from Latvian high school, When I went to Latvia I at least spoke the language and knew what to expect. The one thing my parents made sure of each year since it was tough for me with two schools they made sure I spent all my summers out in the Catskill Mountain with other Latvian children to play with, We had wonderful summers with lots of playtimes, swimming in a man-made lake, running beneath pine trees and even a big sandbox for all to play in. That is a photo of me at six months when mom decided to take me to a professional photographer.