Storyboard Text
- As a child, I left my native Switzerland by way of train from Geneva to France and by ocean liner across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. The trip took over a week and I was excited to be on this journey.
- My Dad had already preceded us by nine months to the U.S. Just mother and me went through immigration at Ellis Island upon our arrival. It took us most of a day to be processed and mother got very angry with the customs official as he wanted to change the spelling of our name from Brandli to Bradley.
- She couldn't speak English but let him know with her most strident German that he could not change the name.
- We joined my Father in Wisconsin and I started school in the new year. The teacher introduced me to the class as the new kid from Europe. The class looked at me with curiosity at the hand knit and elaborately embroidered clothes my grandmother had made for me.
- Many laughed and teased me in the playground. I looked funny to them, I wasn't wearing jeans and shirts, I had wool stockings with knit shorts and matching sweater, red and white, reflecting the colors of the Swiss flag.
- Each day I would go home and complain about school, about the bullying after school because of my clothes and the inability to speak English. I begged my parents to change my attire, but my Dad said:
- Nochild of mine is going to wear those blue jeans! We are Swiss and dressproperly at school out of respect to the teacher and to education.
- After few weeks of my crying, my parents relented on the dress code and I started wearing jeans and shirts like the Americans.
- English started to come me after a few months. This created tension at home because I would try to speak it there. My father insisted we keep our native Swiss German at home....no English. That was for outside the home. I was beginning to live in two somewhat different worlds.
- Kein Englisch!!
- My English improved rapidly thanks my love of comic books which were popular with all the kids my age.
- Soon I became much like the other children on the outside and no longer found them waiting to taunt me after school. I could use my English to push back and tell them a thing or two.
- English
- Home remained the same...speak German or else go to your room!
- Kein Englisch!! Geh in dein Zimmer!!
- We left Wisconsin (where we first settled) after nine months. Dadbought an old car, filled it with all our belongings and we motoredacross the U.S. towards California.
- California2,000 mi
- The vast distances traveled amazed me. Three hundred miles a day, eight hours driving barely seemed to getus closer to our destination.
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