Across
the River
By Margaret
S. Langford
(Related by marriage to the Daneaults, Leblancs and
Fourniers in Suncook)
My husband Steve told me many
stories about his growing up French in Suncook New
Hampshire. His French-speaking mother, Madelaine Daneault,
married English-speaking Lorin Langford. All the kids grew
up speaking French. As for Lorin, he used to say he spoke
"turnpike French." Leaning out the window of his tollbooth,
he’d yell to the Canadians heading towards New Hampshire
beeches "vire là-bas." {turn over there}.
All the kids went to the Suncook bilingual parochial
school—one half of the day in French— one half in English.
After school they worked and played in French. On Saturdays
all the grown-ups went shopping in Manchester just a few
miles away. Stores with French-speaking clerks got their
business. In Suncook they could live their lives all in
French if they chose. What fate awaited their bilingual
children as they went from their welcoming parish school to
the English-only high school across the river? Here’s what
happened to a few boys. And here’s how these resilient
adolescents reacted. From what I heard tell, most of the
boys in the poem were quite successful when they grew up.
Steve himself went on to do many interesting things. While
earning his BA degree in English under the GI bill, he
enrolled in an advanced course in Medieval French
Literature. Later on he earned a Master’s in Occupational
Education while teaching at the Manchester Skills Center.
After retiring, he ran his own printing business,
The Blue
Inkwell. In Québec, the Québécois
thought he came from somewhere out in the country—possibly
La Beauce . He kept on speaking French until the day he
died.
On
the first day
in the Anglo school,
on the first day
the principal called
the new boys in.
"None of that French stuff"
he said.
"We speak English here."
The boys came
from Saint-Jean Baptiste
the bilingual parish school
across the river.
Though well-prepared
(the sisters saw to that)
they learned
their aspirations
were too high
trade schools and
manual work
their true vocation.
Silently they heard the
words but didn’t listen.
Nearby they lived
tout en français.
The afternoon
would take them
safely back
to that other world.
School was, after all,
just school.
Home, family, work—
all that mattered—waited
back there in French.
They lived their true lives
a few blocks—
many worlds—away
across the river.
MSL 8/14/13