Immigration 2: Tom & Jerry

I was going to write about, well it doesn't matter. I sat down in front of my laptop to write and turned on the tube and what did I see? Cartoon Network showing old eps of Tom and Jerry Cartoons. That sent my mind on a completely different track. So now it's a post about Tom and Jerry.

After a few difficult months in the states, my Dad found a steady job, we found a decent apartment in a neighborhood with a lot of other immigrants, and life seemed to start settling. It was still difficult but there were others around who could help or at least sympathize in our own tongue. There were kids to play with and the language was starting to come so there was even the ability to play with American kids.

But what did I do in those first few difficult months? Did I play games? Umm, no, there was no one to play with, I couldn't communicate. Did I play outside? Are you kidding? What kind of Mother would send her 10 year old little girl out when she didn't even know how ask for help, didn't know the neighborhood and the neighborhood, well, that wasn't all that nice either. Of course Mom took me out but she didn't speak any English either. Did I play with my toys? Did I mention that we came only with a few suitcases? What toys?

My world revolved around my Mom and Dad, our radio, which we brought with us, and our first major purchase, a $20.00 (a lot of money for us back then) used, black and white portable Zenith television set. I remember it had a gray plastic case and a whitish plastic handle on top, the screen was pretty small but it still worked and that was what mattered. The thing none of us, I think, were prepared for was that living in a foreign country didn't permit us to relax, ever. Want to listen to music? Can't understand a word ... gotta concentrate. (I should mention that I clearly remember hearing Hotel California on the radio, not understanding a word and loving it none the less!) Check the mail? Need a dictionary. My Dad did that every night, took every piece of mail (most of it junk) grabbed the dictionary and sat there half the night translating. He worked so incredibly hard to learn English! Go outside? All signs and sounds are foreign ... gotta think about everything, gotta concentrate. Read a book? You're kidding, right? Watch TV? Hah! Unless of course the program doesn't have any spoken words.

Hello Tom and Jerry! What a joy it was to find that show! Simple, brainless and so wonderfully relaxing. What's funny is that I think that show helped me with my English a bit. Even though there isn't much spoken language, there's a fair amount of written, in big, block letters. Great for little kids as well as foreigners trying to learn English. I watched The Electric Company as well and loved it but still, it was Tom and Jerry that was truly pure entertainment and what ten year old doesn't need that every once in a while?