Letter from Orville Wright
Modern Life – December 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Somehow they survived
Editors:
Got November’s issue of Colorado Central on Monday, and noted the thought-provoking piece.
Here’s another dose of Small Town stuff in response to it.
Saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school was just one of those things one did without thinking too much about it. Remember, we had just endured WWII and were looking at the Korean Conflict. Patriotism was still in vogue. The occupants of the State Home for the Terminally Bewildered had not mucked things up at that point in time.
School prayer was never that much of an issue, either. I remember seeing one or more copies of the Bible in the school library, but there was never any classroom evangelism. It was common to have an Invocation, the Pledge of Allegiance and a Benediction at both the Commencement and Baccalaureate services. If someone or some group objected, it must have been pretty well suppressed, because I do not recall the matter being discussed in a public forum.
Small towns have their own character — then as well as now. There was always the threat of having to toe the line or some flannel-mouthed busybody would talk to our folks. Nosy neighbors were just a way of life.
Thinking back on it, that fear probably helped keep the lid on school conduct. Quite a few of the teachers had taught at least two generations of kids from the same families. Because my mother had worked for the Superintendent of Schools, I really was under a microscope — for conduct and academic achievement.
All in all, I treasure having grown up in Salida. Most of us turned out pretty well even though we didn’t have the State Legislature cramming something down our throat or the ACLU making a pest of itself. The class distinction between blue-collar and white-collar citizens was probably a bit more pronounced back then, but most of us were pretty satisfied with our place in the overall scheme of things.
Orville Wright
Broomfield
Wright’s essay about growing up in Salida is in this issue.
