A lesson in standing in line

Marisa O’Neil

Nora Donnelly stood patiently in line, clutching her shawl around her

shoulders. In her basket, she carried a book, family photos, two

letters of recommendation, $20 in American currency and her Irish

passport, which she dutifully showed the immigration agent.

Nora, 16, answered each of the agent’s questions.

“Nora Donnelly ... 16 ... from Bantry, Ireland ... I traveled here

alone. ... I want to be a teacher,” she replied.

“Welcome to America,” the agent said, stamping her papers. “Good

luck.”

Lincoln Elementary fifth-grader Julia Donnelly, a.k.a. Nora

Donnelly, was just one of dozens of “immigrants” taking part in the

school’s annual Immigration Day this week. The school’s multipurpose

room stood in for Ellis Island, parents worked as agents, doctors and

nurses, and each student played a role he or she had carefully

researched and created.

Students dressed in period costume, brought along prop suitcases

full of possessions to start their new lives and went through the

very process some of their ancestors had when they first came to

America.

Julia’s alter-ego was based on her great-grandmother, Nora, born

in Bantry. Her great-grandfather was also represented, with her tweed

newsboy cap from his birthplace of Donegal, Ireland.

“Nora” wound her way through several lines at Lincoln -- passport

control, educational evaluation, currency exchange and medical

examinations. She got a clean bill of health after a squirt of

disinfectant to kill parasites, some medication and her

immunizations.

In this case, the disinfectant was water in a squirt bottle, the

medicine was a couple of M&Ms;, and the immunization never broke the

skin. But 10-year-old Julia thought about how she’d feel if she

really were Nora 80 years ago in a strange, new country.

“I’d be pretty scared to be here,” Julia said as she sat waiting

for the physical examination. “I’d be scared to get shots and stuff.

I don’t really like shots.

“And I’d be scared to go in there,” she added, pointing at the

quarantine area where immigrants with contagious diseases were being

detained.

Others, like 10-year old Jimmy Roney had their own problems.

“I got detained because I had a hammer,” said Roney, acting as an

18-year-old Irish carpenter. “I had my passport confiscated.”

Ten-year-old Catherine Macinnes, playing 20-year-old Italian

seamstress Anna Vitable, had her money stolen when she got to Ellis

Island. After speaking with agents and providing proof of the

pilfering, she finally got her money back.

But when she got in line to buy food, all the bread was gone.

“This would have been really scary,” she said of going through

Ellis Island. “People are really mean to you.”