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.”
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.