Magyar News, 1997. szeptember-1998. augusztus (8. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1997-10-01 / 2. szám

ALMA MATER

KISVARÜAI BESSENYEI

by Joseph F. Balogh

This is how the school looked like when I enrolled. Today the park is full of big trees

Nostalgy is the word I was looking for. One has a strange and uncertain feeling when standing in front of a school one attended some time back. This happened to me when I went to visit the high school in Kisvárda, Hungary. 1 spent six years there, what would be equivalent to grade 5-10 in America. Previously I had a half year of experience in a one room school in a village in Hungary after attending St. Stephen and Longfellow elementary schools in Bridgeport. As it turned out. it left a lifetime memory.

Leaving the village school, it was a welcomed change to enter high school in a town actually to go to a boarding school that has some of the conveniences of American civilization. The high school in Kisvárda, the Bessenyei György Gimnázium became my “almost” alma mater. Though I graduated tn Kassa, the most time I spent studying at an institute was here in Krsvárda. Compared to big city schools, especially to ones in Budapest, this had a character of its own. The town had a low level urban appearance and it wasn’t remote from the country side. Besides the student population had strong ties to the villages. Those living in the “kollégium”, and those communiting were country people. also most of the local students. The atmosphere and the values that were developed there were basic and definitely in favor of the Hungarian people. The identity of the school determined the identity of its students.

My age group, maybe, was one of the worst hit by the historic events. We saw the residue of serfs, the gentries, then full blown, the nazis. World war II. Soviets. Communism, all the way up to the present tune. Especially in the early years the willingness and good intention for the people in the political turmoil, the mumbo-jumbo of influences, lack of experience, lead to many mistakes that were regretted, and eventually changed to proper directions. Finishing and graduating from an other school didn't mean a total disconnection from these students because we lived in the same region and our vacations were in many wavs spent together. We collected and recorded cultural, folklore traditions just like if we attended the same school during this time.

Enrolling at the university in Budapest brought some of us together again. In my first year Kálmán Payor was my room mate. In 1956. dunng the Revolution, Péter Komoly set up an editorial office in my room at the publishing company for the

Page 6

daily paper, the “Igazság” (Truth). Both of us. Peter and I. worked on the original committee organizing the Petőfi Circle. Also, when I was drafted into the army in Aszód, the first person I ran into was Béla Kérői Nagy, who turned out to be my commander from there on. Guszti Rakovszki at the last penod of the war was heading the police precinct in Budapest where I happened to be. With my friends, all in the Resistance, we were caught by him red handed, checked us out and like nothing had happened, walked away . My. was I happy that I attended the High school in Kisvárda and had piers who looked out for me.

There were a few teachers from that school with whom by accident I established connection later on. Dr. Závodszkzi Ferenc, my French teacher, was known for his translations of Ibsen and others from the Swedish language. I ran into him periodically. One day he told me that he had an assignment from the Scientific Academy. Since there was no budget for it. it was like an agreement. He would do the work, go to Sweden on his own money and establish connections for the Academy. He had the “To Whom It May Concern!” letter and everything seemed to go smoothly. He got on the train, crossed over to Czechoslovakia heading North. At the border station exiting Czechoslovakia he was

asked to abort his trip by Communist officials. They took him off the train, brought him back to Hungaiy and told him the reason for stopping him was that he had too many connections in Sweden.

We spent nice afternoons at Mr. Misner’s patio, drinking sodas. He was a teacher and a kollégium supervisor. His high piched voice and quick movements made him a target. His room in the kollégium was next to one of our bathrooms.. Between the two there was a locked, connecting door. One evening when he was away , we managed to take the doorhandle out. With the help of a rubber tube and many cigarettes we filled his room with thick smoke. Nobody figured out how it happened since nobody entered the room. The room was on the fourth floor. Reaching out the bathroom window with a long stick we managed to knock on his window in the middle of the night. We still loved him.

My art ability was put on track by our art teacher Bartizek-Bars. He had painted an ellaborate mural on the big wall of the diningroom. Today it is not there, maybe during the Communist regime they painted over it with white paint. I kept in touch with him even many years later when he was teaching in Debrecen. Every time I visited him. he was so happy to remind me of the national poster competion I took part in and won. In music. I also had an out-