My first Publication Alumni Magazine21-online | Page 14

ISSUE 21, JUNE 2019
“Every school day until Mountain
Day, we would sing “Mountain Day”
on our way to and inside the cafeteria,
we could hardly wait.”
Did you ever appear on stage?
Yes, one year I played Father Tarapontiy 1 in a parody on
Stunt Night.
Which classmates do you remember?
As far as remembering, I remember less and less, but
take a look at this booklet here. I don’t know how it
found its way here, but since I tend to keep way more
stuff than I should, here it is. (He hands me a booklet of
about 20 pages where the American College graduates
of the period 1925-1943 are listed along with their
university, major, and work place, where available.)
Here is Dimitar Goncharov, our music teacher who
was also an alumnus of the class of 1925 from the period
when the College was in Samokov. I have highlighted
everyone from my home town, Cherven Bryag: here
is Tsenka Etropolska ’30, her brothers were masters
of fencing, here is one of them – Tseko Etropolski
’36. And here is Vlado Palankov ’42, who was a major
factor in the school’s reopening, he helped a lot. Take
the booklet, no need to give it back, it’s more useful to
you than it would be to my relatives one day.
Field Day, the sports holiday, was our favorite event
in the school calendar. We elected a Field Day
What do you recall from 1942 when Americans
queen, too, usually a girl in her senior year. I was
were forced to leave the College and Bulgaria?
a good long-distance runner and participated in
hurdle competitions, too.
The first thing I did upon hearing of the Americans
Mountain Day was a favorite, too, held at the leaving was to write to my parents and tell them
beginning of the school year, sometime in the end I didn’t want to stay at the College. They insisted
of September, beginning of October. Every school I stayed though, and so I graduated from the
day until Mountain Day, we would sing “Mountain Simeonovo Foreign Language High School which
Day” on our way to and inside the cafeteria, we was the new name of the College. Radionov and
could hardly wait. On the actual day, both students Kolyo stayed until graduation in 1944, too.
and teachers went to Vitosha – we walked till noon,
at noon we ate, and then we played.
Which one of your teachers made the biggest
impression on you and why?
I remember math teacher Mr. Zlatanov vividly. He
was a war veteran, had been wounded, and had some
tics as a result. Maybe it was out of compassion that
I developed these warm feelings towards him.
I wasn’t a very good student and have never been on
the Bulletin Board for instance, unlike Kolyo of my
class, always heading the list. I wasn’t on the list at all,
not even at its bottom. I wasn’t into studying, not that
it was hard or anything. I just lacked the ambition.
Mountain Day 1939 – Sava is standing in the middle
A character from Rayko Alexiev’s satirical newspaper „Щурец“,
or Cricket (1932-44)
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