Newtown’s First AFS Student Returns For A Mini-Reunion

By Kendra Bobowick

As rain battered the shrubs outside June Hanna’s kitchen window on June 23, she sat with Pakistani native Zarin Patel and the pair flipped through yearbook photos from their graduating class of 1959. Zarin was the first American Field Service (AFS) student to visit Newtown.

In quiet, accented English, Ms Patel recalled living briefly in Newtown more than 50 years ago. Comparing now to then, she said, “The town has grown tremendously. It was more rustic when I knew it.” She noticed the number of shops, homes, traffic lights, and growth. “It’s still beautiful and green and looks more affluent,” she said. Back for a brief stay in late June, Ms Patel visited with former classmates, including Ms Hanna.

On June 21 and 22, she had reunited with several former high school friends, but admitted that despite the photos, she often could not match the faces. Ms Patel looked at the black and white images commenting, “You don’t notice the changes day by day, but after years, you notice.”

“And you look the same!” Ms Hanna told her friend. During a later conversation, Ms Hanna repeated the compliment. “She has not changed to me in my eyes one bit in 50 years. The visit went by very quickly,” she said.

As rain drummed against the house, Ms Patel flipped through pages bound together with tape in places and bundled where the yearbook’s spine had cracked. Many images were crowded by faded cursive farewell messages written from one graduating student to another. Since high school, Ms Patel has visited several times — 1965-66, 1979-80, 1993, and again this year.

“You notice as you get older that you continue where you left off. Although it has been so many years, it’s like she was just here,” Ms Hanna said.

But the most recent farewell on June 24 was hard, she said.

Mentioning age and finances, she said, “I don’t know if I’ll have the ability to see her again.”

The long-ago high school friends stirred cream and sugar into their tea, spoke about old friends, their different cultures and religious backgrounds, Ms Patel’s family, and upcoming travel plans. She will visit a niece in New York, brothers in Chicago and Iowa, then travel to see Las Vegas and Houston before arriving back in New York.

She was already in Boston this year, where she entered the World Association of Flower Arrangers show. Pakistan is a member, and 47 arrangers, including Ms Patel, had competed. Her country had received a prize.

“I was justifiably proud!” she said.

Ms Hanna was “so appreciative,” she said, for classmate Bob Schipul who brought Ms Patel to Newtown from Boston.

Remembering details of their conversation, Ms Hanna said, “She mentioned a couple of times that the Pakistan group at the flower show was worried as to how they would be received.” The group soon became aware of a warm welcome, she said.

Coming To America

Influences in her home town of Karachi, Pakistan, had prompted Ms Patel to join the AFS program. As a girl, she recalls when AFS began sending students abroad.

“When they came back, people were so different, so American. I was taken up with it.”

She was soon filling out her own application and submitting an essay. “People interviewed me … nine of us were chosen to come and have the American experience.” She said, “I was going to live with an American family and live as a family member.”

Ms Patel stayed with former Mt Pleasant Road residents Ed and Eida White and their children Norman, Ted, and Cindy. The family no longer lives in town.

Coming from a home city of Karachi, with boasts a current population of between 13 and 15 million people, she said it was “still a big city” 50 years ago. “To come here was an experience.” Less than 8,000 people lived in Newtown in the 1950s, compared to roughly 28,000 residents today.

Speaking of lessons learned in America, Ms Patel recalls something for which she is still thankful today.

“Time is important, and my American dad was strict about time,” she said. “Time in Pakistan is irrelevant.” She explained that if a wedding is scheduled for 9 pm, the bride may not arrive until 11 pm. “If you are going to a wedding in Pakistan, you better have a snack first,” she joked.

 But Americans watch the clock, especially if the school bus is coming. She often had to be ready by 7:05 am.

“In America, I learned to be punctual,” she said, before admitting, “I would miss the school bus frequently and Ms White had to drive us.”

The high school, when the girls attended it, was located in what serves today as Newtown Middle School.

“If I missed the bus again, then I had to walk.” One day she woke late again and Ms White’s daughter Cindy had to walk to school with Ms Patel. “She was so cross with me! I learned my lesson.”

She told another story about a coat. “Coming from Karachi, it’s pretty warm. I needed a heavy coat for this climate.” She bought a thick fake fur coat, which was in style at the time, and still has it today. She wore it on her visits in 1965, 1979, and keeps it stored at home.

The coat kept Ms Patel warm during a trip with the White family to Maine. “I fell asleep on the way and I woke to all white.” Ms Patel saw her first snowfall.