Page 88 - Poat_to_Poot_Engels

seemed overwhelming to him. In later life he avoided celery, and if he
drove near a celery farm, he would roll up the windows to avoid the
scent.

A major adjustment was the change of language. The family members
adopted Anglicized names or made phonetic adjustments to the spelling.
His father, Jan Willem Poot, became John William Poot. Willem Frederik
became William Frederick. He tried Fred as a nickname, but Will is what
people used. However, it would be many years before Will and other
family members changed the spelling of "Poot" to "Poat".

It was all too soon when Will and the older children had to start
attending public school. The strange language now seemed to become
an insurmountable problem. Initially, their only contact with the teacher
was in arithmetic, since that is the same everywhere. In arithmetic, from
addition to compound fractions, the Poot children were far ahead of the
classes in school.

Fortunately, a Dutch caretaker at the school came to their rescue. The
children remained after school for about an hour each day, and with the
help of the Dutch caretaker they learned to pronounce English words.
Will was always grateful for the important help he was given. Will also
used the cartoons in the newspaper to help him learn to read English.
The children were now eager to become good American citizens.

His mother preferred to use the Dutch language when possible, but
William worked hard to learn the new language. William learned to speak
flawless English without an accent. In later life, he held a low opinion of
ethnic immigrants who could not speak English.

The family moved twice more before settling in. Their stay at the first
house on West St. (now Westnedge) was so brief that Will could not
remember anything about the house. The next house was an old one on
East Dutton St., just two doors west of the church. Their stay here was
also short, because their old house was replaced by a new two-story
house. Their new home was across the street at 118 East Dutton St., and
the church was at 183 East Dutton St.. They were located just a few
blocks south of the center of town. One block west was Burdick St., the
largest north-south street in town. Two blocks west was Rose St.,
another major street. At the intersection of Rose and Dutton was a
quaint two-story octagon house that was built during a brief fad in 1856.

Their first school may have been located a bit closer to their home and
enrolled with many Dutch children. However, Will and his brother Abe
were transferred to the slightly more distant Lovell Street School. This
was three long blocks north of Dutton, and just south of the Civic Center
and lovely Bronson Park. This large new school was built in 1884, and
may have offered more educational opportunities for children with the

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