For Enrique "Kiki" Zuniga, elementary school meant Army barracks for classrooms and a dirt courtyard for a playground.
"It felt almost like a detention camp, where you just went through the motions of school," said Zuniga, 60, as he reflected on his childhood. "Nobody ever had any expectations of getting a job or anything."
Zuniga and other Mexican Americans who grew up in La Habra between 1920 and 1950 are celebrating the 50th anniversary this year of the closure of Wilson Grammar School, where Latino children were forced to go for an education instead of joining white students at other schools.
And they mean celebrate. None of these alumni was sorry to see their school go.
Known as "'the Mexican school," Wilson opened in 1920 to school the children of farm workers who lived in the city's migrant labor camps and picked fruit to earn a living.
"The school was built by the La Habra Citrus Assn. to teach children and adults new to the United States English," said Esther Cramer, the city's historian. "At least that was the initial intent, but the school stayed around much longer than it should have."
Thirty years too long, some say.
"The language difference was really just an excuse," Zuniga said. "By the time I was there in the 1940s, we were all Mexican Americans and many already knew English. There was a black family at the school and some American Indians, none of [whom] spoke Spanish, so it was really just for segregation."
Teachers at Wilson punished students caught speaking Spanish.
"I remember being whipped with a rubber hose in fifth grade for speaking Spanish," said 60-year-old Ray Molina, the president of the Wilson alumni group. "The teachers were really strict about it."
At the time Wilson was built, the city also opened Lincoln Grammar School across town on the white side of La Habra, said 67-year-old Alfredo Zuniga, Enrique's older brother.
"The city passed a $90,000 school bond to pay for the two schools," he said. "Only $15,000 went for Wilson, the rest was for Lincoln."
Compared with Wilson school, Lincoln overflowed with comfort, Alfredo Zuniga said. It was three stories high and built of brick with beautiful landscaping and grass.
"There were tennis courts and a concrete playground, an auditorium and buses for the students there, none of which were provided for Wilson," Enrique Zuniga added.
