Spanish was the language spoken in my home.  I managed to learn some English from my older brothers and sister as they went to school and brought the new language to me.  Nonetheless, the models for most of the English I learned to speak came from school, primarily from the teachers and some from my classmates.

            The school was a two-story brick building.  It included a basement, which housed the lower grades, the cafeteria, and the bathroom facilities for all students in the building.  The first floor was for the intermediate grades and the administration, and the second floor was designated as the floor for the high school.

            This was the only school with which I was acquainted; thus all terms used by the teachers and students became not only authoritative but also, indelibly marked in my mind.  For example, it did not seem strange to me that we hung our coats and sweaters in a large closet known as a "cloak room".  I never thought to consider what a cloak was and if anyone did indeed ever see one in there.  Also, when nature called, the students asked if they could go to the "basement".  Hence, I (when it was necessary) also asked if I could go to the "Basement".  The teacher always let us go.

            When I was a bit older, my brother took my mother, sister and me to Waco, Texas, the largest city near our small community, to shop for clothes.  After shopping a while on the second floor at Cox's, my mother, who spoke little English, asked me to find us a cuarto de baņo (a bathroom).  I asked a saleswoman if she could tell me where the basement was, and she told me to go to the elevator and push the button marked "B".  When we got to the basement I looked all around for the cuarto de baņo and could not find one.  I approached a saleslady and told her that I needed to find a bathroom.  She told me to go back up to the second floor.  Upon arriving on the second floor I looked but couldn't find it.  I asked yet another saleslady where the basement was and she, also, directed me to the elevator button marked "B". 

            Somehow I knew I was not communicating.  I told her that I needed a bathroom and hadn't been able to find it in the basement.  She showed me the bathroom and told me that the basement was simply a floor where one could find bargains.

            Thus it was then that I found out that a basement is a subterranean floor, which may or may not house a bathroom!