10/15/2007 - Still On The Map: An AFS Experience 50 years Later
Fifty years ago, Gunnar Hedelin went to his local library in Sweden to find a map of the southwest United States. He wanted to find a town named Farmington, where he was soon headed through the American Field Service, a foreign-exchange student program.
by Corey Frolik, Farmington Daily Times
“I couldn’t find Farmington on the map in Sweden. I had to go to the library and finally found it,” said the now 66-year-old retired general practitioner
Farmington was a dot — a little dot. Gallup, in comparison, had a much larger marking.
In 1957, after taking a 10-day boat trip from Holland to New York, and then a four-day bus trip from New York to New Mexico, Hedelin arrived in Gallup, the large dot. The unpaved streets and lack of anything aesthetic at once caught Hedelin’s attention.
“I knew this was big Gallup. And I thought (about the small dot Farmington) where I was going to spend one year,” he said. “I was ready to go back.”
He didn’t. Hedelin took another bus from Gallup to Farmington. Pulling into town, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the people, at least, didn’t match expectations at all.
A crowd of 40 or more met him at the bus depot, holding up signs and cheering on the first foreign exchange student ever in Farmington. Hedelin was an instant celebrity.
Farmington was a much smaller city at the time. There were only about 162 graduates that year from Farmington High School, which is now Tibbetts Middle School.
Everyone knew everyone and everyone wanted to know Hedelin, said Margaret Bellmaine, who was a junior at FHS in 1957. His arrival was a big deal in Farmington, she said.
“It was like the arrival of some exotic creature,” she said.
Prior to Hedelin, the most exciting people to roll into town were all music stars: Buddy Holly, Jerry Lewis and Fats Domino.
And while Bellmaine and her friends said those shows created memories that will never fade, Hedelin’s presence may have created more of a frenzy.
“Everybody wanted to be around him. He was the cool thing. He was the It’ thing,” said FHS 1959 graduate Jan Sheafe.
During the school year, Hedelin was quite the active senior. He sang, played tennis on a state championship team, and attended prom, homecoming and all the other dances with dates in arm. He also answered a lot of questions about Sweden.
Reflecting on his experience Friday, one of his last days in Farmington on a mini-reunion before he returns to Sweden, Hedelin chuckled a lot. He’s made other trips back to Farmington for reunions. But conversations during each reunion trigger some memories he had long forgotten.
A small group of friends, including Hedelin, Sheafe, Bellmaine and their classmate Sherry Carson Butler, have managed to keep in fairly close touch in these past 20 years. They’ve visited each other, written each other and even started a blog together.
Not only have they met all over this country, but also in Sweden, under arrangements by Hedelin.
These FHS graduates of 1959 — Hedelin graduated in ‘58 but the class of ‘59 has claim on him. They say there was something special about the group, and not just for adopting Hedelin.
“It doesn’t happen to everybody. A lot of classes around us haven’t kept in touch,” Sherry said.
Certain combinations of people equate to lasting friendships, Sheafe added, and the class of ‘59 felt like none other.
But how things have changed.
One of Hedelin’s daughters was an exchange student in California in the early 1990s and couldn’t have known how easy she had it.
No 10-day boat trip and no passing the time at the Gallup bus depot. Also, Hedelin and the rest of her family were able to visit her — which was a big no-no when Hedelin was abroad.
“It was quite different. The parents were not supposed to come over here to visit. The program thought that it would make you more homesick. There was no e-mail, so we made three or four telephone calls during that time,” he said.
Life has changed dramatically in 50 years, for more than just foreign exchange students. Everyone has grown up, had families and become professionals, or even retired. The 1957 classmates have scattered.
Sherry lives in Hawaii, Bellmaine in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Sheafe in Los Angeles, Calif. Hedelin lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Distance, expense and inconvenience, however, don’t stop these devoted souls from getting together whenever they can. They say something still connects them.
Nineteen-fifty-seven and 1958 are the years they have in common. Those are the last years Farmington High School was housed in Tibbetts. They’re also the last years Jackie Robinson played baseball — and the last years that for at least a handful of then Farmington teenagers, Farmington felt disconnected from the rest of the world.
“For me, Gunnar opened the world. My trip to Sweden was the first time I traveled outside of the U.S.,” Sheafe said.
Sherry added that the difference Hedelin made in her life is remarkable.
“One thing having him go to Farmington High School meant to me was that it made me feel like we were part of the world,” Sherry said. “If someone would come all the way from Sweden to go to high school here meant this place was pretty special.”
Farmington is no longer a small dot on the map. To some members of the Farmington High School Class of 1959, it never was. An unexpected but welcome visitor made them realize that a long time ago.
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