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Award of Excellence
Bradley E. Clift
The Hartford Courant
"The New Americans: 
Island of Assimilation"

 

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"SHAGGING THE RUG" Like hundreds of immigrants before them, the Bosnians who now make up most of the apartments of Bosnian Square in Hartford's South end are homes to new immigrants, those fleeing war and persecution. Here, the Bosnians have found, even in a poor working class neighborhood a safe haven. The porches overlooking the square are windows between two worlds: the old world of "Bosnia" and the new world of America. The children of these refugees from war are becoming us, becoming American, they assimilate easily while their parents still hold on to old world customs. One of those routines is washing the rugs. Each week, one of the apartments needs its hallway rugs, bedroom rugs, or living room rugs washed, and each week from March to Oct., it is brought outside, scrubbed down by a group of females, rinsed and hung from the porch rails to dry. Average drying time, when it's sunny and breezy; three days.
 
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