High School Graduate, Charlene moves to San Francisco

Written by Charlene Ann Brague Jackson

 After graduating from high school, I went to San Francisco to live with my grandmother (my dad’s stepmother), Grandma Renee.  I felt it was time for me to get out and to experience the world.  Of course living with Grandma was not complete freedom because she had rules and she was strict with them, but she and her husband, Neil Compton, were good to me.

I spent the first three months with them going to comptometer school.  This was an instrument that was used before the adding machines we have now.  You had rows of numbers from 1 to 10 lined up from top to bottom.  You actually used only the bottom five numbers, and you had to learn to use them without looking to add columns of figures.

After I graduated from this school, I obtained a job in the office of a grocery store chain.  We sat all day long and added the numbers of the produce that went to each store to verify what the merchants had billed.  It was really boring, but new to me and I had some good friends there.  The office was on the Embarcadero and overlooked the San Francisco Bay.  It was on a hill and about half way down the hill was a little grocery that had the most wonderful pastrami sandwiches, which we would go down sometimes to get for lunch, much to grandma’s horror, because she thought that I shouldn’t spend my money that way , I should be taking a lunch from home (she was quite frugal having lived in Europe during the second world war).

 Every Friday night my girlfriends and I would go “bar hopping”.  They had their drinks and I drank Shirley Temples until I got sick of them.  A Shirley Temple is a 7 up with cherry juice in it.  This was in 1956 and San Francisco was quite safe.  So from town I would take the street car to the top of Nob Hill, then a bus to St. Francis Woods area and be dropped of at the bottom of our street and walked three blocks up the hill to our house, and this was at midnight.  Very different now!  When my brother, Carl, went on his mission to Holland I went home (by bus) to his farewell and decided to stay home.

A Boy and his Dog Bob

I remember laying for months on the living room sofa in my parent’s home in West Bountiful, two houses down from my grandparents.  The house in the middle was Uncle Merle’s home.  I had pneumonia and in those days there were no antibiotics and no way of treating that illness.  One day my dog Bob came racing in and jumped up with his muddy paws on my pillow and began licking my face.  My dog came in to visit every day…that day he came in with muddy paws. That mud stain on the pillow case was ingrained forever.  He stayed with my grandparents in their barn.  I hadn’t been to visit him for quite awhile and so he came to see me, muddy paws and all.  After I had recovered from pneumonia I was in the same living room when I heard tires screeching out in front of the house.  I rushed to the door and there was my relative, Afton Hatch Moss.  Afton was crying because she had hit and killed my dog.  I felt so bad about my dog’s death and took quite a while to resolve the feelings I had for Sis. Hatch.  Sis. Hatch was my second grade teacher and was the teacher that cracked the ruler over my head for sticking the girl’s pigtail in the inkwell. 

(Ralph M. Jackson- grade school years)

Mickey and sister, Doreen

Resurrection of the Epic Tom Trails Filmstrip

I FOUND IT!

You might ask why would we want to resurrect Tom Trails!  We have been talking about and looking for the Tom Trails series for years.  Tom Trails taught the Jackson kids almost every Family Home Evening for several months, maybe years.  Carri and Connie can beautifully reenact many parts of the filmstrip...what's a filmstrip you ask?  Go to this sight to find out: http://www.tomtrails.com/films.htm

“Tom Trails is a filmstrip series originally released in 1968 by the Church Educational System of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was intended as a comprehensive tool to teach gospel principles in seminary and Institute of Religion classes." 

Carri, your favorite is in Chapter 12.  

Now we just need Leon's Truck!

The Jackson family was very active in the Indian Placement Program.  Dad was one of the directors.  Mom invited Debbie, Matilda, Arlene, Renee, and Shaun into our home and helped create a loving family life for each.  Kellie shared her bedroom with most and was often mistaken as one of the Indian students because of her long dark hair (some of our students were blonde).  We were taught many valuable lessons about sharing and caring for others.  We also learned the native songs like "Go My Son".  Even created a play, charged admission, served refreshments, all in Ron and Bonnie Cook's back yard.

(side note--The Chatfields also active in the program with an Indian boy.)

For "Go My Son" click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUJVQSu2kFY

 

The Indian Placement Program, or Indian Student Placement Program was a program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1947 to 2000, in which LDS Native American students were placed in Latter-day Saint foster homes during the school year, where they would attend public schools and become assimilated into American culture. Cost of care was borne by the foster parent.

The program was initially developed to respond to the needs of Navajo teenagers and even younger children who were coming to parts of Utahto work. It was felt it would be better for them to get an education.^[1] Only church members could participate in the program, which meant that children had to be eight to be involved. The program initially operated under the Relief Society and eventually became part of Latter-day Saint Social Services (now LDS Family Services).

Beginning in the 1970s, however, the Indian Placement Program came under criticism. In 1977, the U.S. government commissioned a study to investigate accusations that the church was using its influence to push children into joining the program. The commission rejected these accusations, however, finding that the program was largely positive, and enjoyed emphatic support both from Native American parents and white foster parents. However, the criticism of the program continued. Supporters believed that exposure to white culture was beneficial to Native American children, and that it improved educational and economic opportunities, while critics believed the program undermined the children's Native American identity.

In 2000 the last student graduated from the program, though the program never was officially discontinued.