Jacqueline Messick Harrison

1955 to 1959

Long Beach and Wilshire Jr. High in Fullerton

I married Tom in 1961. He was a patrol officer with Orange County Sheriff's Department. He retired in 1990 as a Commander of the Training Division. He also taught Criminal Law, Fraud, and Hate Crimes for 35 years with Rancho Santiago College District, Long Beach State and Golden West. I was a homemaker and community volunteer in Yorba Linda serving as a Parks Commissioner for 15 years, Board member of YL Civic Light Opera, and other groups, and after an unsuccessful bid at running for city council in 1978, I learned that I had some skills at managing others in their attempt to be council members. (Their successes meant I could still get things done in our city without being on the council.) In 1995, after five years of cruises and RV road trips, my husband and I joined American Red Cross Disaster Services, where we responded to 33 national disasters through out the country as well as Puerto Rico, St Croix and Guam. We worked 9/11 for two months. we became instructors of disaster courses throughout Orange County as well as parts of LA county. Our health became a detriment to disaster work and so we retired from national disasters in 2007.

Haven't given that much thought for some time. I do recall graduating from Wilshire Jr High and being extremely nervous to attend such a big high school. A few weeks before school started, I received a phone call from a girl who was starting her senior year and she informed me that she was my "Big Sister" and was going to take me to lunch with some other sisters and then to school to find all my classes, the cafeteria, etc. She told me to dress for this event just the way I would dress for school. In those days, that would be skirt and blouse and white buck shoes with angora socks. The day arrived and when she came to pick me up she was dressed as if she was going to dine with the President...hat, gloves, high heels and nylons. Then we went to what was then an extremely nice restaurant (I believe it was called the "Water Wheel"). The place was filled with Big and Little Sisters and I was the only girl dressed in school attire. I was mortified but I survived the meal and then when we went to the school, she was so busy showing off that she didn't show me anything. It was a valuable lesson and for the next three years when I was the Big Sister, I went to great extremes to make sure my Little Sister felt comfortable and enjoyed her first experience as a high school freshman.

Actually, I had two favorite teachers. Number one was definitely Miss Mary Virginia Davis in Business Ed. She was terrifying at first but we eventually became friends and later I met up with her at Troy where she was teaching a class my son took. A year after I graduated and was taking classes at FJC, she contacted me and said she had arranged for me to go to New York for a position as a business correspondence secretary. It sounded exciting but I declined because I'm not a big city girl.
Dr. Slocum was my second favorite teacher. He was so dedicated and he helped me get through the required science classes that I dreaded.