Family Stories - Jack Comes Home

Family Stories

Jack Comes Home

     With the gates of the United States Navy behind him, Jack turned his life towards his future.  First stop was home.  A few things had changed.  Jack found that his relationship with his stepfather Bill had improved.  They had a mutual love of fixing cars.  Jack's love of cars had a long history.  He had a neighbor who was an auto mechanic when Jack was younger.  When Jack was 13 his mechanic mentor was hired to go to Indianapolis as a mechanic for the Indy 500.  The neighbor invited Jack to come along.  Lucille, his mother said no, jack was too young. It was many years before Jack was able to forgive her for that.

   One of the first things Jack did was to find out where Doug was and to start the process of getting him back.  Since Jack wasn't married, social services did not want to change their foster care placement of Doug.  Eventually they did release Doug, but only to Jack with Lucille and Bill.

  With so many veterans returning from the War, things were changing everywhere.  There weren't enough jobs at first, the country was transitioning back to a peacetime economy.  And all those women had to leave their jobs.  The Veterans Administration set up several programs.  Jack took part in most of them.  Job searches, retraining programs, even small amounts of money each week for a certain number of weeks.  Jack spent a lot of time with other former soldiers and sailors.

   Since Jack didn't have a high school diploma he took part in a one year program at his local high school for returning veterans.  My mother-in-law was an underclassman that year.  She said it was odd, but exciting.  Suddenly the War was over and these older young men were on campus, taking classes with them.  These vets drove (often their own cars), smoked, and drank.  They were definitely an adult element on campus.  At the end of the year, Jack and the rest graduated.  Whether or not they really had fulfilled the graduation requirements.

   With graduation in sight, Jack contacted his father about a job.  While Jack and his father got along well, relations with Emma, his stepmother were still strained.  What Jack really wanted to do was to work for the electricians union at the Studio that his dad worked at.  If not, then Jack wanted to work for the electricians union somewhere.  After all, he had been an electricians mate in the navy.  Despite Harry's good standing with his own union, he was unable to secure membership in the electrician's union for Jack.  Nepotism did not cross into different unions. Saddened, Jack started to re-think his future.

   While attending Mark Keppel High School, Jack got to know the teacher who ran the class in printing.  This teacher became a life long friend.  Jack took the printing class and discovered that it suited him.  It was a good mix of hands on with use of his creative talents.  Remember, back then, the field of printing hadn't reached the computer age.  Printing was done on big presses, still using type.  The hand set type (like Gutenberg used) was still used, but most of the type was created in rows by a machine known as a Linotype machine.  Offset printing was still a few years in the future.

   With the help of Mr. Buck, his teacher/mentor, Jack began an apprenticeship program in printing.  A dream was born.  Jack decided that once he reached journeyman status he would work for as many different printing plants as possible.  Someday he wanted to open his own small printing shop in his home town of San Gabriel.  They didn't have a print shop at that time and he wanted that spot.  To get to that dream Jack  had a lot to learn.

   At this time, Jack had become a good looking young man.  He wasn't tall, only 5'6", but he had curly dark hair, laughing blue eyes, and was charming.  And he had a red convertible car.  As was true for most of his life, Jack had a large circle of friends.  Most were vets like him.  Dick Challie had been Jack's friend since childhood in South San Gabriel.   Dick had gone into the Navy about the same time Jack had joined.  Dick came back changed.  Never strong in character (or personality), Dick always been happy to just coast along with life.  His family strongly disapproved of Dick, instead preferring Dick's younger sister who became a school teacher (and a lesbian). Having been around Dick's family, Jack always felt protective of Dick.  After the war Dick became a drinker.

   Dick was lucky enough to attract the interest of a woman named Roxy.  Roxy was just shorter than Dick, blonde and buxom.  Her parents ran the local ballroom and dance school.  Roxy was one of the instructors and she danced like a dream.  When the group went out dancing Roxy was always a star.  Jack loved dancing with her.

   Another friend of Jack's from this period was Dick Garlow.  This Dick became a racer - of speed boats. Dick Garlow was clearly the glamorous part of the group.   Eventually he met and married Joannie, easily the most beautiful woman in the group.  Joanie was originally from Avalon, Santa Catalina Island.  She turned down a proposal from Nicky Hilton, the hotel heir to be with Dick.  Disappointed, Hilton began dating a woman who looked much like Joannie (but without her humble charm), Elizabeth Taylor.

   There were several other guys (and their girlfriends), but one more needs to be talked about here.  Ken Casey was almost the stereotypical Irishman.  Charming as hell.  He was a successful salesman.  Ken fell in love with a woman named Pat.  Pat was quite a character.  Her first husband had given her two sons, but was also a crook.  And a wife beater.  The experience made Pat a tough woman.  Her soon-to-be-ex husband went to prison.  Pat went to work.  She was funny as hell, and a good mother.  I never heard how she and Ken got together, but it was a good match.  He adored her sons and soon forgot they had any other father.  The boys(then very young) were at the wedding.  They insisted on walking down the aisle with their mom.  During the ceremony Ken held the youngest.

   

   As he had intended, Jack finished up his printing apprenticeship.  He went to work for one of the large printing plants in Downtown Los Angeles.  It made no sense to drive, so every morning he would got on the bus in his hometown of San Gabriel.  He soon noticed that a few stops later, in the town of Alhambra a cute blonde got on...