Turlock Junior High School

Some things I remember about Jr. High…

Emily Sanderson

In my Advanced English class we were assigned to make a life map. It was a pretty cool project. When we were done, we got to share them with our class.  There was a girl in my class, Emily Sanderson, who had the temple on her life map, so I decided that I would talk to her later and ask her if she was Mormon. Of course, she was, and that was that. We became best friends, and really—she’s the one who got me through my 8^th grade year. Not because I struggled really, but she was just such a huge part of my life that year. Really, it’s Emily’s fault I got a crush on Ronny Bjarnason, because she pointed him out to me in English and told me that he was also a member, and that his family was very spiritual. But that’s another topic for another day.

Friendship Bracelets

When I was in Jr. High, I learned how to make friendship bracelets. I have no idea who taught me how, or where I learned the skill, but learn it I did. Pretty much everywhere I went, I could be seen with a group of strings safety pinned to my jeans, in various stages of being knotted into bracelets. People started offering to buy them from me for a dollar, so I started selling them. A three string bracelet sold for a dollar, the thicker the bracelet, the more I would charge. I made some with 7 strings that I would get $5 for. People would give me orders for certain colors, for sports teams or school colors or whatever, and I would deliver. Even my Spanish teacher, Mr. Jackson, bought a bracelet—his was probably the biggest one I made, he wanted it really thick.

Kathy Fisher

My English teacher was Kathy Fisher, and I really, really liked her. I’m sure it helped that I like English, but she was just a great teacher. We had a lot of fun creative writing assignments, and she gave awesome feedback, and she was just a really good teacher. When I went off to high school, I would cut through the Jr. High on my way home and sometimes I would stop by her classroom to say hello. When I was a junior or senior, I had done a school fund raiser, and someone stole the money ($250!) out of my bedroom drawer. I assume it was one of my siblings’ friends or something. At any rate, I was expected to turn that money in to the school, and there was no way my parents had it to give me. One day I was so worried about it, and Mrs. Fisher asked me what was up, so I told her. I did not ask her to, but she offered to pay the money for me, and I could pay her back in installments. She saved me! I turned the money in, and then every time I babysat or cleaned house for people, I would pay my tithing and save the rest for her, which I would drop off on my visits to her classroom. Years later, when Jared and I got engaged, I sent her a wedding announcement, and she came to our reception. She was probably my favorite teacher I ever had.

Salad Bar

Lunch at TJHS was great. There was a cafeteria, but we were not required to eat in there. I remember eating lunch with all the LDS kids out on the grass under the trees. Specifically, I ate with Paul Jensen and Holly Hooge, and I’m sure there were others. We didn’t all have lunch at the same time, so I’m not sure who all ate lunch with us. I remember Paul because he was a great friend, and I remember Holly because she was hilariously funny. My favorite thing about cafeteria food was the salad bar. I had never seen a school cafeteria where you could serve yourself from a salad bar, and it was the coolest thing to me. I had a salad every day, and it was SO good!

Jazz Band

TJHS had a Jazz Band that met in the morning on certain days before school. (Maybe every day?) My friend Paul played the piano for jazz band, and he was so good that he could turn his body around, mid-song, and keep playing amazing music with his hands behind his back. I swear it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I had several friends in the jazz band, and I went to watch them practice every morning.

What's In A Name?

Kids can be mean. And kids can be sensitive. When some kid in Ogden decided to tease me about my name “Nyla,” I started to hate my name. I just plain hated it. It wasn’t a normal name, anyway. Maybe that’s why I went through my Katie/Kattie phase. At any rate, I hated my name.

So I decided, when we moved to Corcoran, that I would start going by my middle name. When we drove into town, we went to the Branch President’s house, where we had been invited to stay for a night or two while we waited for our stuff to get there. Sister Clark asked us what our names were, and my mom introduced me as Nyla. I was devastated, and completely gave up. I mean, if they knew my name was Nyla there was no point trying to use my middle name. It was all ruined. (Pre-teens can be so dramatic)! I knew it wasn’t my mom’s fault, I don’t think I’d even told anyone of my plans to change my name. But it was over, my chance had come and gone, and that was that.

When we moved to Turlock, I decided I had been given another chance. This time, our family was at our house on Greenwood, and Sam and I had been invited over to someone’s house—I think they were giving us a ride to YM/YW. Sister Bayless asked what our names were, and Sam said, “Sam and Nyla.” At the exact moment he said “Nyla,” I said “Suzanne.” And then she looked a little confused, so I just explained that my name was Suzanne, and that was that. (I was a little more mature at this point, so I knew it wasn’t “over” just because someone had heard my first name.

I introduced myself as Suzanne to everyone I met in Turlock, and that’s all they knew me as, so the change was solid. So from then on, I was Suzanne. 

Greenwood Lane

Our first house in Turlock was 1650 Greenwood Lane. It was a single story 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home. It may not have been our biggest house to date, but it was the most beautiful. At least, that was what I thought. There was a park a few doors down, which was awesome. We had a garage--that may have been the first time ever that we had a house with a garage. Things like that always make you feel good. The front door opened to the living room. (That's typical, apparently). Straight back from the living room was the hallway that lead to the bedrooms. At the end of the living room, there was also a small hallway that lead to the kitchen, and in the kitchen was a sliding glass door leading to the back yard. The kitchen was a decent size, nice and open with plenty of room for a table. Down the hall there were three bedrooms. The first room on the left was my bedroom, if I remember correctly, and I assume I shared it with someone, although I have zero memory of that part of it. The second bedroom on the left was another bedroom, again I have no idea whose it was, specifically. On the right side of the hall, in between and across from the bedrooms, was a bathroom. At the end of the hall was the door to the master bedroom. I believe this was also the first time we had a house with a master bedroom. (As a parent myself, now, I can really appreciate that for my mom and dad. Yay for master bedrooms!) As a kid, I thought it was pure luxury, in a very enjoyable way, for a bedroom to have its own personal bathroom! The bathroom was to the right once you entered the bedroom. I believe my parents' room also had sliding glass doors leading to the back yard. We stayed in this house for about three years. I'm not sure why we ended up moving, but we did.

Bell

I don't have a super clear memory of the house on Bell. Again, the front door led right into the living room, with the kitchen to the right, and a hallway at the back that led straight down, to all the bedrooms. I'm pretty sure it was a three bedroom house. I don't remember where any of the bedrooms or the bathrooms were located. One thing I do remember is singing the Articles of Faith in the living room of that house. Again, it's funny what memory can do!


We left Corcoran after two years, as my dad had been hired as a teacher in Turlock, California, where our family would stay for about 18 years. (Such a record!)

Candy and Movies

The fence to our backyard backed up against the lot of a gas station/convenience store. So any time we got our little fists around any money, we’d slip over to the store and buy candy. I don’t think it ever occurred to us to ask Mom if we could. We were always playing outside, and we were not restricted to our yard. (It was a different world back then, for sure). So it didn’t seem like we were doing anything wrong. Although if my kids did anything like that today, they would be told that under no circumstances should they ever do that again.

Corcoran was just a crazy place to live, and honestly, I am so glad we got out of there when we did. A memory that horrifies me to this day has to do with the movie theater. This movie theater had been out of business for a really long time. I don’t remember it ever being a functioning theater, in fact. It was a block or so away from the convenience store behind our house, so it was very easy to get to, and we got to it a lot during our bike rides around town. Sam told me that some guy was playing movies and was letting people in for free. Again, why it didn’t occur to me that we should check with our mom first is completely beyond me. We probably went to the movies 3 or 4 times, free of charge. I don’t know who the guy was, if he owned the place or just figured out how to get in—no earthly idea. And I really can’t tell you why the movies didn’t really phase me or disturb me once, I think I wasn’t really paying attention (maybe?), because the movies he played for us were the Death Wish movies. Seriously!? How in the world could anyone with a brain play movies like that for a bunch of little kids??