Cont'd....

-----Original Message-----
Date: Mon Jan 24 12:10:28 PST 2011
From: jackman2@telus.net
Subject: Re: Lejac Experiences
To: Taylor Jan 24, 2011

Hi Taylor:

Glad you were able to find the BLOG. I'm a former student of Lejac Indian Residential School having attended there for 8 years from 1963 to 1971. I always told people we had the best school in the whole wide world. But of course that is my own personal opinion. I know things went on at Lejac, some of which we never talked about. I had some of my own experiences but the reason for the BLOG is to tell the 'good' side of things. I spoke to Jim, a former Brother and supervisor at Lejac, and we both agreed much later in life that life was sometimes hard at Indian residential school but sometimes it's better to reach out and make something good out of it. I only tell the good or funny things! That's how I was all my life. Try and focus on the good stuff. That is what keeps us going. As for living conditions, the nuns, priests, and Brothers assigned to watch us in many cases had no formal training and so imagine entering a situation as a young adult and expecting to have to watch 35 young Native boys in a dorm. Or a young Nun straight out of some city somewhere else. I suppose that is what we boys were up against. In many cases, as with Mr. Lundy who came to Lejac as a young man (maybe 24 years old) he turned out to be one of the best supervisors including teachers like Mr. Hensel, Mr. Vurhulse and Miss Bowen.

I also had two horrible teachers.

We were fed good and the school was kept very spic and span. We boys were assigned chores sometimes in the morning before our first classes duringthe week, and of course every Saturday morning first thing after breakfast. The purpose of chores was to keep our school clean. Then we took the rest of Saturdays off and often went on hikes, or skating, swimming, doing sport activities. One thing about Brother James and Mr. Lundy, it wasn't just a job. They tried to make it fun (Jim is actually Brother James). And I always got the impression that Mr. Lundy had a bit of fun while at Lejac. He definitely made it fun!

They also started changing the way we did things from the early 1960s to the late 1960s. Things were very strict when I first got there in 1963 when we prayed alot. We even went to church twice on Sundays, mass in the morning and then Benediction in the evening. By 1971, we were told after Xmas that church on Sundays would from now on be optional!! Holy Smokers anyway!!! None of us could believe it! That of course was dream heaven! We all slept in that first Sunday when we were told we didn't have to go! Some of them still went but many of us stayed in dorm.

Food was good. We had very good coffee! We changed all our clothes every two weeks when they brought us clean clothes. And we dressed pretty warm for the winters. I would say, compared to Williams Lake residential school we really had it made! They had shitty coffee!!

I would like to help you. My phone number is (deleted) and my email addresses are (jackman2@telus.net) and (deleted). Cheers. Verne, McLeod Lake, BC