5 minute read
Community Spotlight: Wilfred Charlie
I was raised in Wickenburg because my dad worked for the railroad. I lived with my mom and dad, three sisters and my older brother. I was the youngest of the bunch.
During the summer, I lived with my grandparents, Paul Stepp Shaw and Sadie Juan Shaw, in their house at Camelback and Extension. It was a little sandwich house and it was so nice and cool in the summer. It had a kitchen, dining room and family room, which is where the three of us would sleep. It was back in the day so we had to haul water in big metal milk cans from Indian School and Extension. There was a wood stove and there was an outhouse.
I had cousins that lived nearby and we walked everywhere and swam in the ditches. We’d walk all the way to Ever Green and spend the whole day there and then float down the canal and get out at Extension to go back to the house.
We were barefoot. Nothing was paved so we’d carry cardboard and run as fast as we could, then throw the cardboard down and dance around on it until our feet had feeling again and then we pick it up and go again.
On weekends, my parents would visit and the whole family would go to the Verde or Salt rivers and have picnics.
On Sundays, my grandpa would take me and my cousins around the community in his truck and we would pick up bottles and go into Mesa and turn them in for money so we could get candy or ice cream.
We’d also have big family meals on Sundays with the whole family, cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone. We’d put tables together. It was nothing fancy but it was good.
In high school, I met my wife of 49 years, Sharlene. I graduated in 1975 and left Wickenburg to live in the community. I got a job in the police department as a dispatcher. I was only 17, but I don’t think they knew that. I worked with the police for eight years, doing patrol and I eventually became a sergeant.
Growing up, I always wanted to be a policeman. I used to watch Adam 12 all the time. Back then, the station was by the old ballfield on Agency Road, now Longmore. In 1978, they started the fire department and we were cross-trained to help as firefighters. I actually delivered a baby in a parking lot once.
It’s always been important for me to help people. When I was about 10, we were driving to my grandparents and there was a bad car accident. There was a woman sitting there bleeding. I remember that nobody helped her and I wanted to help her but I was just a kid. For the rest of my life, it was instilled in me. I teach it to my kids. When we see someone with a flat tire, we always stop and never accept payment, even when they offer—we just ask them to pay it forward and help someone else.
I left the force for eight years and then came back in 1992. Everyone knew me and I knew everyone. They thought of me as their officer. Our house was like the Kool-Aid house, all the neighborhood kids would come. Not all of them had a good family life and we enjoyed taking them hiking or out to the river to swim and have picnics.
I also enjoyed being Santa for many years. We knew the families that needed help, especially the ones that would never ask for it. We’d dress up, me as Santa, and deliver presents from Toys for Tots. My dad taught me to hunt and to dress game. When I was a young man, I’d hunt for the community elders who still ate traditional food like rabbit, quail, and fish. I still do a bit today, but it’s getting harder to hunt, so I go less.
Sharlene and I have five children, two sons and triplet daughters and 12 grandchildren. I taught my kids, even some of the grandkids, to hunt and field dress the game. One of my daughters joked that I used them like pack mules to carry the meat to the truck, but it was good for them to learn.
I retired from the police force in 2013 as a Patrol Lieutenant. I’ve been with ECS for about 10 years now. I work with the SHRRP program doing weed abatement and tree trimming. I am still helping people.
I am getting close to being done. It’s been close to 40 years serving the community: 29 years with police and 10 years with SHRRP. It’s hard getting around now, but maybe one more year. It’s been a good journey helping people, that’s been my goal in life.
