Military Brat

So I grew up a Military Brat. My brother was born a brat......oh and he was a Military Brat too, of course. It's funny that I didn't even know the term Military Brat until my dad was out of the Armed Forces. Even though most of my growing up was after my dad had finished his obligation to the Military, I still remember when we lived on "the base" and I still hold some really great memories from that time. My lucky brother was born on "the base." So, whenever someone finds out his birth place, he always has something to talk about.

Anyways, let me tell you about "the base": We had old war planes in our back yard. Well, maybe not OUR back yard...it was close enough though. My brother and I used to walk down the hill and play at the base of the planes. We were too small to reach anything but the wheels and maybe we could touch the bottom of the plane if we jumped.

We went to Air Shows.....OMG if you never went to an Air Show, you have to see one. They are so neat. Just wear sun screen. Even if the sun is not out, trust me on this. OH, and you'll need sunglasses if you want to see anything.

I remember one time one of the guys saluted me when we were leaving the base. I don't know that he was supposed to do that, but it made me laugh. I think he did it because I was saluting him.

Planes were always over head, it was a normal thing. You got used to the noise. One time I was at my baby sitter's house and a helicopter was flying low enough to the ground that I could make out a man standing on the side in the doorway. I waved to him and he waved back. A memory that I will NEVER forget. What a nice guy. :)

Someone used to dress as a Santa -----er I mean Santa used to come to "the base" and hand out presents. It was so cool to have Santa visit us. Oh, and there used to be an October Fest every fall and there I learned to do the Chicken Dance. And oh was that fun! I know kinda dorky, but still fun! Trick or treat was awesome because the base housing was so close together and there was always candy at every door! Even the stores and businesses on the base had candy for us kids.

So that was life on "the base," and just in case you haven't deducted it by now, we lived on an Air Base. In a lot of ways I miss that base. Then again, the alarm for the mosquito spraying was kinda scary. I guess I would have gotten used to that. The mosquitos where we lived were so bad that they had to spray the whole base once a week. When you heard that alarm sound, you had to RUN to get indoors and RUN to make sure all of your windows were shut! Watching the adults run around like that and hearing a scary loud alarm....not something I like to remember. Other than that it was a good childhood.

Feel free to share your childhood stories. Does anyone else miss their childhood? With Santa and Trick or Treat...people were so giving then, haha.