When I Was Young in the Anywhere, Everywhere Army

This piece was inspired by this book...



It is a great children's book, and if you have children, you should get it and have them write their own "When I was Young." Fun, fun activity. They would also love to hear your "When I was Young."

So hear goes...











When I was young in the army, we never stayed anywhere more than two years, that was the maximum that the Colonel would let you stay at HIS base.

When I was young in the army, every two years Dad made a choice from three options, exotic options like Hawaii or Florida. But Dad never chose the fun places. He chose North Carolina; Ft. Polk, LA; or Seminary, MS, always as close to our "home base" as possible.

When I was young in the Army, one time Dad DID choose the exotic place, Bitburg, Germany. My mom and I boarded a plane. I had never been on a plane before because the other places were within driving distance, if you count several days as driving distance, which my Dad most certainly did. BUT, we couldn't drive over the ocean, so we flew to meet Dad in Europe.

When I was young in Germany, many of the streets were made of rocks, and nuns would walk past us in the village outside the base as we headed to the ice creame shoppe for spaghetti ice, my favorite dessert. Spaghetti Ice was vanilla ice cream squeezed through a press to look like noodles. The sauce was strawberry topping, and the meatballs were crushed nuts and whip cream. For years my parents have tried to replicate this dessert with no luck thus far.

When I was young in Germany, we lived eight flights up in an apartment that was very small. No living conditions in the army are spacious, but it was nice and cozy and together.

When I was young in Germany, we would walk in Volksmarches, like volkswagon is the people's car, Volksmarches are the peoples' walks. We would walk for 500 million kilometers. I would last about .75 kilometers of the 500 bazillion before I shimmied up my dad's side to my perch on top of his shoulders. At the end of each Volksmarch, medals were hung around our necks. The exhausted crowd devoured Bratwurst, and Dad drank dark beer out of souvineer beerstiens.

When I was young in Germany, there were vineyards, windmills, durndell dresses, mountains, and sight seeing, a lot of sight seeing. The images of Europe are beautiful snapshots in my mind. Everyone in my family agreed it was the best experience ever, and we should definitely go back one day.