Sitting at Omer and Carol’s kitchen counter on a Friday
night, rather late for a “happy hour,” eating tuna wiggle, telling stores, I do not recall how family vacations (or lack
thereof) came up. My parents moved,
packing up the entire household and setting off to new Army housing every 2 to
3 years until 1969 when we moved to San Diego. My Dad retired from the service
there . I attended 6th grade through
4 years of undergrad college in San DIego. That’s why I call it my
hometown.
The Moves:
Ft. Carson, Colorado (my birthplace) to Ft. Eustis, Virginia
– a car trip with me as a 1.5 year old
Ft. Eustis, VA (where my brother, Brent, was born)
Chicago, IL while my Dad was in Korea
Ft. Mason, California to Green Bay, Wisconsin – 4yo me and
2yo brother (started kindergarten)
Green Bay, WI to Ft. Bliss, (El Paso) Texas
Ft. Bliss, TX to Lamont, Illinois – 6 yo me and 4 yo brother
Lamont, IL to Portage, Indiana
Portage, IN to an American Army base in Illesheim, Germany
Illeisheim, Germany to San Diego, California (by car from
Washington, DC to San Diego) with 11yo
me and 9yo brother
That’s 9 moves before 6th grade and a lot of car
trips.
The LAST thing my mom wanted to do on “vacation” was pack up
the car and drive anywhere. We didn’t.
Judd’s remembrance is packing up the car EVERY spring break
with some combination of his 4 brothers and having his parents take turns
driving overnight from Maine to Florida to go camping at Juniper Springs. Mapquest puts it at 24 hours Kittery to
Ocala but that’s 2012 highways…. I
believe it took longer in 1965… in a station wagon with no seat belts…. How did
they ever survive?
Carol says HER parents used to drive to Florida every year
for vacation and camp in Ocala National Forest too. She remembered fondly one
year (she must have been 13 or 14 yo)
when a boy from a neighboring camp came by and asked if she wanted to hunt for
armadillos. She told the story with little hearts in her eyes like she had
instantly fallen in love the “boy next door.”
Judd said HE used to hunt for armadillos there. “Wait a minute,” says
Carol, looking astonished, “How old would YOU have been.” They do the calculations. “What year was that?” “Did you actually catch any armadillos?” and all the while Omer and I are thinking
this is a buzz word for something else that goes on in the dark in
Florida….like cow tipping in Maine or watching the submarine races from the
scenic points of San Diego.
Maybe it was the post-prandial beverages talking after that,
but we left quite convinced that Carol and Judd knew each other in a previous
life and perhaps were childhood lovers….. at least for one night.
p.s. they did NOT catch an armadillo that night. (Sounds
suspicious, huh?)
