Navy Brat
I am proud to call myself a Navy Brat! I served for twenty years following my dad and family as we moved from place to place. Fortunately, my dad was a civil engineer (Seabee) so he was not on ship while my sister and I were growing up.
My sister Joanne once complained to me when we were kids that we would never be great geniuses because we were too normal.
Normal?! This coming from a child who went to five different second grades . . . . We usually only moved every two or three years. I was the younger child so I wasn't in school for the second grade misadventures. I don't remember every location but I know we lived in
- Great Lakes, Illinois
- Guam
- Port Hueneme, California
- San Diego, California
- Oakland, California
- Newport, Rhode Island
- Olathe, Kansas (formerly a naval air station)
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Little Creek, Virginia (near Norfolk & Virginia Beach)
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Washington, D.C. (U.S. Navy Yard)
- Cherry Point, North Carolina
While in Puerto Rico, we visited Panama and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, twice. Back then, Gitmo was considered as a pretty good duty station although families and men could not leave the base. For Christmas 1960, we saw the Bob Hope USA show at Gitmo.
We also went to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands while in the Caribbean. The trip to St. Thomas was my first time flying on a plane.
All the other overseas trips were on Navy transport ships. Every time from 18 months of age on, I was deadly ill. I was the only bad sailor--no one else in the family was afflicted. I still feel queasy whenever I am in a confined space and smell diesel fuel.
We had to be resilient since we moved so often. When the military moves you, you have a weight limit of how much the government will pay--according to your rank! So I have been a thrower-outer most of my life. I can think of a lot of things I wish I had kept.
 |
| Notice the cost of a child fare from Puerto Rico to St. Croix--$9 |
All the other overseas trips were on Navy transport ships. Every time from 18 months of age on, I was deadly ill. I was the only bad sailor--no one else in the family was afflicted. I still feel queasy whenever I am in a confined space and smell diesel fuel.
 |
| Arriving in Guam. You can't see my face but I am thinking, "Thank God, solid ground!" |
We had to be resilient since we moved so often. When the military moves you, you have a weight limit of how much the government will pay--according to your rank! So I have been a thrower-outer most of my life. I can think of a lot of things I wish I had kept.
My husband Harry was amazed the first few times we decided to move--I began packing boxes the next day. We learned as kids to pack up everything that you would not need for a while and to put everything you wanted to take with you on the move in a locked room so the movers wouldn't pack that stuff too.
I have never been able to remember addresses and phone numbers and believe it is because we moved so frequently that I never tried. (I had them written down somewhere!) My sister, who is three years older, and I were best friends for a couple weeks--until we made our own friends.
While my sister had the second grade fiasco, I had the opposite. When I moved from Virginia to South Carolina, it was decided for a number of reasons that I should skip my sophomore year in high school and become a junior. That meant I graduated high school and entered college at age 16! We lived in the Washington Navy Yard when I was in college, which meant I was out of state everywhere except in the expensive D.C. schools. I went to Radford, which began my love affair with Virginia.
The research on children frequently moving shows mostly negative results, although it did state that children of military families have easier times fitting into new situations because moving is the norm among many of their peers. I think fitting into new places helps children (who have strong family support) become more adaptable, more creative. Although my sister and I are not another Poe or Van Gogh--we are not that neurotic either--we are both somewhat creative. I like to dabble in graphic arts, and Joanne paints and designs all kinds of interesting things as you can see below.
I have never been able to remember addresses and phone numbers and believe it is because we moved so frequently that I never tried. (I had them written down somewhere!) My sister, who is three years older, and I were best friends for a couple weeks--until we made our own friends.
 |
| We were the best of friends--until we weren't! |
 |
| Who ever hear of a traveling Girl Scout record? By the way, in high school I decided my name was Trish, not Patty. |
While my sister had the second grade fiasco, I had the opposite. When I moved from Virginia to South Carolina, it was decided for a number of reasons that I should skip my sophomore year in high school and become a junior. That meant I graduated high school and entered college at age 16! We lived in the Washington Navy Yard when I was in college, which meant I was out of state everywhere except in the expensive D.C. schools. I went to Radford, which began my love affair with Virginia.
The research on children frequently moving shows mostly negative results, although it did state that children of military families have easier times fitting into new situations because moving is the norm among many of their peers. I think fitting into new places helps children (who have strong family support) become more adaptable, more creative. Although my sister and I are not another Poe or Van Gogh--we are not that neurotic either--we are both somewhat creative. I like to dabble in graphic arts, and Joanne paints and designs all kinds of interesting things as you can see below.
Well, Joanne, guess we weren't that normal!
No comments:
Post a Comment