Flashback Friday~Home Edition

This week Linda from Mocha with Linda asks:

Where did you live when you were growing up?

I was born in Victorville, CA actually on George Air Force Base because my dad was in the Air Force. We lived there for a year and my dad was transferred to England. I lived there for 3 years and during that time my two sisters were born. We moved to Tampa, Florida for 3 years. My brother was born and I completed 1st grade. My birthday is in December and I was too young to go to kindergarten but went to 1st grade the year after. My dad went to Viet Nam for a year during this time in my life and wrote me letters that I still have today.

We then moved to Victorville, CA again at George AFB where I attended 2nd thru 5th grade. I became a girl scout and loved working on my badges with my best friend, Vicki Schroeder who I am still in contact with. She lives on the east coast and I've always lived on the west coast and haven't seen each other in a long time. It would be fun to meet again sometime. Who knows?? All the neighborhood kids used to go out in the middle of the desert in the summer and make forts out of the tumble weeds, etc. and play all day and go back home for dinner. Our parents never knew exactly where we were! We never got bit by a snake or anything else however, we did bring home a few horney toads and lizards. :)

From there, my dad was transferred to Turkey but when we got there his papers were mixed up and we had to wait 5 weeks in a motel (all 6 of us in one small motel room!) for them to figure out were supposed to be in Madrid, Spain. So off to Spain we went, living in downtown Madrid for 3 years. There were alot of American families living in the same area and the Air Force bussed us to the air base for school. They didn't have enough housing for all families to live on the air base. It was fun living in Spain...we ate a ton of sunflower seeds(everyone eats them), played pinball games like crazy, learned to eat fried squid(looks like french fries), they had bumper cars that would set up on empty lots in the neighborhoods and we'd get everyone together to go ride the bumper cars for a nickel a ride. We rode the trolley cars and busses to go ice skating, for food, for fun! It was great! This was 6th-9th grade and I had blonde hair at the time and the Spanish boys loved blonde haired american girls so needless to say...I had a lot of Spanish boys who wanted to be friends. They weren't shy either...they would yell "rubia" all the time when my friends and I would walk down the street. Oh...by the way...the streets were cobblestone. The "panaderia" was the local bakery and had fresh french style loaves of bread that the people ate every day and where we bought our sunflower seeds, gum and candy. We waited every Saturday for Casey Kasem's Top 40 Countdown of American music and we would record it on cassettes to listen to. There was little on TV and it was all in Spanish and this was the closest thing we had to staying in tune with America. I missed 4 years of TV but don't remember what!!

The last year in Spain, we moved into base housing and that was fun too. Growing up this way...we all lived in similar homes except the Officer's kids. They had bigger homes, nicer lawns and a nicer pool to swim in in the summer. My dad was not an officer so I made a few friends and got to swim in the nicer pool! It was less crowded! We were all friends though...no matter if your father was an officer or not, whether you were black, white or asian...we were all friends.

Coming back to the good ol' USA, we headed to California. This time Edwards AFB outside of Lancaster, CA. This is where the shuttle lands when it can't land in Florida after it's been up in space. I finished my Sophomore year at Desert High School and my dad retired after 20 years of service. We moved to Lancaster, CA and I completed my Junior and Senior year at Antelope Valley High School.

It was lots of moving and I feel fortunate to have met so many wonderful people and have seen some interesting places. Every move we made, we got to travel for a month (in one small car with NO A/C, the wind blowing thru the car and no seat belts!!) and see my grandparents(we never lived close to them) and all my relatives. I lived at home with my parents until I married the hubby in 1978. I have lived in California, Arizona and back to California(in three cities) with the hubby and we will probably make a move or two before we retire.

So I really don't have a place to call home except that I've lived most of my life in California...so I call California home but I don't have a physical home to go home to. Both of my parents moved to Arizona for retirement. So home is where my family is and I love to travel.