Oh, The Places You’ll Go
Growing up I never expected to live anywhere but where I was, Huron, SD. I wanted to be a writer and work for the Plainsman, no moves required. I did not want to work at the packing plant or really any place else. Of course, the best laid plans, they say. Not that I could even begin to say that my life was planned, it certainly hasn’t been. Probably because of the ADHD.
Growing up in Huron, I lived in three “houses.” One was actually a basement, the house on top of the basement hadn’t been completed. There were two apartments in that basement. It was crowded. I headed off to college and lived in a dorm for a year and then three years in apartments. Crazy fun. Crazy. Somehow I graduated but there was this draft thing and so I joined the Air Force but didn’t have an assignment when I graduated. I had to wait. I went back to Huron and got married.
My first wife and I lived in a tiny place above the Greyhound Bus Depot. To get to the apartment you’d walk up a rickety stairway with a single bulb lighting the way, like a scary movie. I worked part time as a watchman at the packing plant. I look back now and think…what, no health insurance, no benefits. Youth. I got my assignment to Webb AFB, Big Spring, TX. But, how do you find a place to live when you are clueless and young? Somehow, we found a furnished trailer next to the base at the end of the runway. Lot 7, OK Trailer Court. A little noisy. We lived there a year and then moved onto base into a three bedroom duplex. Quite a move up.
After Webb I lived by myself in Mexico Beach, Florida for several months while I went to T-33 and weapons controller training. Beach life was okay. I got divorced. From there I launched to Iceland for a year. Coming back from Iceland I lived in a motel for a month at Hurlburt Field, Florida, while I went to AGOS, Air Ground Operations School. From there I went to Indialantic, Florida, for a month or two where I learned to fly the OV-10. And, I got married again.
Off to Austin, Texas! I did love Austin and Bergstrom, AFB. My wife and I built a house way out west, in the country with scorpions, rattle snakes and country music. I flew the OV-10; a squadron mate tried to teach me to fly the O-2 but I wasn’t very good at it. From Texas I moved to Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM, for “fighter lead in training.” I was there on my birthday when Mt St Helens exploded. We had ash on our airplanes just a few days after the eruption. After a few weeks I moved to Utah.
I lived in East Layton, UT, just a mile or so away from Hill AFB where I flew the F-16 for almost four years. Lots of fun to fly, it was a new airplane. A gadget lovers dream. But so much for fun, off to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, for a year of Air Command and Staff College. My least favorite year in the USAF and probably my life. I really disliked the school and many of the people I met in Montgomery were very prejudiced. Classmates from Africa had a hard time getting served in many of the restaurants downtown. I actually lived on Gunter AFB which was a small base on the east side of Montgomery.
My next assignment was to the Pentagon and I moved to Lakeridge, Virginia, about 20 miles south of the Pentagon. I lived in two houses in Lakeridge, one a big colonial wannabe, the other a cottage like place. And I got divorced.
I moved to a tiny little house in Arlington, Virginia, about a half mile from the Pentagon. I got married again! That was 33 years ago and we’re still going strong. We moved to Alexandria for ten years and then to Springfield, VA, another Northern Virginia community. We raised our three kids in Alexandria and Springfield and enjoyed the communities and the school. But the pace is hectic. The county we lived in has almost 1.2 million people…that’s more than all of South Dakota.
So, we moved. To our last place. A small house in a small community, Manakin Sabot, just a few miles northwest of Richmond, VA. It’s an adjustment which we are enjoying.
I’m a product of twenty-plus different houses/apartments in 13-plus town/communities, seven states, and two countries. The places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, the things I’ve done and seen…all pretty cool. I’m thankful.
The image above is of President Tyler’s home on the Sherwood Forest Plantation. I went there last year. Tyler’s family still owns the place.