My first memory was mom telling me to sit in our rocking chair so she could take a picture of me. I was not quite two years old and surprised I can remember that far back. We were living in New Jersey and about to move back home to Opelousas, Louisiana while dad would go overseas for a tour of duty in Giessen, Germany. As my older brother, Glenn and I and later our younger siblings would learn we would move many times because of dad being in the Army.
Thru our years of moving, each place we lived held a special place in my heart. Leaving friends behind was the hardest. It was like my best friend was an illusion of all my good and special friends rolled up into one. Fortunately, due to the Internet and Facebook, re-connections have been made with some of those friends. And in some cases, peers that lived at a place at the same time as we did become friends thru social media. There is something about military brats such as us that had a connection even if we didn’t know each other. We knew what it was like to move and leave friends behind and as a result within a day of us at a new place we usually had made at least five friends. Our major connection was the commandry we all shared.
