Some corrections and new tidbits.

I took my family down to Austin today to eat Mexican food at Papasito's, and got mom and sis liquored up and pumped em for details. Turns out I had a few things bassakwards. We didn't get to England till '67. We were in Wichita falls for two years in stead of one. I started Kindergarten and first grade there, but it was some sort of half assed, half day only first grade and they didn't teach me much. So when we got to England and I started the second grade, I didn't have the proper preparation to do well. So it was the second grade I repeated, which made everyone think I was an idiot. Can't imagine why I thought it was the first, but there you go.

On the local bullies, my sister remembers them well. Apparently there were a whole series of female bullies as well as the guys I had to deal with. Mom said that as far as I was concerned, it all came down to the fact that while I was six years old when we got there, I was as big as an eleven or twelve year old, so all the older kids went after me. I've always been freakishly large, so I guess they thought I was older and just slow. Anyway, it's amazing the stuff you can get out of Mom when she's had a few margaritas.

Sis reminded us of how miserable she'd been in England, and of all the stuff that was going on that the folks never knew about. She said that dads base had been South Ruislip, and that we went to school at West Ruislip. She was going from the eighth grade to the tenth while I went through the second twice and then the third. She says that she'd had a hard time at PE. The Lesbian (her description) PE teacher used to allow the older girls to attack and strip the younger ones as part of some initiation. They'd strip you and leave you there naked for people to see. She says she fought them and they never got all of her clothes off. The folks never found out about these things. Don't know why, but I guess she didn't feel like she could tell them. So she drank.

Remember, this is 1967-70. Europe was overflowing with heroin from Turkey and Vietnam, some of it care of the CIA. She says that on Friday nights all the kids would gather at a spot on base called the Teen Club. The band that played there was made up of local service brats who lived in our neighborhood and would one day become famous as the band "America". You know, "Horse With No Name", Jerry Beckley and friends. We found out how famous they had become later when we got to Missouri.

She says that while other kids were doing hard drugs or smoking weed, or having sex in the back rooms, she was downing a pint of vodka that she and her friends would purchase off base at a nearby pub. A pint a week, every Friday. She says she stayed away from all the other mess, but had to fend off the gropes of some of the older guys, including one of the guys in the band, from time to time. She says that one night, a guy put the moves on her and told her if she didn't come across she'd have to walk home. So she hitch-hiked, and ended up getting in trouble for it. Was put on restriction and had to miss Cream's farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Those were the days.

She reminded me that before I was born, in about 1957 or '58, the three of them had been stationed there at Bergstrom, in Austin. There'd been a thirteen year old girl next door named Priscilla who occasionally babysat my four year old sister for my mom and dad. My dad said that her stepfather had fancied himself a card player, but had lost a lot of money to my dad learnin' otherwise. A few years later, when My folks had moved on to Bermuda, where I was born, they learned that Priscilla and her folks had moved to Germany, and that she'd hooked up with this Elvis fellow. Again, small world.

Anyway, as I said, all that is ancient history now. We're all well, fat and happy, and wouldn't trade the things that made us stronger and wiser for anything. I just wish I'd been about ten years older. There's a lot of stuff, like seeing my folks when they were younger, or getting to know my paternal grandparents, or maybe hookin' up with Priscilla, that I missed coming along as late as I did. Oh well, as dad says, wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which hand fills up first.