\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday I wrote a piece on what ever it was, but it offended my husband; And in-order to promote cordial cooperation and an ambiance of a positive nature, I “scrubbed it.” (That’s ‘space kid’ talk for cancelling what was written, as this was the phrase used when a launch was delayed or not to be back in the old days of the Space.)\u00a0 Again-may I remind you that I grew up a “military brat” mostly off Cocoa Beach, close to the peninsula that was known as Cape Canaveral, where all the ICBM’s were tested.\u00a0 Back then when we moved to the area, in 1956, all defensive weapon-missiles, and conceptual Space Travel, etc. was handled strictly by the military.\u00a0 It was much later when\u00a0 private company’s entered into the mix,\u00a0co-existing with the military when this\u00a0made sense (example: IBM, Philco-Ford handled the computer stations, etc.) creating\u00a0what we know today as NASA.\u00a0 In the very beginning of the 50’s, the military branches started ‘fixing up’ that area, which was a virtual paradise and practically uninhabited\u00a0by people\u00a0then.\u00a0 When we first arrived, our family stayed in a very small apartment right on the beach.\u00a0 My brother and I used to ‘go play’, by the water, having promised not to go in with out adult supervision, we never mention the many coral snakes that shared our play space usually traveling in two’s, but they were there.\u00a0 We knew they were lethal, but were not aggressive, but I do remember a couple times having to jump over them on the way to where ever we were going, as we did not see them until we were pretty close to them.\u00a0 My mother would have had a fit and a half had she known.<\/p>\n
By the way, My husband and daughter\u00a0 and I\u00a0went back to look at the old ‘home-place’\u00a0of Cocoa Beach, years later (1986?) and\u00a0I found\u00a0the whole area\u00a0unrecognizable –but there was some relationship visually to Disney World, where we were vacationing officially;we just decided to take\u00a0a side trip\u00a0in hopes of witnessing a Space Shuttle launch, which was scrubbed on that day. So we headed back for Orlando,\u00a0where it wasn’t as crowded and disconcerting as my old haunts, strange as that seems.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back when we first moved to the Cape in the mid-fifties, the Army Core of Engineering dug\u00a0regularly-spaced,\u00a0handy canals, and cleared miles of fields of “Palmetto Plants”, the indigenous\u00a0palm-tree-like\u00a0ground cover, which were mostly burned to make building possible. Oh, the stench and the smoke !n the best of times, those.\u00a0 There were enormous fields of them, when we first moved there, with nary a person in sight. A most impressive, enormous\u00a0ediface was under construction at that time -a research facility overlooking the\u00a0Atlantic Ocean, built to withstand huge tidal waves and hurricanes. (We experienced two hurricanes while stationed there. (way cool…we had to evacuate and stay on the mainland, where it was safer during those hurricanes.)\u00a0 \u00a0But\u00a0the place where the actual missiles were \u00a0launched was not open to civilians, of course,\u00a0and\u00a0was located a good 15-20 miles from base\u00a0at\u00a0the “cape,” a peninsula off the one on which our housing was-located.\u00a0 It was north-northeast of the Base, and an easy sight when lounging around the beach.\u00a0 \u00a0Patrick Air Force Base, which was in existence before all the excitement,\u00a0became quite a hub for all branches of the services.\u00a0 It was my father’s job to make every one (Army, Navy, Air Force) get along and communicate—no easy job that, as there was quite allot of competition and altercations between said divisions, as one can imagine, and it was absolutely imperative that they work together to achieve success in this very important cold war\u00a0endeavor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What I remember as most strange and unusual about this place and time in my life as a child (we moved there\u00a0when I was 9 years old) was the actual experience of\u00a0being near where\u00a0the missiles were launched-there is nothing so completely\u00a0over whelming\u00a0as when\u00a0the ground shook like an earth quake\u00a0and the noise of lift off was louder than anything I’d ever heard before.\u00a0Nothing could possibly compare to that totally encompassing experience of\u00a0being near lift\u00a0off in the beginning of the Space Program.\u00a0 Your world\u00a0literally shook and you couldn’t hear your own screaming.\u00a0\u00a0In the beginning there were many on going problems getting those dang things off the ground,\u00a0so it was not uncommon to experience this bizarre occurrence twice a week.\u00a0 No wonder allot of the wild life moved away.\u00a0 It was scary as the concept of Hell, if you didn’t know what was going on during launch.\u00a0\u00a0 But after awhile it was just part of the deal and became a quite a normal part of our life–no biggie.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0When we moved there I attended the\u00a0nearest public elementary school (\u00a0I was in\u00a0the 4th grade at the time)\u00a0which was on the mainland (a good 45 min. drive – one way by school bus) into the city of Melbourne, in what used to be a military hospital, very isolated with a playground that went on for miles, it seemed. It was built somewhat on stilts off of the ground, I’m guessing to avoid flooding, etc.\u00a0 But the place between the ground and underneath the old building there made quite a good hiding place for many a critter, and seemed dark and mysteriously vile.\u00a0 This was definitely the swamps.\u00a0 But \u00a0in the front of the school was an enormous tree that had strange\u00a0long 4 pieced leather like extensions that hung together and fell to the ground, of which we learned to make into bracelets and such,when woven together, while waiting for our bus to show up in the afternoon.\u00a0 Our bus driver was this (at the time I thought) “OLD LADY” (looking back, she was\u00a0probably in her late 40’s)\u00a0who brought along her retarded daughter, who was part of the “special ed” class, that had their class room in a separate -but on site building, along side of the old hospital that was our school. I was more or less friends with her, and I didn’t mind sitting in back of her and her mother near the drivers seat of the bus.\u00a0\u00a0Each morning’s routine\u00a0was to watch that special Ed-\u00a0class and it’s teacher march\u00a0the “special ed”\u00a0students (who were supposed to gather first thing in the morning\u00a0in the back porch\u00a0of our elementary school until they were all together and accounted for) from whence\u00a0they were taken in a neat single file line back to their classroom, where their day began.\u00a0 For some unknown reason it was held in a seperate\u00a0ajoining building to the east of Melbourne Elementary back then<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then there was that “really special- ed”<\/em> day when an 8-10 foot long alligator\u00a0 charged out from under this building, looking for his ‘special ed breakfast’, that broke the monotony of our whole school’s routine, no question about it.\u00a0 Now, this was way long before gators were considered “endangered”, and in fact that seems like a contradiction in terms, especially to said special-ed students.\u00a0 But we were a hardy bunch those days and were fast runners, even these special-ed students, who managed to dodge this dangerous enormous beast by taking off in different directions tout sweet, I kid you not … I have never seen kids run that fast for any reason\u00a0, as clearly the kids were the one’s endangered\u00a0when this dang thing snapped it’s jaws and hurdled itself here and there, trying to catch up to one of these kids,\u00a0who usually\u00a0went \u00a0so slowly in a single filed line.\u00a0 Of course\u00a0little problems \u00a0like this were handled by bored M.P.s, who were called into the rescue.\u00a0 I got to watch them take down this critter during our class’s\u00a0 usual reading session, if I remember correctly.<\/p>\n \u00a0 Nothing like a few\u00a0armed uniformed soldiers and their biggest caliber rifles for taking care of business, as they successfully did that day. Too bad they didn’t go for the Nike missiles, which were so much more fun to watch … and the soldiers\u00a0probably could have used the practice too … guess it was too near the school for such sport. That was one big gator!<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is my daughter’s favorite story from my youth, and I’m guessing if I told this one to my psychiatrist\/psychologist he would think me even more delusional than he does, poor guy.\u00a0\u00a0But it’s the truth and nothing but the truth, I swear by all that is Holy to me.\u00a0 No wonder I’m bored as\u00a0they get these days, especially with all this coding\u00a0cordial cooperation and ambiance of a positive nature. It just doesn’t seem natural. And it isn’t natural.\u00a0It is said ”\u00a0You’ got to take the good with the bad.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday I wrote a piece on what ever it was, but it offended my husband; And in-order to promote cordial cooperation and an ambiance of a positive nature, I “scrubbed it.” (That’s ‘space kid’ talk for cancelling what was written, as this was the phrase used when a launch was delayed or not to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R4qt-b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/that-silver-haired-however-its-mostly-dark-brown-daddy-of-mine\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":0},"title":"That Silver haired (however it’s mostly Dark Brown) Daddy of Mine","author":"Kay Buena","date":"June 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, being father's day, it only seems appropriate that I tell you fine folks a bit (pun) about my Dad, Col. Charles Webb Abbitt (U.S.A.F.(ret.)),\u00a0who has always amazed me in many ways: How could a person, regardless of age and other factors, be so gol darned disciplined about actually doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Truly Strange and Unusual Adventures of Kay Buena's Youth"","block_context":{"text":"The Truly Strange and Unusual Adventures of Kay Buena's Youth","link":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/category\/true-and-unusual-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"YouTube of That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/SDx-vqRBQNY\/default.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/the-day-i-got-some-credit-for-being-my-fathers-daughter-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":1},"title":"The day I got some credit for being my father's daughter","author":"Kay Buena","date":"September 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One fine day last spring in 2009, when the day was way too hot to be cabin fevered at home, I decided to set out on my own, as The Collingsworth Foundation from our British allies, a society worthy of\u00a0quite a bit of\u00a0praise and attention, as they had\u00a0sent three planes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Truly Strange and Unusual Adventures of Kay Buena's Youth"","block_context":{"text":"The Truly Strange and Unusual Adventures of Kay Buena's Youth","link":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/category\/true-and-unusual-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/my-mom-may-god-rest-her-soul-had-one-of-the-best-eitherial-additudes-ever-alsothis-did-not-go-unnoticed\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":2},"title":"My Mom, (May God rest her soul) had one of the best ethereal attitudes ever; also, this did not go unnoticed","author":"Kay Buena","date":"August 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the problems of having an unusual historical background, as many military brats and\/or (as in my case)\"Space Kids\" did, is the necessity for being discrete, which is learned from experience, as well as taught and repeatedly reminded by one's parents to keep your little smart-assed mouth shut on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":662,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/the-intro-for-a-new-catagory-the-truly-strange-and-unusual-adventures-of-kay-buenas-youth\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":3},"title":"The Intro for a new category: The Truly Strange and Unusual Adventures of Kay Buena’s Youth","author":"Kay Buena","date":"May 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0As a \"Military Brat\", a positive term used to describe children of parents in the Armed Forces of the United States of America, I have a strange but (I\u00a0think) interesting point of view of what is considered normal. (Well, it is certainly a \u00a0different normal than most.) I went to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/C03S49-ClinewithCup320x480.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/dropping-the-big-one-on-hiroshima-and-progress\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":4},"title":"Dropping the Big One on Hiroshima and progress","author":"Kay Buena","date":"August 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is the 67th anniversary of\u00a0 dropping the big one on Hiroshima.\u00a0 Whatever your view on that incident, this did pull the plug on WWII, which we must not forget when viewing all these sad and sorry stories in today's news reports regarding this achievement. \u00a0Perspectives, people, are needed\u00a0 when\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/im-getting-a-tad-sick-of-this-maudlin-kiddie-crapbring-back-the-snoop-dogg\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":5},"title":"Bring Back the Snoop Dogg Picture; it's a total Winner, if I do say myself.","author":"Kay Buena","date":"April 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Song of the Day: \"Moon Rise \" Lyrics, Music,Vocal, Rhythm Guitar, Slide\/Country-Slack Key Guitar: Kay Buena (AKA) Caroline Abbitt Sauer:- Bass Guitar, Recording Engineer: Dr. Charles Sauer,(PHd.comp.sci.):- Drums: The Honerable Jerry Barnett. Recorded back in 1986(?) \u00a0Oh, great swami of the computer Empire of the network here, please bring back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snoop Dogg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kaybuena.com\/images\/tn20080124SnoopDogg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}