\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back in the days of the early 1960’s my family was living in Bedford, Massachusets\u00a0in the Base’s housing at Hanscomb Field Air Fore Base.\u00a0 The housing area was planned in a rather blunt but real as\u00a0was implied manner,\u00a0set out\u00a0in a most stratified and obvious way, having 3 main streets named (by topological truth and by status of rank)very neatly\u00a0and graphically laid out\u00a0,with the existence of an actual\u00a0“Low Street”, a “Middle Street”, and a “High Street” to which each family was assigned quarters (housing) according to the father’s level of rank in the service.\u00a0 We first lived in a temporary apartment, then were\u00a0given a quite lovely two story house, very ‘New England’ in it’s style, and quite nice in it’s placement among rank and file, at the top of a hill surrounded by beautifully wooded natural land.\u00a0 \u00a0The beautiful natural Forrest enclosure\u00a0made our base housing seem more like an up-scale neighborhood\u00a0surrounded by an impressive greenbelt around\u00a0it’s perimeters.\u00a0My father was working for the Department of Defense in an important area of\u00a0 National\u00a0Security at that time.\u00a0 I was a clueless 15 year old, not wanting to be up North, and doing everything I could to express that, as I remember it. This was a number of years ago… (Wow, it was actually about 45 years ago.) nnnnooooooooooway.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We moved\u00a0to Massachusetts from the coast of central Florida the summer before I was to attend 10th grade, the first year of \u00a0High School in those days\u00a0(the big time.)\u00a0 However, the culture and climate were ever so completely different, to the point that I remember thinking the Principal of “Bedford High” was doing a “Kennedy” impression when giving the morning announcements over the school’s intercom.\u00a0 This I found to be quite amusing, something not shared by my peers.\u00a0Wonder why that was? \u00a0Also,\u00a0after we drove from Florida to Massachusetts in August\u00a0of that year, I discovered the horrendous climate difference right away.\u00a0 It got colder at night in the Summer there, than it ever got in the Winter in\u00a0our previous\u00a0station,\u00a0where we had spent a most unusually long assignment (5 years). That was when my Dad was stationed at Cape Canaveral off the coast of Cocoa Beach Florida, back in the days when it was not so overwhelmingly\u00a0populous as to\u00a0seem to be an extension of\u00a0Disney World, the Space Travel theme section or something of that nature, as it is today.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The public schools were ever so much better, though, there in New England\u00a0-and that was a remarkable thing.\u00a0As a High School Sophomore, I and two other weird souls wanted to take “music theory” which, with allot of trouble and schedule shuffling, Bedford High provided.\u00a0\u00a0My 10th grade\u00a0honors English class was more like a college level lecture, the teacher being phenomenally dedicated to spreading his love of words and their power, along with the importance and insistance on following the preferred structured and correctly doccumented written work, which he assigned regularly.\u00a0 He would edit these papers untill we learned this skill and neccesity on our own.\u00a0 He was a remarkable speaker and the Drama coach as well,\u00a0 so I participated in the Drama program there under his guidence as well.\u00a0 \u00a0There was even a genuine visual art teacher<\/em> who knew his chops.\u00a0 I had no idea this sort of thing existed in the world, but soaked it in like a sponge- however tempory it was.\u00a0 \u00a0But for that year, it did exist for me, even if my nose froze and I very regularly slipped on the ice and could barely spell Massachusetts.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most of the local culture was so firmly evident,\u00a0having been\u00a0long ago established with a reverence for academia not found in Florida (for obvious reasons-I mean, who needed that there?…)\u00a0and the area surrounding Boston was oozing with such superlative displays of all kinds in the arts there, and the\u00a0ever present excitement that came with living near a big city with such a particularly historical significance-that brought a whole new unexpected bonus with this odd year of transition. \u00a0That part of our stay made this area sacred to me, even if I was alienated by my status\u00a0of Military Brat, a tempory, new kid, and obvious suspect.\u00a0I went to the Club 47 with older friends and was introduced to the budding folk music scene.\u00a0I remember attending a performance of the Royal Ballet when Margot Fonteyn still danced with the Royal Ballet Company.\u00a0\u00a0Although I do not <\/strong>remember a single “Lift Off” of an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile the whole time were stationed there.\u00a0 How odd that seemed at the time.\u00a0 Oh, sure they played around with some “Nike rockets” upon occasion (?) but that hardly compares to intensity of the other experience, as to be so different, so civilized and so strangely smooth ,and so damn cold<\/strong> in the winter as to freeze your eyelids open if you walked into the wind.\u00a0 It was the actual\u00a0 living experience\u00a0likened to the existence of when” Hell actually done<\/em> froze over<\/em>” to me, as it were, and hopefully,\u00a0we were just visiting, even with all the added excellence in it’s local color.\u00a0 Frankly the local color became blue like the tip of my nose upon\u00a0occassion.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Although this move and that year spent in the Boston area\u00a0was one that broadened the perspective of my very naive life experiences, and probably froze away\u00a0some overly-fashioned conscious brain cells, as the approaching reality of\u00a0 Winter there did not ruin my here-to-fore optimistic idea that\u00a0my long brown hair was\u00a0the all occasion head\u00a0cover for any occasion.\u00a0 It was nearing Christmas\u00a0before I realized that by covering my head with a very warm scarf or hat,\u00a0this addition\u00a0really would make quite a difference,\u00a0and that there are <\/strong>those times when\u00a0survival becomes ever so much more important than\u00a0one’s fashion image at below freezing temperatures, especially when the wind chill is\u00a0factored with in the equation.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 However, when Spring sprung ,up there, it was so overwhelmingly relieving ,and wonderfully, shockingly different,\u00a0as to make even one as young as I was, truly realize the renewal of the earth’s cycle of life,\u00a0a concept brought with wisdom not personally realized before that year.\u00a0 I remember one afternoon in late Spring, when my mother was at some Officers’\u00a0Wives’ Club function, and not expected to return until dusk, when my big brother and I had one of the most over the top<\/em> “water fights”<\/em>I have ever heard about.\u00a0It was quite comfortably warm and we had the screen door and some windows open to let in the Spring’s warm breeze.\u00a0This was so altogether inspiring\u00a0as we were seemingly freed from an icy prison, and yet again given back our childhood’s playful attitude, so impulsive and invigorating as to reintroduce our former stupid and purposeless battle for family supremacy.\u00a0This, particular noteworthy exchange was undoubtedly started by the simple reality of my having to do some chores (NOT THAT!) that day -when I was putting some used and rinsed dishes and glasses in our new dishwasher (a first for our family).\u00a0 This kitchen also came with a very handy tool, the removable and easily directed and defused spray\u00a0nozzle at the kitchen sink-not the usual simple fixed faucet\u00a0that\u00a0we were used to having.\u00a0 Of course, this marvelous new invention became the\u00a0ultimate efficient and evil spray gun that never ran out of\u00a0water unless you gave up and ran.\u00a0 So, my brother proceeded to walk by on his way toward the door of the kitchen, providing the perfect and most excellent target for said convenient kitchen utensil.\u00a0 I Sprayed him\u00a0with maximum water pressure, and with out mercy and rather\u00a0thoroughly (I thought). Where as he had only the glass of water he carried to return fire until he escaped.\u00a0\u00a0Given my brothers proclivity for ingenious revenge, he found the garden hose and spray nozzle in the garage, which he then attached to the closest outside water faucet (all without my noticing him doing\u00a0that).\u00a0 I was almost finished my task of loading the dishwasher, when he returned with that far greater fire power, a fully pressurized garden hose, locked and loaded for battle.\u00a0 My puny kitchen sprayer was no match for that garden hose at full blast, but\u00a0we preceded to battle this out until noticing we had\u00a0both of our persons and the entire kitchen sopping wet.\u00a0 To the point where there was\u00a0(mas<\/em> or menos<\/em>) almost an inch of water contained\u00a0with in the kitchen floor. At this significant moment of inevitable retreat, for both, and\u00a0the realization of the\u00a0much needed reconaissance that we faced; we shifted our formerly advisarial roles, becoming allies (however temorary) in order\u00a0undo the horor of our water war, which would not be viewed in the spirit intended by our parents.\u00a0 \u00a0We knew the battle was over but not the war.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think it took us over an hour to re-establish normality to that lovely, clean kitchen …err… with the very recently rinsed\u00a0(quite thoroughly)\u00a0light yellow\u00a0tiled floor, and wiped down cabinets.\u00a0The effort put forth took every broom, mop, and \u00a0dry towel in the house, which we thoughtfully put in the washer to clean, and the dryer to dry, sneaking down and retrieving them, folding them, and returning them\u00a0to their former locations, later-\u00a0on the sly.\u00a0 Fortunately, the kitchen curtains were “wash and wear”, though I don’t think this was what they had in mind.\u00a0 We had barely finished doing this, when we heard\u00a0our mother come home, driving the car into the garage.\u00a0 Though the hose and\u00a0nozzle had not been returned to it’s assigned place in the garage, it was not a noticed factor,\u00a0so we proceeded to behave quite normally, having changed out of our soaked clothes, and evil expressions.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I remember things, by the time my mother returned to change out of her very formal attire, I was sitting in the den pretending to read the newspaper and my brother was in his room ingrossed\u00a0in his home work.\u00a0 Just another afternoon, in the tales of the Air Force Brats, that we really were.\u00a0 Too bad that time goes away as easily as the water disappeared that afternoon of memorable though dubious intent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back in the days of the early 1960’s my family was living in Bedford, Massachusets\u00a0in the Base’s housing at Hanscomb Field Air Fore Base.\u00a0 The housing area was planned in a rather blunt but real as\u00a0was implied manner,\u00a0set out\u00a0in a most stratified and obvious way, having 3 main streets named (by topological truth and […]<\/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":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-true-and-unusual-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R4qt-s","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/st-live-kay-buena-thoughts-of-the-day-song-of-the-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":0},"title":"!st–Live Kay Buena: thoughts of the day, song of the day.","author":"Kay Buena","date":"August 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is a remarkable thing that what ever notoriety I have received as a visual artist, is from my Computer destruction, relief sculptures (inside pun), as I was trained quite classically at the University of Texas in the late 60's.\u00a0 This was back in the McKinley administration, when you\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/again-whats-wrong-with-this-picture\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":1},"title":"Again, what’s wrong with this picture?","author":"Kay Buena","date":"August 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\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\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/tribute-to-bill-ducker-gone-but-never-forgotten\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":2},"title":"Tribute to Bill Ducker, Gone but Never Forgotten","author":"Kay Buena","date":"October 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I first became acquainted with Mr. Bill Ducker back in the early 70's when times were not exactly prosperous or even ironically amusing for me and his then girl friend (later to become his wife), Claire.\u00a0 We were House mates at the time.\u00a0 She had divorced her husband and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/humour-where-you-at-whereforth-art-thy-etc\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":3},"title":"Humour where' you at? whereforth art thou, etc.","author":"Kay Buena","date":"November 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0Ever noticed how some times when trying to make it through the day with co-workers, or family members, some comment\u00a0that was meant merely to be amusing, or lighthearted, or ever so\u00a0slightly discordant,\u00a0in order to change the focus into a\u00a0pleasant pathway to a different subject or attitude, goes terribly wrong:\u00a0 And\u00a0this\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":404,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/dont-you-hate-that-added-3rd-party-existention-well-so-did-bettyjane\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":4},"title":"11. Don’t you hate that added 3rd party existention?…Well so did BettyJane","author":"KayBuena","date":"May 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When we first encountered my very favorite childhood doll, Betty Jane, she had been missing from the household for some time, approximently 55 years.\u00a0 Thou she had been carefully attended to by my mother, untill my parents moved to Salado, Texas.\u00a0 I truely became reaquaninted with Betty Jane, after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "(The) Betty Jane Chronicles"","block_context":{"text":"(The) Betty Jane Chronicles","link":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/category\/the-betty-jane-chronicles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/pianos-i-have-known-and-loved\/","url_meta":{"origin":28,"position":5},"title":"Piano's I Have Known and Loved","author":"Kay Buena","date":"September 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometime between the age of 2 and 4 years old, my parents got me a toy piano.\u00a0 It was white and shaped like a baby grand, but only had two octaves (from\u00a0 G below middle C---to G above middle C).\u00a0 I thought this was the most wonderful thing, although thinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","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=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kaybuena.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}