Being an Army Brat, I’ve lived in a few different places both in the US and overseas.  Here’s a look at most of those places.

Portsmouth, Virginia

Didn’t live here, but have some of my earliest memories here.  This is  where my grandparents (Dad’s side) house was at in Portsmouth, VA.  Like many other grandparents of this time, my grandmother had the plastic on the furniture in the living room so it wouldn’t get messed up.  Also remember my grandpa and him smoking out of his tobacco pipe and me riding around in my red pedal car.  Always interesting to me the childhood memories that we retain.

This is my Aunt Jackie’s old place where I also grew up when I was young with my cousins.  The most vivid memory that I have was the chickenpox tree that we were not suppose to hang around because if we did, we would get chickenpox.  Of course I didn’t listen and of course I did catch chicken pox.

Petersburg, VA

The house I was in until I was 10 years old.  The first is from Google and the second is a more updated shot from Bing.  It’s weird looking at this since the gararge that was on the right side when I was growing up is missing and it looks like they built a new one on the left side. The back yard was pretty big though.  There used to be a farm behind us and when my dad let go of our pet rabbit, he hopped to that farm.  The farmer had a pair of bloodhounds, so I’ve always hoped that that rabbit survived.  My room was the one to the let of the porch.  Also remembered that the neighbors were a little off somehow.

Daegu, South Korea

Su Song Apartments were the first apartments that we lived in in Daegu.  At the time we were at the outskirts of town.  There were one or two other American families in the apartment complex.  I think there was a hidden temple or farm in the forested hills above the apartments.  Down the hill at the corner of the lake where I would catch the school bus to goto school at the base, it’s now a Starbucks.

The man-made lake, Su Song.  There were paddleboats that you could rent and there was a little island in the lake you could paddle to.  In the winter, it was cold enough to ice skate on the lake.  They had little carts and mom/pop food stands you could get a bite to eat and a small carnival gallery with shooting games and what not.  It’s where I had my first beer, BTW.  Across the street from that was RGH, the American apartment complex.  This is where most of my friends were at, like Danny Flack.  Summer water gun/water ballon fights were epic. Also had an afterschool/kids center where I remember watching the Tyson fight and perfecting my Monopoly skill.

When I was growing up, all of the highlighted area was just farmland and wasteland.  I mean there was nothing out there.  I know it’s been over 30 years, but it still blows my mind on how much the neighborhood and the city itself has grown.

Side note, towards the bottom, there used to be an amusement park and that is where I threw up on Casey Clark on the tea cup ride after having a pineapple soda right before.  Tragic childhood story.

So I thought these were the second apartments we lived in Korea, but I  think I picked the wrong ones.  It’s hard to find them on the map when the city has grown so big in the last 20-30 years.  The major things I remember about these apartments was when I got caught in a typhoon going home from the corner market and walking five miles in the snow and crossing a frozen river to get to school on base because I thought I missed the bus.

Mirinae Apartments were the final apartments that I lived in.  Probably the best experience.  Each apartmetnt had two entrances with elevators and a basement with tons of pipes connecting the two.  It was perfect for some epic games of Hide & Seek on a rainy day.  The park inbetween the buildings with it’s benches was perfect for games of hot lava.  And there was a chimey that called out to us kids to climb.  If only we could jump and reach the first rung on the ladder.  There was the underground market where I got high off the fumes from the delivery truck backing into the dock.
So the riot me and my friends caused one summer is an epic tale to tell.  We were off for the summer from school, but the Korean middle school was still in session.  It was a beautiful summer day; the sun was out in full force.  Somehow us kids and the kids in one of the classrooms got into a name calling fight with Korean and English taunts thrown both ways.  One of us had the idea to get a mirror and shine the sunlight into the classroom. We got a medium sized makeup mirror and went to town on those kids.  They were so pissed and eventually we attacked the entire side of the school with our mirror.

So later that day we were all headed to base that was nearby to goto the youth center or something.  As we walked by the school that had just gotten out for the day, one of the kids recognized us as the kids that blinded their class room. Next thing I know is that we are running for our lives as half of the school is chasing us wanting to kick our asses.  I know the MP’s on duty were surprised to see a group of kids being chase by a mob.  We reached the safety of the base where the kids couldn’t touch us.  Again, don’t know how we made it alive.  I think we all called our parents to pick us up instead of trying to run the gauntlet back to our houses.  Good times.

San Leandro was the first city we lived in after coming back to the States from Korea.  This is the house on Driftwood Way.  For some reason I don’t remember much about this house.  It had a pool that we never used. My room had a mirrored mantle on one side, I think.  It was the house that I experienced my first earthquake in.  My friends Dan and Jen Rama lived in the townhouses around the corner and I remember more about their houses than mine.  Only stayed there for 2 years, but still have fond memories of it.  Going back today, the neighborhood is the same, but the city has changes, esp. the school.