I recently changed my FaceBook profile picture to this:
It was taken at Davis-Monthan AFB, (Tuscon) AZ in 1957. I was 10 or 11 years old at the time. I changed my picture to “honor” my service to our Nation, as an Air Force Brat. Anyway, this morning I want to tell you about what’s ‘behind the kid.’
If you look close, you can see airplanes. They are sitting in the “Boneyard.”
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Davis_Monthan_Air_Base_Air_Force_Boneyard.html
Also of note is, there is no fence between me and the Boneyard. So, where do you think I played? As a matter of fact, I ‘soloed’ my first airplane in that boneyard!
It wasn’t sanctioned, by any means, but that’s where we all played. They didn’t need a fence because in those days, we didn’t destroy things. There also weren’t as many lawyers. How many playgrounds have lawyers ruined over the years now? (Ah ha, a topic for yet another ‘post’ someday!)
Just off my right shoulder sat another house, like the one you see behind me. It was between those 2 houses that I leaned that you do not put a can of pork and beans in a campfire without first opening it!
We were having a ‘sleep out’ between the 2 houses one night, and decided to cook some beans. So, when the fire was going nicely, I set a can of beans right in the middle of it. Crap! I don’t know what hurt most: the hot beans on my leg, or the piece of tin can embedded in my leg?
It is truly remarkable that I survived my youth…