Behind the Kid…

I recently changed my FaceBook profile picture to this:

AA_Holliker_060

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…

 

 

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