Category: Reminiscing
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Back to Guam
Reading Time: 4 minutesOther than the prank I wrote about in my last short post, technical school at Keesler AFB was completely forgettable. The most important day there was the one where I got orders to return to Guam for a 2-year assignment as an orderly room specialist for the Avionics Maintenance Squadron of the… Read more
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Administrative Specialist
Reading Time: 2 minutesAfter graduating Basic Training, I was shipped off to Technical School at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi to learn how to serve the Air Force as an administrative specialist. It’s a routine job that the Air Force needs just like a high powered executive needs a secretary. Without admin specialists, the guys… Read more
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Surviving Basic Training
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn 1980, Air Force Basic Training was 6 weeks long. In 2025 it’s 7.5 weeks long. I don’t know for sure, but I think the increase in length is because they have to wean recruits from electronics and do some cultural deprogramming. Teaching a young adult today to obey orders isn’t as… Read more
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The Lost Birthday
Reading Time: 2 minutesIf you haven’t read last Tuesday’s post about my enlisting in the Air Force, please detour back to that now. Here’s the link. The 5th day of Basic Training also happened to be my 26th birthday. Of course, no one knew it was my birthday and I wasn’t about to tell anyone.… Read more
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Airman Basic Grathen – 1980
Reading Time: 5 minutesToday is the 45th anniversary of the day I enlisted in the United States Air Force. Over the next several weeks, I’m going finally write down some of the stories I remember most about that experience and the years I spent in the service of this great country. I hope you’ll enjoy… Read more
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Oh, What a Night
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe 1975 song by the Four Seasons starts out… Oh, what a nightLate December back in sixty threeWhat a very special time for meI remember, what a night My night was in mid-March back in sixty-five, but oh my, the memory of that night is vivid. And the night was, for me,… Read more
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Suddenly, It’s the Holidays!
Reading Time: 5 minutesI blinked. Suddenly, we’re less than a month from the END of 2024. We’ve passed Thanksgiving and are speeding toward Christmas. And then, just a few days later, it’ll be the year 2025. 2025! It sounds like a pop song from my high school years that asked whether man will still be… Read more
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He Broke Through My Defenses
Reading Time: 2 minutesI’ve never been an animal person. No animals ever crossed the threshold of my house, even if they were just visiting. The major reason for this aversion is I was bit by a neighbor’s dog when I, myself, was just a young pup. And again, when I was very young, I spent… Read more
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The End for Tupperware? Or Not?
Reading Time: 2 minutesAbout 18 months ago I wrote a short post about Tupperware. As a young (cash-strapped) housewife, I found a way to afford some of the “can’t live without” marvelous products that I saw during those “free” but fun social events I always looked forward to, Tupperware parties. I still have Tupperware in… Read more
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Pure Dumb Luck
Reading Time: 5 minutesRandy and I moved a lot in our marriage. I made a list not long ago and counted 18 change of residences in our 49 years. In a lot of those places, we didn’t consider how the home’s location or features would affect our quality of life. Surely, we wanted to be… Read more