I made my last parachute jump today.

[Nictuku]

5. Wow! I'm so impressed!

I grew up on a drop-zone, well, at least every weekend. Yeah, I was a DropZoneBrat.

My mom was a Skydiver back in the late 60's up until the late 70's. California. (Livermore, Calistoga, Pope Valley, and Santa Nella)

But then we moved to Hawaii, and while they do have skydiving clubs in Hawaii, Mom didn't feel comfortable jumping with all that gear (it was a /LOT/ heavier and bulkier back then) what with Trade-Winds and Ocean all around.

Lots and lots of good memories however, from before Hawaii. I think my mom had logged over 800 jumps. She was on an all-girls Skydiving Team called "The StarDusters" another team name that comes to mind was "The Harvey Wallbangers!".

Back then, Streaking was a big thing, with crazies running around nude at sporting events and such, and of course the StarDusters had to get a piece of that, we have a lot of photos of the nude jumps they did. Mom always though the person leaving the plane last probably had the most interesting view....

I loved the weekends, my mom was a single mom and while she worked, I stayed at a babysitters house during the week. So weekends was when I got to be with her. My fondest memories are driving in our old VW Bug (of course it had flower stickers all over it) with our 8-Track tapes of Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Singing Joan Baez and Judy Collins songs together. I still remember the words.

I felt so special, not many girls can say that their mom was a Sky-Diving-Hippy (mom would deny she was a hippy, but she was).

I never quite got the bug to jump out of an airplane myself...