For Those Of Us... Of Non-Tender Years... Name The School And The Year... You Were Integrated ???

[IrishAyes]

15. Like most military brats still alive, I don't really remember anything else.

There were times when we had to stay behind, and some of those occasions Catholic schools were not available. I always hated public school but that was probably due to the culture and not any racial makeup. Civilians are so fond of asking 'where are you from? what's your hometown?' that I finally realized an army base is my hometown. Doesn't matter where it's located.

Kind of funny, one time when I rode that awful OATS bus to the nearest real city for shopping, we stopped at one place and an Army chaplain was waiting when the door opened. He wanted to ask a question on behalf of his mother who lived nearby. When the driver said something cranky about me being on the bus, the chaplain bounded on board with a look of delight on his face. "Really?" he asked. "One of ours? Which one?" I waved at him.

But that's the point - no matter we'd never met before and never would again, there was a genuinely heartfelt connection. To him I was still "one of ours". It beats what I've found in much of the national culture at large, especially in xenophobic RedNeckLand. In this tiny burg I've gradually achieved a certain level of tolerance in some quarters, but no matter what, if I lived here another hundred years, I'd still be the outsider. Yet in a way I'll always have a far greater automatic acceptance with military personnel no matter what relative strangers we might be. That's what makes me a little homesick when I drive past a base.