Being a military brat has its disadvantages: moving frequently can give a kid no sense of stability, changing schools mid-year can be rough, civilian kids are hard to relate to, one or both parents (depending on who's in the service) can be gone for great lengths of time. It has its advantages though: living in different countries, experiencing new cultures, learning about life at breakneck speed, meeting new people ALL.THE.TIME.
Friendships come and go with kids in the military since the likelihood of seeing each other "on the other side" (meaning in the civilian world) is pretty slim. I've tried to find some of the kids I remember from time to time, but it's pretty tough when all you have are childhood school photos . . . and can only remember a first name.
Occasionally, however, you get lucky, and your parents stay in touch with the parents of your friends; my mom was so good at that! Dad worked with Mr Stuckey, and my mom and Mrs Stuckey became fast friends . . . they were both from the south . . . they loved bowling! Their daughter Karen was my age, but she and my sister became inseparable while I hung out with Chuckie, her younger brother. There was a third child, Pepe, that was too little to do much of anything with us.
Flash forward . . . we had infrequent visits with the Stuckeys but remained in touch. Karen and her mom came to visit my mom a couple of times over the past few years . . . just before mom died.
When The Captain and I decided to go to Phoenix, I knew I wanted to see Karen, her mom and dad, and hopefully her brothers, so Karen and I made a plan . . . we would meet in Texarkana for dinner. Plans, however, have a way of unraveling . . . we wound up staying with Karen's family for a couple of nights. Saw Mr and Mrs Stuckey but missed the boys altogether. It was fun to catch up on old times!
We got in really, really late, but Karen waited up on us . . . we chatted until after midnight! Wish I'd remembered to take a picture of the two of us while we were there!
Today we explored Shreveport's offerings . . . a couple of things I found on that Roadside America website:
We went to dinner at a place called Ralph and Kakoo's in Bossier . . . a place I'd eaten at in Baton Rouge years ago!
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