Sometimes it’s easy to forget that I’ve married into the military. In our last assignment (our first) we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Because my firm had a satellite office there I would commute in the city for work. The base my wife was stationed at was about 45 minutes north of San Francisco so naturally we chose to live in a town that was sort of in between both of our jobs. It was a pretty good arrangement. I could take a ferry from my town into the city thereby avoiding that infamous San Francisco traffic and my wife would commute north, going in the opposite flow of traffic. It worked really, really well and we really, really enjoyed our life there.
That life was also, for me, relatively military free. Due to the fact that we lived way off base I really had very little reason to ever go there. As far as I was concerned we were just the average professional couple with our own separate careers. The only reminder I had was the fact that she wore BDUs everyday to work whereas I got to go in my business casual affair.
Here it’s different. If it weren’t for the military there really wouldn’t be any reason for people to live here. Sure it’s got its nice beaches at Eglin but other than that there’s really not much out here. I was told by many that I should be prepared for the “Redneck Riviera” when we moved here. Boy were they right. Only here could pick-up trucks, gun-racks, mullets, and colorful beach umbrellas mix so seamlessly. But back to the military. The military here is EVERYWHERE. If you look at a map of the area we live in you basically see our town with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Eglin AFB on the other three sides. We’re literally surrounded. Everybody here is either in the military or in some sort of business to support the military. That means we also live really close to base. About 10 minutes door-to-gate.
Today I was reminded again about this military life of ours. Because it was a holiday, I had my daughter at home with me today so I decided to take her on some outings. Our first stop in the morning was a shopping complex that had a toy store and a playground. I wanted to get my daughter some blocks to play with and give her a chance to run around because the weather had finally turned nice. After we left the toy store we walked over the playground where there were lots of other kids playing. Being in a shopping center music was being piped through some loudspeakers mounted on palm trees. It was rather nice as we played in the sun and grooved to nice, jazzy muzak and Colbie Calait. We had a great time playing out there and I actually had some difficulty in getting my daughter to leave when it was time to go.
Later in the day, after my daughter’s nap, I thought that it might be nice to go out and play again. This time, however, we decided to head to this nice playground they have on base. So off we went. When we got there it was pretty similar to the our experience in the morning. Lots of kids playing, my daughter having a blast on the swings and the slide, and parents looking on. The only difference was the lack of piped muzak on palm trees. But that didn’t last long. For some of you reading this you probably are all familiar with what happens on base at 4:30pm…oh sorry, 16:30. At precisely 16:30 loudspeakers all over the base fire up and you hear trumpets that then leads into Star Spangled Banner, our National Anthem. This was something I’d forgotten about.
So at 16:30 the National Anthem comes on and EVERYTHING STOPS. Cars are required to stop moving. Non-uniformed people outside are supposed to stand still and if a flag is nearby, look in that direction. Uniformed personnel are required to stand at attention and salute the flag. Kind of neat but today it kind of creeped me out. You see, when we got to the playground there were a ton of kids there. And kids being kids they were running around, screaming like banshees. It was loud, it was wild, and it was chaos. But as soon as those trumpets sounded an amazing thing happened. All those little Tasmanian devils stopped in their tracks and became silent. These same hyperactive, hypersonic kiddos were now patiently waiting in place, waiting for the trumpets to cease, which, as soon as they did, those same kids transformed back into the Tasmanian devils they are. It was weird.
I felt like I had stepped into the twilight zone for a brief moment there. I mean, I know adults are supposed to know the base regulations, but those kids. It kind of weirded me out for a brief moment. To see a scene go from chaos to pure silence and back again was surreal. It also reminded me that yes, I am married to the military (of whose service I’m very proud and grateful for), and yes, the military world is just…different.
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