(May 17, 2016 at 8:49 am)SofaKingHigh Wrote: Pretty boring really, Mum and dad are still together, currently on a cruise around the med, no less.  My old man was in the Army, so I moved around.  A lot.  Was born in Germany, lived all over the UK, Germany again, Cyprus, Hong Kong.....it all made for a varied childhood.

They're still going strong, probably like a drink a little too much, but they're both hard working and loving parents.

Like I said, boring.

May I ask where in Germany you were born and lived?

(I hope I haven't asked you before)

Grew up in a tiny crackerhouse near Treasure Island.   Mother was a teacher, father ran a landscaping company.  We had a nice backyard, St. Augustine grass.  It was a block from the beach on brick streets, caddy-corner to a spanish style one room schoolhouse where I went to elementary.  We had pecans, oranges, lemons, limes, chinese plums, avocodo, and starfruit...growing in the sideyard. Oleanders, hibiscus, birds of paradise and royal palms out front.  Lot's of lizards and snakes...and palmetto bugs.  Most of the time the sky was choked with parakeets.  Fished for black tip sharks and sheepshead off the Skyway Bridge.  Pulled blue crabs, mussels, and shrimp out of the bay.  We'd get redfish and trout from the estuary.  Speared grouper on a free dive at Johns Pass once, coastguard ruined our fun.  Caught a few flounder in the Paradise Island channel.  Chiseled oysters when we could find them. Played baseball, pitcher. My best buddy played catcher....our dads were the coaches year after year. You'll be hearing about him again, near the end.

Anytime I wasn't in school (and later, after my parents divorced) I was in N. Central FL with my grandparents, digging around in the sand screwing with peanuts and green beans, mostly.  We had aquarter acre of muscadine grapes and a few acres of corn, some sour apple trees.. wild pears...and a persimmon.   Two or three times a year we'd go out to the N. Gold Coast and snorkel for scallops.   Every weekend we'd hit the Suwannee or Lochloosa for crappie, bass, and crawdads (which I will absolutely pull out of a roadside ditch and eat with no reservations, lol).  We put a bunch of tree-stands up on the edges of our property and lured deer and hogs (and sometimes turkey) off the state park with apple-dusted feed corn and ryegrass.  Ran lines, set traps, fell asleep in the boat holding a half dozen cane poles.  Ate alot of vienna sausages..drank alot of koolaid. Played basketball (2nd place at state, forward). Met RL Stine at the young writers conference (actually missed half the finals to attend).

My grandfather, Buck, was an auto-body man so I spent alot of time in the shop and at the speedway (he worked on amateur stock cars, mostly).  He quit his job once...just walked off and went fishing every day for a year - then walked back in.  He's nearly 80 now, and I still don't know how he fits his balls in his pants.  Got schlepped around the US as a kid in a Grand Cherokee the color of juicy fruit, which my grandmother, Peggy, was constantly chewing.  Name a natural wonder in the US, and I've probably seen it - and she was deadset on making sure of that.  

I had a crush on the girl across the streets enormous breasts from about 5th grade till highschool...when I met my teenage sweetheart.  Skin was the color of caramel, smelled like green tea and tasted like coconuts.  OFC she broke my heart into a million tiny pieces, like teenagers do. A big part of the reason I joined the service was to get myself stationed in Hawaii (where her parents had taken her as a kid).  Wasn't an option, though, hit europe instead.   My best friend -since the cradle- hit that ass as soon as I left, somehow managed to bed my sister too. I'd always thought he was gay..........still like to -call- him gay. We still play ball every now and again, too, but he's not much for squatting down and I'm old enough to know that I don;t even wanna -try- to throw any heat.

(May 17, 2016 at 8:49 am)SofaKingHigh Wrote: Pretty boring really, Mum and dad are still together, currently on a cruise around the med, no less.  My old man was in the Army, so I moved around.  A lot.  Was born in Germany, lived all over the UK, Germany again, Cyprus, Hong Kong.....it all made for a varied childhood.

They're still going strong, probably like a drink a little too much, but they're both hard working and loving parents.

Like I said, boring.

I think a lot of people's stories will be boring to them because they're used to it.  To you, your story seems boring, but to me I would have loved to have experienced all that travelling.

In this aspect I suppose it's difficult to know what to tell other people about your upbringing because what might seem normal and not worth mentioning to some people might seem interesting/strange to others.

(May 17, 2016 at 9:45 am)paulpablo Wrote:

(May 17, 2016 at 8:49 am)SofaKingHigh Wrote: Pretty boring really, Mum and dad are still together, currently on a cruise around the med, no less.  My old man was in the Army, so I moved around.  A lot.  Was born in Germany, lived all over the UK, Germany again, Cyprus, Hong Kong.....it all made for a varied childhood.

They're still going strong, probably like a drink a little too much, but they're both hard working and loving parents.

Like I said, boring.

I think a lot of people's stories will be boring to them because they're used to it.  To you, your story seems boring, but to me I would have loved to have experienced all that travelling.

In this aspect I suppose it's difficult to know what to tell other people about your upbringing because what might seem normal and not worth mentioning to some people might seem interesting/strange to others.

To be honest, that's why I mentioned it as that was probably the only aspect of my childhood that wasn't ordinary.  It most certainly does have it's downsides though.  On the face of it, seeing all those different places does seem very appealing, but I am always quite envious of people who have grown up in the same place with the same people.  There's a lot to be said for having strong roots, I am now 37 and have just, hopefully, settled down to a place I can really call home.

Not a sob sorry by any stretch, I loved every minute of my childhood, but it does have another side that you don't notice until you're old enough.

(May 17, 2016 at 9:01 am)Alex K Wrote:

(May 17, 2016 at 8:49 am)SofaKingHigh Wrote: Pretty boring really, Mum and dad are still together, currently on a cruise around the med, no less.  My old man was in the Army, so I moved around.  A lot.  Was born in Germany, lived all over the UK, Germany again, Cyprus, Hong Kong.....it all made for a varied childhood.

They're still going strong, probably like a drink a little too much, but they're both hard working and loving parents.

Like I said, boring.

May I ask where in Germany you were born and lived?

(I hope I haven't asked you before)

Of course, no problem, I was born in the British Military Hospital in Munster, which I am now reliably informed is a mental asylum, of sorts.  My parents lived in Osnabrück at the time, I moved again very young and didn't go back until I was 16, this time to Paderborn/Sennelager.  At 22 I was posted there myself as a soldier, to Gutersloh.

Loved Germany, love the people, love the beer and still go back as often as I can.

I've lived in seven different locales in six US states, but never abroad. It all contributes to who I am as a person. But in high school, I lived in three states. If ever there was a time I feel (at least now) that I would want to have roots, it would be then. 

That said, I do wish I had studied harder. I watch a lot of YouTubers now who either expatted from the US or in high school did an exchange program. That is a neat thing to have underneath your belt, I'm sure.

(May 17, 2016 at 9:54 am)SofaKingHigh Wrote:

(May 17, 2016 at 9:01 am)Alex K Wrote: May I ask where in Germany you were born and lived?

(I hope I haven't asked you before)

Of course, no problem, I was born in the British Military Hospital in Munster, which I am now reliably informed is a mental asylum, of sorts.  My parents lived in Osnabrück at the time, I moved again very young and didn't go back until I was 16, this time to Paderborn/Sennelager.  At 22 I was posted there myself as a soldier, to Gutersloh.

Loved Germany, love the people, love the beer and still go back as often as I can.

Oh I see
I'm more of a southern person myself, having grown up near and now living in Heidelberg. I've been to Münster of course (also, my ex had family in Warendorf). Münster in particular is a very nice city.

(May 17, 2016 at 11:11 am)Alex K Wrote:

(May 17, 2016 at 9:54 am)SofaKingHigh Wrote: Of course, no problem, I was born in the British Military Hospital in Munster, which I am now reliably informed is a mental asylum, of sorts.  My parents lived in Osnabrück at the time, I moved again very young and didn't go back until I was 16, this time to Paderborn/Sennelager.  At 22 I was posted there myself as a soldier, to Gutersloh.

Loved Germany, love the people, love the beer and still go back as often as I can.

Oh I see
I'm more of a southern person myself, having grown up near and now living in Heidelberg. I've been to Münster of course (also, my ex had family in Warendorf). Münster in particular is a very nice city.

Oh, I love the south too.  I worked in Switzerland a couple of years back and would often head to Frieburg for a weekend.  Beautiful place.

Stuttgart beer festival is a personal favourite. 

My mother was and remains a thunderous cunt of a human being who left scars on my (half) brother and I that we'll probably always carry.

My upbringing was very sheltered, and remained that way until I turned 17 and moved in with my dad, who is one of the kindest human beings I've ever known.

Oh, my childhood. I was always very close to my mother, and grandmother on my mother's side. I got along well enough with both sets of grandparents, but not so much with my dad. He was abusive, and has always been hard to get along with unless everything is going the exact way he wants it to go. My mother still cares about him a lot. When he's working out of state, she'll travel to him to visit him. But my grandmother and I don't like him much at all.

My mother likes to keep in touch with her mother so much, and I've seen her so often, that she's like a second Mom. My other grandparents I was never as close with.