What a great day it was today. I went back to work after having a week off for Spring Break. It was great to go back and see my students. Now I have completed my chores for the evening, and I can sit down and continue my story.
We arrived on Okinawa during the summer, and it was hot. It used to rain alot, and when it did, huge snails would come out! We were scared of them at first, but we initially got over our fright. We did some horrible things to those snails.
Our first summer in Okinawa was exciting. It was there in Oki Sho Housing that I learned how to skateboard on a simple piece of wood, and it was here we rode our first horse. There was an old Okinawan guy who used to bring his broke down horse to the village, and we would pay a dime to ride it up and down the street. All of the kids in the neighborhood used to ride that old horse. The man used to put us on the horse and take us down. There were never any adults around when this man came, and he used to touch us inappropriately. As he took us off the horse, he would rub our bodies up against his. I knew what that man was doing at the young age of nine, and I stopped riding that horse.
After living in the village for a short time, we (my brother and I) ventured away from our house a short distance and discovered Okinawan Christian School. We were on a mission to find the candy store to see what exotic treasures it held. The candy store sat in the shadow of this big gray school. The students wore gray uniforms with small hats, long knee high socks, and sensible black shoes, and they also carried huge satchels. We used to see children going to school when we were out of school, and shopping for Japanese treats. We also realized that the Okinawan school children attended school on Saturday! Wow!
My younger brother and I became regulars at this store because we picked up a nasty habit. When we weren't playing in the street, we used to go into the boondocks. The boondocks were these gullies behind the village that housed all kinds of wild life. We were not allowed to go into the boondocks, because they were dangerous. Of course that made us want to explore them more. I did venture down the side of one because, I discovered some snake skin.That was so cool. When I took the skin home, my mother told me to promptly take it back, because the snake would be looking for it. I never took it back, and she never found out. I kept that skin until it dried up.
We soon found out that even though we were living in paradise, all was not a bed of roses. The American military families who did not live on base were targets for thieves. The thieves would break into the houses when no one was home, and rob them of everything. All of the military families who did not live on base were encouraged to get a dog, because of these thieves. They were called the "stealy boys". If you had a dog that barked a lot, they would not come in your house. We got a dog named Thunder. He turned out to be quite a good watchdog. Once, when we came home, we could see in our bathroom where someone tried to enter the house by cutting a small hole in the screen, and Thunder kept them away. I remember a story about this watchdog who was taught not to bark, but let the stealy boy get in the house. Well, when they found the thief in the house, he was barely alive. Thunder was not a quiet dog, he was a verbal dog and that worked for us......but he was afraid of thunder and fireworks.
The first summer on Okinawa brought the best 4th of July celebration I had ever seen. The military had a huge party for the families on the base. They provided all of the food, drinks, entertainment, and the fireworks show at the end of the night. Prior to the base celebration, we had some really cool fireworks that my dad had bought. We had cherry bombs, rat chasers, rockets, whistling rockets, and stink bombs just to name a few. We did not realize how dangerous those fireworks were, we were having fun.
The first time we realized Thunder had a fear of loud thunderous noises was on the Fourth of July. That dog took off running like someone had shot him. He ran under the bed, and would not come out until all the next day. Hence, his name......Thunder. The three years we had him, we knew where he would be on the Fourth of July. When we left Okinawa, we had to give him away. We all cried, because it was like giving away a member of our family.
No comments:
Post a Comment