I don’t remembered the flight. mom said I fell asleep immediately after takeoff and slept the whole way. We were on our way to North Carolina. Mom and David got married back home and David decided to join the Marines, no doubt due to a lack of options. It was post Viet Nam war, around 1974. The year my younger brother was born. I remember North Carolina being beautiful. The grass was greener than I remember seeing before and the weather was nice. Mom had never traveled anywhere before and clearly I hadn’t either. we Eventually got settled in. We lived on base housing, set up exactly like the low income housing I would come to know back home. Walk in the front door to be greeted by a stairwell, with a living room directly adjacent to the left. Through the living room was a space for a small dining table with a little galley style kitchen to the right. Upstairs was a bathroom and a couple of bedrooms. Directly behind our unit was another, connected by sidewalks with green space in between. We had a little yard that led to a sidewalk, then led to another small yard for the unit behind us. Anyone who’s ever been in low income, government style housing knows exactly what this layout looks like. There were lines of these connected units in the area. Some seperated by small streets and parking areas. All full of soldiers, post basic training, and their families. Eventually, mom would make friends with other families in the complex. I would also play outside with other soldiers kids. Once, while playing outside, I found an ant hill and decided to make myself comfortable with my new insect friends. They turned out to be Fire ants and the bites were brutal. I was covered and screaming. Mom came running and rescued me, cleaned me up, then I’m sure let me know, in words I don’t care to repeat, how I have to stay away from those things. I remember mom and david becoming good friends with a black couple, who, incidently, had a daughter my age. She would become the first best friend I ever had. We stayed in North Carolina for a few years while David finished his enlistment. There were ups and downs, the usual associated with a new, young couple. Davids drinking, fights and the frustrations of poor decision making and children. My youngest brother was born in base hospital in 75. That made 3 kids by 19 years old. Eventually, David would put on a ton of weight, recieve an honorable discharge and we all would drive back home. The drive thru the Appalachian mountains was both beautiful and a bit scary, at least to a 4 year old. The ride was interesting. I believe we owned a station wagon at that time. Kids didn’t need car seats and were free to move about as they pleased, well sort of. I’m sure things got hairy and the frustrations were compounded with 19 year old parents and 3 kids under 5 bouncing around in the car. But we were heading back to grandmas, that’s all I knew. Once there things would be all better…I thought.