Camp Lejeune

My first clear memories of living on a military base was when I lived at Camp Lejeune.  Camp LeJeune is a  Marine Corps base located in eastern North Carolina near a town called Jackson.  My father was stationed there right after he returned home from Vietnam in 1967 and I was five when my family moved there.

I was very young when I lived there so I don't have a lot memories of my time there.  We only lived there just about a year.  I do remember there being a lot of pines trees there.  I remember using all of those pine needles to build small walls and mounds to play in, what can I say I was five.   I also remember in the summer it was very hot and humid.  There were also, many mosquitoes and they were as big as I was.  I wish I was kidding.  My favorite memory of my time at Camp Lejeune was my first visit to a movie theater where I saw Disney's Jungle Book.  That was the first movie I remember going to and I was totally amazed.

I was supposed to start school the year I lived in Camp Lejeune which would have been kindergarten.  For whatever reason kindergarten was not part of the public school system.  The family didn't have enough money at the time for me to attend, so no school.  I was disappointed, to say the least.  My mother taught me instead.  which in hindsight turned out much better for me personally than if I had got to go kindergarten.  She taught me a lot.  She taught me as much as I could absorb.  My mother's efforts made my time at school a year later much easier for me; I could read and write the day I started first grade.  Thanks mom.

In 1968 my dad got orders for his next assignment, Rota Spain.  That's for next time.  Bye for now.