Adios, Espana

We lived in Spain for three years.  I would have to say my stay there is without question one of my more memorable adventures.  The people I met living there are some the nicest people I have met anywhere.  Many of them had no money or wealth compared to us, but were willing to give you their goat or share their meal with you even when they couldn't afford to.  I will always remember them fondly and wonder to this day if they are doing well.

I believed I mentioned in an earlier post that we had no television the whole time we lived in Spain.  We missed some important events back home in the United States while overseas:  Dr. Martin Luther King's and Robert Kennedy's assassinations, the Moon landing and the anti-war protests.  We were living in this little bubble that was outside the events happening in the States.

So, when we did come back home in 1971 it felt weird.  When you get back, your parents go through customs so they put the children in this big room with a television.  Oh my God....that's a TV, I almost forgot what they looked like.  I remember this like it was yesterday, my first reunion with TV was with a McDonalds commercial.  I remember thinking this United States is a very strange place.  It really is a hard thing to try to explain.  Let's put it this way, when people from other countries don't quite understand the United States I'm totally empathic to that feeling.  It's like visiting some place where you used to live or went to school.  It looks familiar but it doesn't feel like you belong there.  It was like we stayed still in time and the rest of world went ahead without us.  Feeling like an alien passed after a few weeks.  It was amazing how it is possible to feel like a stranger in your own land.

I have decided to move on, this will be my last post on living in Spain.  Next stop....California.

Sevilla

About 60 miles north of Rota was the wonderful city of Sevilla (or Seville in English).  We took the train from Rota to Sevilla when we visited.

One of all time favorite memories of my time in Spain was when we visited the city of Sevilla.  English says it as Seville, but I'm used to the Spanish version which is Sevilla and it sounds better that way to me.  Sevilla was full of towers, massive cathedrals and art.  It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to.

Above is the Seville Cathedral third largest church in Europe.  The interior of the cathedral is massive.  There is a lot of artwork on display.  The Giralda Tower is in the background to the right.  It was constructed by the Moors, completed in 1196 and took twelve years to build.  I climbed the tower, no stairs just one ramp winding all the way to the top.  It took awhile to get to the top.

Above is inside the cathedral.  The Tomb of Christopher Columbus.

This is Torre Del Oro, or the Gold Tower, a twelve sided tower built by the Moors along side the river in the 13th century to prevent christian invaders from attacking the city.

As the photo above shows I wasn't kidding in an earlier post about fruit trees being very common.  This shows how it looked just walking around.  I hope you get some idea of what great place this is to visit.  I hope you enjoy the photos.

Adios, for now.

Going to the Rock

My family on one occasion while living in Spain had an opportunity to visit the Rock of Gibraltar.  The Rock is actually a United Kingdom territory, a little British world all on its own in the middle of Spain.  It was a very interesting place British citizens mixed in with the local population.

The coolest thing about visiting the Rock of Gibraltar is that this is the location of the Strait of Gibraltar.  At this location Morocco is only 8.9 miles across the sea, so from here while standing in Europe you can see Africa, very clearly.  I still remember that the view of Africa made the world not seem such a large imposing place to a young boy.  It made me feel connected in some way.  It was profound.

Our visit here is still one of my favorite memories of things I was fortunate enough to do.

Adios, for now.

Going To The Market

One of my favorite things to do when I lived in Spain was to go the community market in Rota.  A couple times a month my parents would take us all into Rota to shop at the market.  The market building was a large building with two stories.The market there was not to be confused with an American supermarket.  There were dozens of vendors selling all kinds of different food items and some of them were still alive.

Basically on the lower level is where all the meat and fish would be sold.  Upstairs was reserved for fruits and vegetables.  Each level has its own unique aroma.  The upper level was much more pleasant, as far as your nose was concerned, than the lower level.  I broke it down to downstairs was a treat for your eyes; upstairs a treat for your nose.

The lower level sold meat and seafood.  You would see large sharks and tuna just laying there.  Rota was a coastal community so fishing was an important industry there.  Those fish were some of largest I've ever seen.  To be truthful it was very impressive.  There was also chickens, pigs and goats for example.  If you wanted a chicken, you got a chicken.  It was up to you kill it if you wanted hot wings that evening.

Upstairs was loaded with all kinds of fruits and vegetables.  There were oranges, peaches, figs pomegranates, and dates.  Dates come from a variety of palm trees and those palm trees were very common in southern Spain.  The photo above is a date palm.  Sunflower seeds were also very common.  You could buy a large bag of sunflower seeds for about five cents.

The best thing about the market it made shopping an adventure.  Where else could you see a ten foot shark in all its glory a foot in front of you?  Much more exciting than a can of tuna at the supermarket you normally would see.

Adios for now.

My First Teachers (And Favorite)

My very first time I got to attend school was while I living in Spain on a military base.  They were known back then as DOD schools, or Department of Defense schools. As far as I know going to a DOD school isn't really any different then attending normal grade school back home in the United States.

I cannot remember the names of most of my teachers from third grade and up but, remarkably I can easily recall my first two teachers without any effort what so ever; Mrs Barnes was my first grade teacher and Mrs. Link was my teacher for second grade.  Maybe my ability to remember their names after so many years isn't that remarkable after all.  They represented, at least to me, the prototypical idea of what a teacher should be.  I don't know if my memories paint too perfect of a picture of their qualities or they truly were awesome teachers.  I'm leaning to the latter.

Mrs. Barnes had a way of always knowing if you were okay and didn't let anything faze her resolve.  She never got upset and made you feel like you could do anything.  She instilled us with confidence and pride.  I always looked forward to going to school because of her.  We were lucky.

My favorite memory about Mrs Link is that she read us the novel Charlotte's Web in class.  I still remember that story as if was told to me yesterday.  It was magical to me at that time and to be honest, still is.  I thank her for that.  She was also kind and encouraging like Mrs. Barnes.

Until next time, adios.

Spanish Crocodile

One day at the house where I wrote about the goat in a previous post we had a reptilian visitor.  Before I get ahead of myself, let me say lizards there were LARGE, about two feet in length, the photo is actually of the species in question.  The window in the bathroom was usually left often because of the nice southern Spain weather.  Well my mother went into the bathroom to close the window in question and found one of these large lizards reclining in our bathtub after coming through the open window.

The lizard hastily greeted her with a loud hiss which prompted my mother to go next door to ask our neighbor for help with the unwanted visitor.  Mike was home from work that day and came over to assist with animal control.  When Mike saw the lizard he said a word my six year old ears had never heard before, but have heard a lot since.  He also thought when my mom said "lizard" she was talking about a two inch gecko and not this two foot long crocodile as he was now calling it.  Me, I was loving it, first a pet goat now a two foot long lizard in the bathtub this place was much more interesting than the States.

Mike began the task of capturing the "crocodile" with a large trash can and a broom.  It reminded me more of watching a lion tamer at the circus then a grown man trying to capture a lizard, lots of cussing and hissing.  It took awhile, but Mike was eventually successful with his capture and released the lizard safely outside.

Bye for now.

My very first goat

It's not uncommon for you to have to wait for housing to become available when you move to a new military base.  That was the case when we got to Rota.  We lived in a house outside of base while we waited for housing on base to become available.  This is one story of what happened one day while staying at that house.

A dirt road was adjacent to our house.  Everyday in the morning a farmer would take his animals to market and the same farmer would return home in the afternoon on that dirt road.  My younger brother, Bryan, and I would say and wave "hello" to him everyday.  We liked to look at the cows, donkeys and goats.  It was like a mobile petting zoo as far as my brother and I were concerned.

About a month passed by, and on this particular afternoon the farmer approached Bryan and myself with a young goat in his arms.  He spoke to us, we didn't speak Spanish at the time, and he handed me the young goat.  Cool, I've never had a goat before.  We had a dog, but no goats.  We both shouted "gracias" and excitedly ran into the house to show mom our new pet.  She did not share our excitement.  She asked "where did you get that" in quite a loud voice as I remember it.  I explained it was our new goat, like this kind of thing happens everyday.  She hurried down the dirt road to catch up to the kind farmer.  She explained why we could not own a goat.  I am afraid to say we had to return the goat to the nice farmer.

Later my mom explained that the farmer gave the goat to my brother and myself because we always greeted him on his way to and from work.  He was just rewarding our kindness.

Bye until next time. 

Blog Assignment Wk 4: Top 5

I am going to discuss my top five movies of all time.  To be honest this list would probably change based on my mood.  It is a dynamic list without a doubt.

1. To Kill A Mockingbird:  My all time favorite.  A great movie based on a great book. A movie ahead of its time with a message.  Gregory Peck epitomizes what a movie star should represent, good actor and a good person.  First movie, I think, that Robert Duvall was in playing Boo Bradley.
2. Lawrence of Arabia:  Beautifully shot movie.  It's like a work of art.  Great cast, little trivia for you the sheik is played by Alec Guinness, you know him better as the original Obi-Wan from the first Star Wars.
3. Rear Window: A great Alfred Hitchcock thriller.  Stars Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.  Grace Kelly before she became royalty.  She is absolutely gorgeous in this movie.  The movie is mostly shot from just one setting, the rear window view of Jimmy Stewart's apartment.
4. Star Wars:  This movies makes my list because of its impact on the movies that came after.  This movie became huge almost totally by word of mouth.  It had very little advertising to promote it.  Set the mark for special effects in movies today.
5. Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark:  The perfect summer movie.  Invented what we define as a summer blockbuster today.  It's almost a perfect movie, got a little of everything. It is a very entertaining movie. 

Welcome to Rota

My family moved to Spain in the summer on 1968 and lived there for three years until 1971.  My father was assigned to the Marine Barracks on the Rota Spain Naval Base.  Marines are sometimes stationed on naval bases, because they are a component of the Department of Navy.  I would advise that you don't tell a Marine they are part of the Navy.  The rivalry between the Navy and the Marines is a little intense.  Rota is located in southern Spain not far from the Strait of Gibraltar.  Rota was at that time, it still might be, home to the Mediterranean Fleet.  Every six months that fleet of about 7000 sailors would hit Rota.  That might explain why Rota, the size of Greenville, Illinois, had over hundred bars.

Some of my favorite memories as a child was while I lived in Spain.  The weather was, and still is I imagine, perfect.  Everyday it was in the seventies, not too hot or too cold.  Spanish television was not compatible to our set, so we didn't watch TV for the whole three years we lived there.  As a result of no television, I played outside all day long until dinner time.  Fruit trees are common there so if I got hungry all I had to do was climb a tree.  I had a choice of figs, peaches, dates and pomegranates.  It wasn't necessary to come home for lunch.

I think that's good for now.  Next time I will get into more stories about my time in Spain.