Valerie Bonham

One of the nearly universal emotions expressed by military brats is homesickness. Given our nomadic early lives, we have many homes for which we feel a longing. Yes, military brats aren’t the only kids who move and times change for everyone. I know of local Facebook groups whose topic is “remember when” with entries about landmarks and businesses that are long gone. Children of foreign service officers (the staff in embassies and consulates), missionary kids, and corporate kids all move, too, but my tribe are the military kids who were bounced around the country and the world like Bingo balls on a Friday night.

I think much of our longing is for “halcyon days,” those years before we realize that life is complicated and messy. These years can be from whichever decade we spent our childhood, the swinging ’40s, the rocking and rolling ’50s, the psychedelic ’60s, staying alive during the ’70s, doing our hair during the ’80s, kicking it through the ’90s in our Doc Martens, and doing whatever happened after Y2K. We remember sights, sounds, and smells that evoke the relative simplicity of childhood and the adventure of where we lived.

One problem for us is that so many of our former homes no longer exist. Yes, the places we lived are still on the map, but our homes, unsere Häuser, onze huizen, nos maisons, nuestros hogares, nossas casas, le nostre case, 私たちの家, ang aming mga tahanan, 우리 집, ko mākou mau hale, منازلنا, heimili okkar or evlerimiz, are gone. Installations are closed, host nations have demolished buildings, the places where we ate, bathed, slept, and woke up on Christmas morning are no more. One thing that we can sometimes carry with us is food.

Birthday pizza specifically from Freddie’s, near Gibbs Kaserne, Frankfurt, Germany. (he was happy; I just caught him in mid-chew)

Some of the most poignant memories are of local dishes, pantry items, and candies. I know that one memory from my early childhood in England is of Peek Freans cookies, either the custard creams or the similar cookie with the jelly dot on top. I think I must have had them frequently.

While I was still a kid, I had forgotten the cookies by the time my pre-teen years arrived. Then, the Air Force stationed my dad in Bermuda and I tasted one of the locally purchased Peek Freans custard creams. A taste revelation! I remembered the forgetting. The times in my elementary school years when I knew there was something I missed from when I was younger, but I couldn’t remember what came back to me. Then we left Bermuda. I lost them again.

Skip forward decades. This time, the exposure to local food wasn’t as a brat. Now I was the mom of brats. Our family spent most of our twenty years of life overseas in Germany. My youngest arrived at the age of four and left at fifteen. She spent her next two years in Belgium, so we weren’t that far from Germany and could return when the longing became too great. She arrived in the US calling both the heating and cooling system “air conditioning.” To her radiator-trained mind, both functions conditioned the air.

When we arrived in the States, I had cookbooks, but not (I thought) ingredients. Ingredients from different countries have their own flavors. It might be a surprise to some that bottled Mexican Coca Cola from the grocery store tastes like the Coca Cola we drank in German restaurants.

With the rise of the Internet and online shopping, I could soon buy German ingredients from my dealer-of-choice, GermanDeli.com. The loss, though, strikes again. The outlet is closing tomorrow and has ceased all online orders. The homesickness continues.

I have pictures of our homes. I have some foods (World Market). I have YouTube videos. Still, I miss my old homes. The sound of tires on rain-wet streets sounds like England. Cool summer nights are from South Dakota. The sound of waves is Bermuda. The smell of wine and beer (I was an adult by then) is Germany. The most delicious cheese and bread I’ve ever eaten is Belgium. I love my life, but I still miss my homes. If it weren’t for grandchildren, I’d be in the wind.