Wow, I'm blown away at how many people on this board were there. It's really awesome and I'm loving that several people have already responded. What is your opinion of England. Did you get to see much. My baby was only 2 months old when we were transferred to Upper Heyford and I'm sure you well know that our military salary can hardly be considered a living wage, so we didn't get to see a lot. We did see London but I never got to see the crown jewels. We sent to Straford-Upon-Avon and that was a glorious day and I truly can't remember if we were anywhere else. Of couse we lived in Woodstock, so Blenhein Palace was where I took by little girl on a regular basis. It was always our "outing." I loved England at that time. I went back years later as it was part of my job and I was truy sickened at how "Americanized" they had made it. Don't get me wrong, I love America almost as much as President Trump, but I mean there were Domino Pizza, McDonalds and several other such restaurants that, if I were the PM, I would never have let do business there because, IMO, it ruined the culture that I loved. For instance, there was a fish and chip place where we got the very best fish in all the world and it was wrapped in a paper cone so you could just use your fingers and pull it out to eat; no silverware at all, and that restaurant had no set hours so you never could count on it being open, which drove my ex-husband nuts but to me was all part of the charm. What did you like best about England.
I went all over. At least every other weekend my friends and I would take a coach/bus to the Channel, and take the ferry across to Calais France. Sometimes one of us would drive but that meant we couldn't drink so that was rare. We would bring a case of Bud and trade it for real beer with the Brits that often went along with us. Brits LOVED the bubbles. We would wander around Calais seeing the sights and eating the food, and head back late at night. If we drove it was because we were going to Paris to see the sights.
I also got to go all over besides London. I went to Scotland, Wales, France of course, and Germany. Stonehenge was a huge disappointment - I don't recommend it to anyone. We went to the grand opening of "The Missile" roller coaster in 1989 on the 4th of July at "The American Adventure" amusement park - Buzz Aldrin was there to open the ride (he was drunk though). The reason I called out July 4th is all Americans got in free that day. New Years Eve in London at Trafalger Square was a blast. That was the first place I saw a woman in the men's room (sitting on a urinal peeing). A million+ people partying all night, drunk, but having a great time. My coworker and I also had tickets to "Pink Floyd The Wall, Live in Berlin" but both of us ended up getting transferred before the concert. I still have the poster that came with the ticket, and the video tape we ordered. I also have a framed picture of the real wall with some barbed wire and a piece of the wall on my desk to this day. The wall of course came down while I was stationed in England and people took chunks of the wall to sell later - good idea.
I also liked being in a darts league, and I played a TON of Snooker. I have a lifetime membership (along with my coworker) to a local Snooker club near the base because of some charity we did to raise money for the hospital where his wife had her 1st kid. She was a preemie and needed an incubator, but the hospital had only one. If another baby was born early and needed one they would've had to go to London, so we arranged something (not going into detail on this for doxxing reasons) to buy another incubator. The club loved it so much they gave us cue sticks, shirts, and the membership.
I know you mentioned the restaurants taking away from the culture, but when they got a KFC in the local area everyone went wild. That place was always packed. The Fish & Chips restaurant across the street did fine. They used the old-school newspaper to wrap the fish and gave you plenty of vinegar for the fish and fries. I ate there a lot. There was also a fair amount of Indian and Chinese restaurants thanks to the Commonwealth.
I loved being there, and took advantage of everything I could. I should mention I turned 18 about 3 months prior to getting there, so I was able to drink before I hit 21. I think that helped because I got all of that out of my system before coming back to the states (still under 21). I was also enlisted so I didn't make hardly any money - I just stretched it however I could.
I took my wife there on a European tour more than 10 years after I left. I wanted to just go and drive wherever we felt like driving but she wanted structure. The compromise was we went a week before and I took her all around England, and then we went to Paris for the start of the tour. The odd thing is this was before Waze or cheap GPS, but I rented a car at Heathrow and drove to a hotel I'd never seen without a map, and made it without getting lost. I asked the car rental people where the hotel was and they gave me a landmark I knew. Ten+ years later nothing had really changed and I drove right there. Really weird. Oh yeah, I liked driving manual transmission cars while sitting on the right side of the car. I never had a problem getting used to that side of the car - it just felt natural.
That said - England is no longer the same and I fear it is forever lost. That is likely what is in store for the US as well, due to importing all the illegals.
It is 7:03 a.m. here in Central Texas and I have NEVER and I really do mean NEVER enjoyed a story more that what you just shared with me. You have memories that will last you the rest of your life and you write and document them incredibly well. I would suggest you do just that for your grandkids, if you have grandkids because you are right in that England will never be the same, so tell them how it was so they know.
I can only relate to two things you did. I think it was when we brought in the year 1981 but I can't remember for certain. My husband and another couple made the trek to London for the New Years Eve event. We spent the whole night in Trafalgar square. We took one of my daughters little toys with wheels and my husband attached a keg of beer to it and we strolled it all over and shared it with anyone who wanted it. I'm not sure it was American beer or if he got British beer (I'll have to ask him) but we shared it all night long. There is no way to top that experience so I rarely even watch the ball drop anymore because it simply cannon compare.
Then we did go to Stonehenge and you are right, it was a complete disappointment. My husband foolishly went across the street where the hippees had set up camp and it was completely surrounded by police and he still walked through the whole camp and did things I simply don't want to talk about here but it was nuts because we had our baby in a stroller with us.
And lastly, Pink Floyd, Now I didn't know there was an actual "wall" that Pinkie was talking about and if you have a picture, I would love to see it. My ex-husband is still a part of our life for celebrations and I know for certain that he would love to see it. My husband was stationed at Upper Heyford and his step-brother was stationed at Lakenheath. Well his step-brother bought two tickets to see the London concert and I never cried so hard in all my life because they were for the two of them. I had an almost brand new baby and his step-brother didn't know how much I loved Pink Floyd and he figured I would want to stay home with her but we had good friends right across the street from where we lived and they would have kept our baby overnight I'm certain. So my only sense of satisfaction is that I kept his ticket and I still have it today and will never give it to him. I was angry with him for days but really I was just plain angry that he got to go and I didn't.
Thank you so much for sharing this story. I am going to print it out and share it with my ex=husband at our next celebration. You have literally made my day and I thank you for that.
Thanks for your kind comments. By the way, I lived in Round Rock and Liberty Hill when I was in Central Texas. We found our way to East Texas and love it, although I miss having season tickets to Longhorns Football. I had them for 10 years and that was my daddy/daughter activity. She is almost 30 now and recently flew back and took me to a game - full circle.
As for the wall - there are 2 things here. Yes Pink Floyd did build a wall and tear it down, but I believe it was Styrofoam. There is a documentary about it somewhere but I don't remember the name. And the real wall - I was referring to the Berlin Wall that came down in 1989. The one that Reagan said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall". Pieces of the wall were very popular souvenirs - especially ones that had graffiti paint on them. I have a big chunk that is about 5 inches by 2 inches (with paint), and a smaller quarter-sized piece glued to the framed picture along with rusted barbed wire and a 10 pfennig coin. The picture is people climbing the wall and breaking it with pick-axes.
Oh yeah - I knew Lakenheath (and Mildenhall) very well. I used to have to drive to Lakenheath once or twice a month when we had a base computer issue. They held our backup tapes, and other OS tapes we needed if the problem was bad enough. I would try to go over to Mildenhall while I waited to try to catch a glimpse of an SR-71 taking off or landing, or maybe just to go to a bigger BX that had more stuff than Alconbury.
I found a link to the full concert in Berlin, and a link to the documentary. They aren't perfect HD of course, but it is truly amazing they pulled this off. You might watch the documentary first to get an idea of what happened to pull this together. The Soviet marching band story is jaw-dropping. Enjoy!
OMG, I simply can't think of a better gift than the links you have sent. I will enjoy them when I have that much time and that won't be today because I have three different therapist coming today.
Now we have to talk about this UT thing because we are a family of Aggies and you know what that means. My husbands father when to A&M and we still have his ring. My husband also graduated from A&M and proudly wears his ring when he can. My only daughter graduated from Texas A&M Galveston with her Maritime License. She worked for NOAA until she had the very first accident ever in NOAAs history where they were using computers to map the ocean floor in Sitka, Alaska. A rogue wave popped up out of nowhere and before the driver of the boat could get it turned around, it flipped completely over. The driver drowned. There was my daughter and one other person stuck in the boat. My daughter struck her head on a beam and passed out for a brief moment and when she came to she couldn't see out of her right eye. She and the other person decided to try and swim to the front of the boat where they knew they could get out. Her shipmate made it to the front but she couldn't breath or not breath well enough to make it out so she was by herself stuck in the boat. Her shipmate was on top of the boat yelling at her but she couldn't do what he ask so he went to shore while she was still stuck in the boat. Someone had given her a small amulet that was clear plastic and had an angel on the inside and she carried it everywhere with her. She said she just held that amulet and kept looking for a way out when suddenly the boat tipped up out of the water and she saw a window had broken out and she made a quick dive for the window. She made it out but by now the waves kept her from reaching shore. She had on heavy work boots that hindered her a great deal. Every time she would reach the shore that was all rock, she would be pulled back out to the ocean. Her shipmate saved her life by yelling at the top of his lungs telling her what to do and indeed she was able to make it far enough onto the rocks that he was able to grab her and bring her to shore. Just by coincidence there was a box of flares that had washed up on shore and they fired one off. Some kids were on the same shore doing some work and when they saw the flare they came running. My daughter fractured her skull but by the time we realized it (and that is a whole other story in and of itself) and had to have major surgery that still makes me shutter.
So I am so very blessed to have my daughter and she is my only child. She is now a high school science teacher at a Chistian Academy in San Marcos, TX and doing very well. Her two children, my grandchildren, also attend the academy. So she is officially a "Sea Aggie."
We could have some fun with this if you are ready for it because believe me we can get cocky when it comes to our Aggies. "Gig-em"
Wow, I'm blown away at how many people on this board were there. It's really awesome and I'm loving that several people have already responded. What is your opinion of England. Did you get to see much. My baby was only 2 months old when we were transferred to Upper Heyford and I'm sure you well know that our military salary can hardly be considered a living wage, so we didn't get to see a lot. We did see London but I never got to see the crown jewels. We sent to Straford-Upon-Avon and that was a glorious day and I truly can't remember if we were anywhere else. Of couse we lived in Woodstock, so Blenhein Palace was where I took by little girl on a regular basis. It was always our "outing." I loved England at that time. I went back years later as it was part of my job and I was truy sickened at how "Americanized" they had made it. Don't get me wrong, I love America almost as much as President Trump, but I mean there were Domino Pizza, McDonalds and several other such restaurants that, if I were the PM, I would never have let do business there because, IMO, it ruined the culture that I loved. For instance, there was a fish and chip place where we got the very best fish in all the world and it was wrapped in a paper cone so you could just use your fingers and pull it out to eat; no silverware at all, and that restaurant had no set hours so you never could count on it being open, which drove my ex-husband nuts but to me was all part of the charm. What did you like best about England.
I was at RAF Alconbury - hence my love for A-10s.
I went all over. At least every other weekend my friends and I would take a coach/bus to the Channel, and take the ferry across to Calais France. Sometimes one of us would drive but that meant we couldn't drink so that was rare. We would bring a case of Bud and trade it for real beer with the Brits that often went along with us. Brits LOVED the bubbles. We would wander around Calais seeing the sights and eating the food, and head back late at night. If we drove it was because we were going to Paris to see the sights.
I also got to go all over besides London. I went to Scotland, Wales, France of course, and Germany. Stonehenge was a huge disappointment - I don't recommend it to anyone. We went to the grand opening of "The Missile" roller coaster in 1989 on the 4th of July at "The American Adventure" amusement park - Buzz Aldrin was there to open the ride (he was drunk though). The reason I called out July 4th is all Americans got in free that day. New Years Eve in London at Trafalger Square was a blast. That was the first place I saw a woman in the men's room (sitting on a urinal peeing). A million+ people partying all night, drunk, but having a great time. My coworker and I also had tickets to "Pink Floyd The Wall, Live in Berlin" but both of us ended up getting transferred before the concert. I still have the poster that came with the ticket, and the video tape we ordered. I also have a framed picture of the real wall with some barbed wire and a piece of the wall on my desk to this day. The wall of course came down while I was stationed in England and people took chunks of the wall to sell later - good idea.
I also liked being in a darts league, and I played a TON of Snooker. I have a lifetime membership (along with my coworker) to a local Snooker club near the base because of some charity we did to raise money for the hospital where his wife had her 1st kid. She was a preemie and needed an incubator, but the hospital had only one. If another baby was born early and needed one they would've had to go to London, so we arranged something (not going into detail on this for doxxing reasons) to buy another incubator. The club loved it so much they gave us cue sticks, shirts, and the membership.
I know you mentioned the restaurants taking away from the culture, but when they got a KFC in the local area everyone went wild. That place was always packed. The Fish & Chips restaurant across the street did fine. They used the old-school newspaper to wrap the fish and gave you plenty of vinegar for the fish and fries. I ate there a lot. There was also a fair amount of Indian and Chinese restaurants thanks to the Commonwealth.
I loved being there, and took advantage of everything I could. I should mention I turned 18 about 3 months prior to getting there, so I was able to drink before I hit 21. I think that helped because I got all of that out of my system before coming back to the states (still under 21). I was also enlisted so I didn't make hardly any money - I just stretched it however I could.
I took my wife there on a European tour more than 10 years after I left. I wanted to just go and drive wherever we felt like driving but she wanted structure. The compromise was we went a week before and I took her all around England, and then we went to Paris for the start of the tour. The odd thing is this was before Waze or cheap GPS, but I rented a car at Heathrow and drove to a hotel I'd never seen without a map, and made it without getting lost. I asked the car rental people where the hotel was and they gave me a landmark I knew. Ten+ years later nothing had really changed and I drove right there. Really weird. Oh yeah, I liked driving manual transmission cars while sitting on the right side of the car. I never had a problem getting used to that side of the car - it just felt natural.
That said - England is no longer the same and I fear it is forever lost. That is likely what is in store for the US as well, due to importing all the illegals.
It is 7:03 a.m. here in Central Texas and I have NEVER and I really do mean NEVER enjoyed a story more that what you just shared with me. You have memories that will last you the rest of your life and you write and document them incredibly well. I would suggest you do just that for your grandkids, if you have grandkids because you are right in that England will never be the same, so tell them how it was so they know.
I can only relate to two things you did. I think it was when we brought in the year 1981 but I can't remember for certain. My husband and another couple made the trek to London for the New Years Eve event. We spent the whole night in Trafalgar square. We took one of my daughters little toys with wheels and my husband attached a keg of beer to it and we strolled it all over and shared it with anyone who wanted it. I'm not sure it was American beer or if he got British beer (I'll have to ask him) but we shared it all night long. There is no way to top that experience so I rarely even watch the ball drop anymore because it simply cannon compare.
Then we did go to Stonehenge and you are right, it was a complete disappointment. My husband foolishly went across the street where the hippees had set up camp and it was completely surrounded by police and he still walked through the whole camp and did things I simply don't want to talk about here but it was nuts because we had our baby in a stroller with us.
And lastly, Pink Floyd, Now I didn't know there was an actual "wall" that Pinkie was talking about and if you have a picture, I would love to see it. My ex-husband is still a part of our life for celebrations and I know for certain that he would love to see it. My husband was stationed at Upper Heyford and his step-brother was stationed at Lakenheath. Well his step-brother bought two tickets to see the London concert and I never cried so hard in all my life because they were for the two of them. I had an almost brand new baby and his step-brother didn't know how much I loved Pink Floyd and he figured I would want to stay home with her but we had good friends right across the street from where we lived and they would have kept our baby overnight I'm certain. So my only sense of satisfaction is that I kept his ticket and I still have it today and will never give it to him. I was angry with him for days but really I was just plain angry that he got to go and I didn't.
Thank you so much for sharing this story. I am going to print it out and share it with my ex=husband at our next celebration. You have literally made my day and I thank you for that.
Thanks for your kind comments. By the way, I lived in Round Rock and Liberty Hill when I was in Central Texas. We found our way to East Texas and love it, although I miss having season tickets to Longhorns Football. I had them for 10 years and that was my daddy/daughter activity. She is almost 30 now and recently flew back and took me to a game - full circle.
As for the wall - there are 2 things here. Yes Pink Floyd did build a wall and tear it down, but I believe it was Styrofoam. There is a documentary about it somewhere but I don't remember the name. And the real wall - I was referring to the Berlin Wall that came down in 1989. The one that Reagan said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall". Pieces of the wall were very popular souvenirs - especially ones that had graffiti paint on them. I have a big chunk that is about 5 inches by 2 inches (with paint), and a smaller quarter-sized piece glued to the framed picture along with rusted barbed wire and a 10 pfennig coin. The picture is people climbing the wall and breaking it with pick-axes.
Oh yeah - I knew Lakenheath (and Mildenhall) very well. I used to have to drive to Lakenheath once or twice a month when we had a base computer issue. They held our backup tapes, and other OS tapes we needed if the problem was bad enough. I would try to go over to Mildenhall while I waited to try to catch a glimpse of an SR-71 taking off or landing, or maybe just to go to a bigger BX that had more stuff than Alconbury.
I found a link to the full concert in Berlin, and a link to the documentary. They aren't perfect HD of course, but it is truly amazing they pulled this off. You might watch the documentary first to get an idea of what happened to pull this together. The Soviet marching band story is jaw-dropping. Enjoy!
Concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acc_aK_bcRA&list=PLEF0CE16D6FC4C748&index=1
Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_tyw7kukJI
OMG, I simply can't think of a better gift than the links you have sent. I will enjoy them when I have that much time and that won't be today because I have three different therapist coming today.
Now we have to talk about this UT thing because we are a family of Aggies and you know what that means. My husbands father when to A&M and we still have his ring. My husband also graduated from A&M and proudly wears his ring when he can. My only daughter graduated from Texas A&M Galveston with her Maritime License. She worked for NOAA until she had the very first accident ever in NOAAs history where they were using computers to map the ocean floor in Sitka, Alaska. A rogue wave popped up out of nowhere and before the driver of the boat could get it turned around, it flipped completely over. The driver drowned. There was my daughter and one other person stuck in the boat. My daughter struck her head on a beam and passed out for a brief moment and when she came to she couldn't see out of her right eye. She and the other person decided to try and swim to the front of the boat where they knew they could get out. Her shipmate made it to the front but she couldn't breath or not breath well enough to make it out so she was by herself stuck in the boat. Her shipmate was on top of the boat yelling at her but she couldn't do what he ask so he went to shore while she was still stuck in the boat. Someone had given her a small amulet that was clear plastic and had an angel on the inside and she carried it everywhere with her. She said she just held that amulet and kept looking for a way out when suddenly the boat tipped up out of the water and she saw a window had broken out and she made a quick dive for the window. She made it out but by now the waves kept her from reaching shore. She had on heavy work boots that hindered her a great deal. Every time she would reach the shore that was all rock, she would be pulled back out to the ocean. Her shipmate saved her life by yelling at the top of his lungs telling her what to do and indeed she was able to make it far enough onto the rocks that he was able to grab her and bring her to shore. Just by coincidence there was a box of flares that had washed up on shore and they fired one off. Some kids were on the same shore doing some work and when they saw the flare they came running. My daughter fractured her skull but by the time we realized it (and that is a whole other story in and of itself) and had to have major surgery that still makes me shutter.
So I am so very blessed to have my daughter and she is my only child. She is now a high school science teacher at a Chistian Academy in San Marcos, TX and doing very well. Her two children, my grandchildren, also attend the academy. So she is officially a "Sea Aggie."
We could have some fun with this if you are ready for it because believe me we can get cocky when it comes to our Aggies. "Gig-em"