Life Events Part 6kk Remembrances of things - Fort Campbell - the Parkers Big Rock xxvii Fort Campbell had an enormous effect on our lives. Most notably it took our home, our land, and our way of life. On occasion it provided entertainment. Mother and Daddy took my brothers, my cousin Joyce, and me to a circus in Fort Campbell. My brothers and I enjoyed it immensely, especially the high wire artists and the prancing plumed horses, but clowns who came up in the bleachers scared Joyce. On another occasion they took us to see soldiers boarding an airplane that would take them to the front lines. When the man who was in charge of protocol asked the crowd gathered on the tarmac if anyone had a question, Lurton, who was seven, asked how many soldiers were on the plane. He was told that was classified information. One evening not long after we left Parkertown, Mother and Daddy took us to visit friends of theirs who also lived adjacent to Fort Campbell, but some distance from our house. When we started to drive home, we were stopped by soldiers in a jeep who told us we would have to go home on a different read that was unfamiliar to us. They told us they would lead us to a place that would connect to our road home where the blackout would not be in effect. With out car lights off, we followed a jeep until we came to a creek. A soldier came to the drivers side of our car and told Daddy that we would have to cross the creek on a pontoon boat, a prospect that was very exciting for my brothers and me. Lurton leaned forward and said to the soldier, Hup two three four. Pleased, the soldier laughed. Daddy responded favorably to Lurtons comment. That was the only time I ever heard him show approval of anything Lurton did. While that blackout was inconvenient for my parents, it paled in comparison to the ordeal suffered by people who lived in London during the blitz. Grace Corton was one of the English women who was a counselor in the dormitory in Lakenheath where I worked. One evening she told me what it was like living in London during the blitz. She said that one night after many nights of having to sleep on a cot in a dank basement she and a friend agreed they would not go to the basement. They would sleep in their beds and take a chance a bomb wouldnt hit their building. We were constantly reminded of our proximity to Fort Campbell. Often helicopters would fly over Big Rock almost but not quite touching the tree tops. Flying that low, they made an unbelievably loud noise. This excited children but frightened elderly people, especially the ones who had been forced to leave their homes in the camp area and were trying to cope with disorientation. Years later a government agency conducted a study to determine if displacement affected the elderly. I told friends that the government could have saved a lot of money by asking me that question. The government played a mind game and elderly people lost.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 01:13:15 +0000