What it’s Like to Grow Up at West Point

To start my series on “What it’s like to…,” I thought I would begin with the basics and a brief intro into where I grew up. I selected this topic because I always get funny looks from people when I tell them where I spent my childhood. “You mean people really live there?” Yes, yes we do.

My father was in the military band. He played the bassoon, was a drum major, and did all sorts of other things that I can’t even guess at. He served in the army for 30 years…29 of which were stationed at West Point. With that in mind, there are lots to tell about living there, but for now I will give you an brief intro.

The base is set up with the campus taking up a chunk of it. Small clusters of housing areas dot the rest of the area, and families are assigned to them based on the person in the military’s rank and job. The housing area I lived in was termed “Bandland,” since yes, we lived with members of the band. I’m not sure when that term came into existence. It just always was.

I equate living there to a 50s TV show. It had a small town feel where everyone knows everyone, which has its plusses and minuses. We knew who practiced their instruments and who didn’t. We knew what ninny was sleeping with some of the married men. And as far as the kids went, if we ever did something wrong, not five minutes would pass before one of our parents was called and we were tattled on.

The biggest thing about the neighborhood was that it was safe. We never locked our doors. I never even owned a key to the house. Why bother? If we went on vacation our neighbors would water our plants and bring in the mail. It’s how things worked there.
This time of the year is when I do get a little nostalgic for the place because Trick-or-Treating has never been the same. We were spoiled. There was no risk for us. We could play in the dark and never be concerned about the dangers that may or may not lurk about. We got bags of candy and home made goodies too!

My favorites were Mrs. Moon’s Moon Pies. She was a band wife, which means her husband worked in the band with my dad. And she lived right down the block from me. Mrs. Moon would make a ton of these fried dough circles with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Then she fill a industrial sized laundry cart with them and every trick-or-treater would get one and only one. And no matter how many people came (which were a lot since anyone and everyone that could get to her would come) she would know if she’d seen you already that night. Some people ever tried to change costumes to trick her…but she knew. She always did!

I feel sorry for kids now (and even then) that don’t get to experience such things. I am grateful that I had that. It made for a nice childhood, albeit sheltered. But we were safe and really got to be kids. Plus we got to play on cannons and what kid doesn’t like that?

And well that’s that for now. Have a great day all!