AUTHOR SPEAKS TO RETIRED MILITARY GENTLEMEN

On April 4th, at noon, I will be giving a talk to some retired military gentlemen and local businessmen in the Daytona Beach area regarding my memoir, Interrupted Journeys: A Memoir of an Army Brat. Hopefully, there will be a good turnout then.

BOOK SIGNING ON SATURDAY, MARCH 11

I will be having a book signing for my memoir, Interrupted Journeys: A Memoir of an Army Brat from 11 am to 2 pm at the Renewals Book Shop in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. There will be refreshments served.

AUTHOR GIVING A BOOK SIGNING AT RENEWALS BOOK STORE, WASHINGTON STREET, NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FLORIDA

I am giving a book signing for my book, Interrupted Journeys: A Memoir of an Army Brat, on Saturday, March 11th, from 11 am to 2 pm at the Renewals Book Store in New Smyrna.

BARBARA FIFIELD GIVING TALK TO VETERANS' ASSOCIATION

On Monday, February 27th at 2 pm, the author will be giving a talk regarding her book, Interrupted Journeys: A Memoir of an Army Brat, to the Father Charles Waters Post 1962 of the Catholic War Veterans at the Emory L. Bennett Veterans Nursing Home on Mason Avenue in Daytona Beach. She will discuss memories of her childhood as an army brat in the service and living in Germany, Japan, and different States of the USA.

ARMY KIDS HAVE MANY FRIENDS

A positive outcome from the many travels and moves a military family makes are the many friends which family members make. Sometimes military children are almost forced to make friends due to having lost the friends they had during the last move. I, for example, learned to make friends easily and to this day, I make friends easily with strangers due to my many changes in addresses, states and countries which I soon grew used to. Below is a picture of my sister, Marilyn and myself with Jimmy McGuiness, a kid who lived across the street from us in Heidelberg, Germany. Jimmy's dad was a lieutenant colonel, my father, a major. Jimmy often joked with me about his father being higher ranked than mine, even if by only one grade.

ALCOHOL FACTORING IN FAMILY DYNAMICS IN THE MILITARY

Many military families suffer from the huge presence of alcohol in their families. Much drinking takes place due to the stresses of the military style of life because of frequent relocations, usually every year or two, and adjusting to different cultures wherever the family lives. New languages, climates, friends, schools, etc., impact the families' lifestyles. I know in my own family where my father was a major in the army this was so. My mother had to raise my sister and me by herself while Dad was undergoing training in different states or overseas for up to two years. She had to manage with one income as most women didn't work in the fifties. Because she often didn't have enough money to pay the bills as she depended on Dad to mail her money, we often went without even though he was an officer. When he was in Iran for two years, for example, she wrote him a letter in desperation once over this splitting of his income, and officers got paid less back in those days than they do now. also, officers' wives weren't supposed to work back then as it was a cultural thing for them not to. Today, officers get paid more;however, there are additional problems with the greater use of psychoactive medications and prevalence of street drugs in our culture, mostly used by teenagers. Today's military families face even greater stresses. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq really haven't helped the matter, any! With more fighting women and men being stationed overseas, I perceive even more problems with alcohol and drugs than before. Much of this, of course, has been hushed by the military in order to maintain respect for our fighting men and women overseas. The sign of modern times.

RESILIENT CHILDREN USUALLY HAVE AT LEAST ONE GOOD ADULT ROLE MODEL

Growing up as a military brat and dealing with changes in school, friends and homes can result in instability in one's childhood. The close relationships I developed with our maid, Eliska, my Grandpa Freddie, plus several close friends, assisted in me developing resilience while growing up. Being lonely because of our family's social isolation in Heidelberg, I often wished we could move to the army base so I would find more friends my age. I also daydreamed of moving in with our maid's family near Cologne, north of the city where we lived. However, that was not meant to be. I learned to become more independent by reading a lot during the summer when there was no one to play with my  age. We continued to live off base after we moved back to the states. Again, I had to find nonmilitary friends as most kids who lived off base were civilians. Civilian children just didn't understand the culture of the military family, the constant moving around, making new friends every few years, the authoritarianism of following Dad's orders, making one's bed according to guidelines set by the parents, turning out bedroom lights at certain hours, and never being late for dinner. Close relationships I had with our maid, Eliska, various friends and Grandpa Freddie salvaged the discomfort I often felt in not being able to meet my parents' stiff standards. It saved my self-esteem and assisted me in developing into an adult with self-confidence and poise. Below are pictures of Eliska and Grandpa Freddie.