Vandy

I have moved around a lot in my life. Mostly the west coast and Hawaii. I currently call Hooker Oklahoma (It's a location not a vocation)home. That is in the middle of "No-man's land" also known as the Oklahoma panhandle. Surprising to all my friends in Washington and Oregon I love it out here. Actually you can say I am a returned Okie. My grandparents left here in the 30's to go to Califonia. My parents moved to Washington from there when I was a child. After my parents divorced we slowly moved south jumping over Oregon into Califonia. From 6th grade till my JR/Sr year we moved each year. I only got to stay in Califonia for my Sr. year because I refused to go when my mother moved to Texas. Maybe I should have because I love it out here. I may have grown up in the city but I am a country girl at heart. I still didn't know this when I married a Navy man which lead to more moves including 4 years in Hawaii. Then back to Califonia and then back to the first place I can remember living Bremerton Washington. I sort of came full circle and finally found myself. I loved to dance in school but was too inhibited to be any good really. The advance dance group must have seen something at additions, I made the team, then made them regret it. I finally came into my own when friends of mine finally got me to go out dancing at the Black Angus Steak House in Bremerton, I really miss that place the food was great as well as the friends. They don't dance there any more which is sad. I did meet my second husband there. He taugh me how to two-step and then I made him learn the more difficult dances such as Shadish and Drifter. When he got out of the Navy we moved to his home state of Oregon. I figured that I had split my life between Washington and California of course I would split the difference and live in Oregon. I had a surprise waiting for me. While on active duty with the Air Force reserves for 5 months in MO, my husband visited the uncle of my son's first girlfriend, who lived in Oklahoma. (I know hard to follow) He called me up and said I have a great job offer in Oklahoma! I said well have fun! But God soon let me know that he wanted me to go to Oklahoma too. Even if my last child at home's senior year coming up. Thankfully my son's old girlfriends family moved as well. (They may no longer be together but seem to be stuck in each others lives. After all since both are in college they only know each other when they come home for the summers)So now the kids have all gone off to college and left me with thier pets. My husband is even leaving me again soon. The Air Force reserves is sending him to Iraq in November. At least when he comes home that will be the end of our military days. I hate when filling out questionares, they ask your military status, are you a veteran? Officially no, but after 20 years of involvement and many years working with the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society I sure feel like one.Some how I got off track, I was going to say that when I met my husband he was not at all what I thought was my type. He was a cowboy! and never met a stranger.(In fact when we were in Vegas people asked him what part of Texas was from and he would say Oregon in a Texas accent that he inherited from his mother.) He did live in Oklahoma for a little while just out of high school before the Navy.Anyway I discoved country music via Garth Brooks and "Shameless" I loved Billy Joel and Shameless was my favorite Billy Joel song. I had heard Garth did a cover of it and wanted to hear it. One day at the video store the kids and I rented the "This is Garth Brooks" video. We were hooked. When my first husband came home from 6 month at sea all the radio stations had been re-tuned to country (I think he blames Country music for the divorce)It should be strange that it took Garth to really introduce me to country music. My Uncle Dan Peddicord had a song that broke maybe the top 60 back in the 70's called "Proud Country Lady" in fact most of the old classics I had only heard my uncle sing before I really started listening to country music. My uncle wrote a song for me when I was born. Of course he was only 18 and it was the early 60's so it is very bubble gum 60's stuff. Rumor has it that Ricky Nelson once had it on hold. My uncle still writes and I love everything he does. I don't think he plays the clubs in LA any more but if you are in LA and ever have the chance to see "Craig and Dan" play don't miss it. If I could live any where I wanted it would probably be Nashville I could go listen to live music any time I wanted and after all my name is Vandy and that is the nick name for Vanderbuilt. Yes I have been asked if that is what Vandy is short for. No actually Vandy came out of a Sience Fiction Triology by Andrea Norton called the Solar Queen Triology. The person with my name was a worlock. So my parents have told me all my life that Vandy means good witch, sort of like Glenda in the wizard of OZ. Of course I was a witch each holloween which is funny because now that I am a christian I don't even celebrate what use to be my favorite holiday. Oh and my parents expected me to be born on holloween also. Of course I hate being late. I feel people who are late are rude and don't respect the other person, so I was on time. In fact I was the only one of my mothers 5 children to be on time.Of course a wierd name like Vandy was not popular when I was growing up like it is now. So I gave my children normal names that they could shorten or play with as it suit them. Jacob and Caitlin, Caitlin has gone by Cat most of her school years but has too many knick names to count. I call her Cait or Katie-Kat. Both of my children great blessing to me from God. I sure didn't do anything to deserve such great children. I'm not sure if they would count me as a blessing I think I mostly embarass them. My daughter once asked me why I wasn't like the other mother's. But isn't that part of the job being a parent to teenagers?