Blooming Women
  • Bl(oom)ing Women Accessory Salon
  • Home + Table of Contents
  • Watch us grow!
  • About Blooming Women
  • About Being a Contributor
  • Contact
  • Happy Birthday, Blooming Women! One Year Today!
  • Blog—Maniacal Musings—Becky Lyn Rickman, Managing Editor
  • Blog—Jessica's Journey—Jessica VanVactor, Guest Contributor
  • Blog—My Armenia—Carol Rickman's Blog
  • Dealing with miscarriage
  • My Story
  • Circles
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Being Single
  • 5 Stages of divorce recovery
  • The Circus is in Town
  • (You're covered with) The Fingerprints of God
  • Thunder Roared and Love Soared
  • A Period Piece
  • A sneak preview of the Gertie sequel!
  • Six Steps to Cultivate your Femininity in the Business World
  • Chore Zoning or Don't try this at home!
  • The 50 with Meredith Morse—Opera Singer
  • The 50 with Jessica VanVactor
  • Memorizing Joy
  • AT LAST! My interview with Shan White, Life Coach for women in transition
  • Questions and statements we don't care if we never, ever get asked or told again (am I right, girls?)
  • The Date
  • Moonshadow's Spirit
  • Broken Writer + Hypnotherapy = Amazing Trips
  • The "R" Word
  • The 50 with Carol Shepherd Rickman
  • Triumph During Transitions
  • A Kentucky Afternoon
  • Mothers
  • 10 things chemo taught me
  • What if . . .
  • Forgiveness—A poem
  • Mantegories (n. from the Latin; man+categories)
  • Insomnia 101
  • Blooming Bud Interview: Sierra
  • Masterful Mindsets
  • It's in the bag!
  • Important lessons for children: Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can
  • Nursery rhymes, and times, and slimes, and grimes, and crimes
  • Things I learned as a single mom
  • Sadie's Soapbox: Dating
  • The Dress
  • 8 Things That Have Surprised Me About Having a Large Family
  • The gift of longing
  • The Semicolon Project
  • Most embarrassing moments—culinary edition
  • MilitaReality—a brat's perspective
  • About those elusive wisps of thought
  • Being there
  • The Giving Mom
  • How I still haven't learned to keep my smart mouth shut!
  • If you give a mom a cookie . . .
  • Cacti and Geraniums
  • The Three Gardeners
  • Beauty is as beauty does
  • Words for Sabra
  • Arm scratching in Baltimore
  • Pornography didn't kill our love and friendship . . . I did . . . and how we got it back
  • Hardening off our little bloomers
  • The Wonderful, Magical Women of Blooming Television
  • Shake it like a Polaroid picture!
  • 25 Date Nights (that aren't dinner and a movie)
  • Hills Like White Elephants
  • Maryland Beaten Biscuits
  • The night we thought the house was exploding
  • A mysterious case of goosebumps or "What is that on the wall?"
  • Militareality—Real stories of military wives
  • Finding my metal in wood
  • Another blooming bud interview
  • Chariot of Fire
  • Secret gifts of love
  • The best prank I ever pulled was . . .
  • Connie
  • Dating and other hazards
  • Favorite childhood memories
  • When God speaks . . .
  • Zanie gets into another sticky situation
  • No-see-ums: A little useful information
  • I love my kids, but . . .
  • Meg's poem
  • Another blooming bud interview
  • Some of my favorite herbal recipes are . . .
  • I love my cat, but . . .
  • I love all creatures, but . . .
  • The thing all girls and women must see and know . . .
  • The Great Chicken Debacle
  • The Powerful Influence of Brothers
  • How I feel about blooming is . . .
  • Sometimes grandma is up—other times she is simply upside-down
  • Anyone out there as anxious as I am?
  • Some of my funniest childhood memories are . . .
  • You might be addicted to Harry Potter if . . .
  • This month's survey:
  • Another Blooming Bud interview
  • The most valuable life lesson I've learned is . . .
  • The greatest blessing to come out of the most painful thing I ever experienced was . . .
  • The most powerful influence on my life is . . .
  • The thing that could have broken our family, but didn't was . . .
  • The funniest thing that ever happened to me was . . .
  • The time my dad really surprised me was when . . .
  • NEW FEATURE: Interviews with Blooming Buds
  • ANOTHER NEW FEATURE: A survey
  • The most valuable life lesson I've ever learned is . . .
  • My most embarrassing moment was when . . .
  • What really puzzles me is . . .
  • One of the most fun days I ever had was . . .
  • The most scared I've ever been was when . . .
  • The people who have been the biggest influence on me are . . .
  • I like to relax by . . .
  • The best way to do . . .
  • My most embarrassing moment was when . . .
  • The most fun I ever had was when . . .
  • When I grow up, I want to be . . .
  • What really puzzles me is . . .
  • The most amazing bargain I ever found was . . .
  • Those annoying things kids do and what they mean
  • My shameless self-promotion
  • The thing about getting older is . . .

Militareality--
a brat's perspective

By Becky Lyn Rickman, Managing Editor
A late-realized epiphany on blessings earned from sacrifices made.
Above you see my dad, Joseph M. Rickman, Sr., Air Force NCO and the girl he stepped in on a date with for a buddy—turned wife, Carol Kathryn Shepherd Rickman and the girl they produced—named after Tom Sawyer's friend. 

Due to some childhood trauma, I have blocked much of my childhood, but this much I remember: 15 schools in 2 countries (U.S. and Germany) and 6 states (Germany, Texas, Alaska, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Maine). 

I remember possessions lost in moves, many, many new friends acquired in those same moves, and cultures and dialects picked up like a chameleon. 

Yay . . . we're moving again. Oh, boy.
And, I remember my dream—the one I had from the time I was in diapers. 

Many of you have heard this, but bear with  me. There is a point in the end. I wanted to meet a red-headed, freckled farm boy, marry him, dance barefoot in a calico dress under a full moon, and make a dozen or so babies with him. I wanted to be happy, rocking, exhausted from a full day's work, in homemade rocking chairs on the porch, watching a thunderstorm roll in. I wanted to make all our clothes, grow all our food, and die in his old, wrinkly, loving arms. 

What I got, was everything but that dream life. Shuffled from base to base, home to home, collecting siblings along the way, and a wonderful family grew from the chaos. I never forgot the dream, still have it today, but I had loads of fun and made the best of it. 

One day, I was visiting some family sites with my second husband, the . . . flamboyant one. We went to an historic site in my family, Kittiewan Plantation, the home of Dr. William Rickman, first Surgeon General of the United States, appointed by the Continental Congress, and now home of the Archaelogical Society of Virginia. Then we visited his families summer home, also in Virginia. 

After touring those places, we stopped for lunch at a small cafe. My husband, being, as the judge put it in our divorce, parsimonious, our meal consisted of the cheapest sandwich and a glass of water. I suddenly got very emotional and quietly teared up. He told me I could order dessert. 

"No, no, no, that's not it! That's not what's bothering me, you nincompoop!" Only I didn't really say "nincompoop." I just thought it. 

"Here's the thing," I sniffled, "All my life, I've had this dream of a farm and one husband and stuff and what I got was quite different. But, guess what. If it weren't for the sacrifice of my family and so many others like us, being transient and uprooted and willing to do whatever we needed to, your family wouldn't have had the stability you had. Because of us, sometimes called out in the middle of the night, you might not be who you are today. We are noble and of worth. We aren't grunts and people who couldn't do anything else. We are elite forces. The few, the proud, the chosen. No, wait, that's the Marines, but you know what I mean."

He didn't get it. I am not surprised. But I suddenly felt OK about my childhood. I was proud. In my head, I waved a little flag and saluted. 

So for all you military folks and the brats you have along the way, "Here's to us!" Demand the respect you have been afforded!
Like Becky Lyn Rickman's story? Here's more by her:
Being There
How I still haven't learn to keep my smart mouth shut!
Cacti and Geraniums
Some mysterious goosebumps or "What is that on the wall?"
Finding my metal in wood
Some of my favorite herbal recipes are . . .
I love my cat, but . . . 
I love all creatures, but . . .
You might be addicted to Harry Potter if . . .
My shot at the big time
A cautionary tale
Why I do it
How I chill
How to clean up an egg and other helpful hints
Most embarrassing moments—automotive edition
The thing about getting older is . . .
Copyright © 2015 by Rent's Due Publications

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