July 8, 2001
Reading Rick McGinnis' article in Toronto Life magazine about visiting the neighbourhood he grew in as a child has given me some inspiration. Being a Canadian military brat, I've often wanted to go back to all the places I've lived to see them once more, almost as if to validate my various past lives; to tell myself, Yes, I actually did live there at one time in my life, or some such sentiment.
This thought led me into thinking about writing a book about my experiences as a military brat, which quickly segued into my collecting the stories of other Canadian military brats and compiling them into a book format. What an idea, I thought, to bring together many of the common experiences I and others have had as children. Yay me!
Then of course reality hit
like a splash of cold water on a hot day - how do I organize the book; what
do I want to say, what am I trying to achieve, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Checking
the numerous brat sites online, I have discovered I'm not the first to think
of this, so I order through amazon.com what some brats consider the definite
treatise about brathood -
20 pages into reading it and I soon discover that, though there are similarities, it's not my story. It's an exploration of the American military brat - not the same fish at all that I am, though we share the same gills and scales. There was no daily 17:00 reveille in my childhood - no overt display of rah rah patriotism, no strident discipline of a Marine at the dinner table. The American military brat, from this early exploration of the book, is a child of a military machine that is prepared to go to war at any moment. The Canadian military brat, from my childhood experience, is a child of a military machine that is prepared to keep the peace anywhere in the world at any moment. So, it's clear to me now. This book, while going to be a useful reference, is not my story, nor do I think the story of other Canadian military brats.
I do have a purpose after all for this book idea - to capture that unique Canadian perspective on all things brat-wise. I can tell already it's going to be a long haul. I can already see myself hitting the bumps and the high moments in some yet unknown future of this book, but have a strange intuition that it will all work out in the end.
I wonder sometimes if I am a typical Canadian military brat. Sometimes I think I'm more brat lite. After all, we never were posted to Baden-Baden or Lahr; we stopped living in pmq's when we moved to Bermuda; I went to civvie schools for most of my nomadic childhood. But then, I realize there is no such thing as a typical brat, same as there is no such thing as a typical civilian child.
We are all unique and special people who, through some fashion of fate, share a commonality that most other people know little or nothing of. It is that commonality that I wish to tell; that realization that we are of a certain culture and background; a way to help those who have no understanding of the steamer trunk as home mentality get at least a tiny glimpse into what the hell goes on in our minds as brats.
Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy ride...