Returning to My Childhood Years, Part 1

Lompoc, California
February 2 to 6, 2010

Vandenberg Village as viewed from Harris Grade

I returned to Lompoc, the hometown of my teenage years. Some tasks still needed to be done before I set off on my plan-to-be-year-long cross-country travels: placating my mother of my safety as I wandered around, storing items that I did not want sitting in a mini-storage unit in Reno, and completing paperwork so I could travel without worry of those pesky little things like health insurance.

Although I was fortunate in comparison to other Air Force brats as to all of the moving that we did in tow with our dads, I still settled oh so shortly in five places and ten homes by the time I was 15. It was by luck of the United States Air Force that I ended up in Lompoc, California, and I consider our final family resting place as my hometown:  Vandenberg Village, a classic 1960's subdivision just northwest of Lompoc.

While in Lompoc I visited those memorable venues of my eight years in Lompoc. My childhood homes on Calle Lindero in Mission Hills, Heath Street in Vandenberg Air Force Base, and Aries Avenue in Vandenberg Village. The schools of my maturing years: Vandenberg Junior High School, Cabrillo High School, and Allan Hancock College. The Valley Drive-In, the spot of my initiation to drinking and the body's reaction to reverse the intake of alcohol when you drink too much. Ryan Memorial Park, the setting of many Flower Festivals. Vandenberg Village Library where I disappeared for many hours at a time. McDonald's and the crushing crowds that always followed a football game. Harris Grade with its unforgiving curves. The wooded valley between Mission Hills and the La Purisma Mission that I walked often during my first year here. And many, many more places that brought up good, bad, and indifferent memories from my teenage years.

The offshoot of visiting your past is the urge to move along quickly with your future. After only five days in Lompoc, I was ready to get on the road for a test-run for my cross-country travels by exploring southern Nevada and southern California.

The Flowers of the Lompoc Valley

The Fog of the Lompoc Valley