OFF BASE ESTATES:
When you live off base, you enter the land of two car garages, kitchen islands, bay windows, and bathrooms big enough to do a two-step before entering a walk-in closet. You take crazy-level delight at simple things, like refrigerators with ice dispensers, linen closets, and floors that are not the color of dirty underwear.
But with a cost. And without the brownies.
Unless you are lucky enough to live in a hood with other military folk, you most likely walk out of your house on a pretty day and wonder "Where the people at?". Garage doors are shut, curtains drawn, with no signs of life anywhere. You have to make a concerted effort to meet people. It may also be more difficult to volunteer; many schools or organizations already have a well oiled machine in place and outsiders are not always welcomed. You just have to keep trying and find your niche.
Sometimes you honestly have no choice about where you live. Either the wait list is too long, there is no wait list because there is no housing, or the housing is soooo bad you can't stomach living in such a place. Case in point: I discovered I do have a low point which I won't cross when an on base house we toured had mouse turds all over the counter. And so did the other five houses we looked at.
Ummm...no thanks. I'll take my chances out in the wild.
You do have privacy, though, and if you want to be incognito, this is the life for you. Also when you live off base, you experience the culture and life of that area because it surrounds you. You are more apt to visit museums, local art festivals, and live like a local...all valuable opportunities you may not get again. You rediscover that not only are you a military family, but a FAMILY, and sometimes it is nice to remove the military part from the equation and pretend you don't have to move every 2-4 years.
Sometimes it is nice to just be.
Next week:
A recap and your comments about housing. Are you an on base or off base person???? Let me know!
Ummm...no thanks. I'll take my chances out in the wild.
You do have privacy, though, and if you want to be incognito, this is the life for you. Also when you live off base, you experience the culture and life of that area because it surrounds you. You are more apt to visit museums, local art festivals, and live like a local...all valuable opportunities you may not get again. You rediscover that not only are you a military family, but a FAMILY, and sometimes it is nice to remove the military part from the equation and pretend you don't have to move every 2-4 years.
Sometimes it is nice to just be.
Next week:
A recap and your comments about housing. Are you an on base or off base person???? Let me know!
Heidi,
ReplyDeleteLove your Blog lady!!
I soooooo agree! We're just finishing a year off base and I CAN"T WAIT to get back on base in 2 months! You nailed it! Nice house, Cul-de-sac... Great neighborhood if you don't want to meet anyone and the lovely ladies at the school swear they need help but never call even when you've signed up for the last 3 events! I also found that if you live off base, you don't visit the commissary as often because "it's too far and I only have a minute so Walmart it is".
I am definitely an on base person!
Whichever I was the last 2 moves, I want to be the other. Seems like we live on base for a couple assignments and then I get the itch to be off base for a couple, then I want to be back on base....haven't had kids of school age yet though, so we'll see how that changes now!
ReplyDeleteWe're an on-base family. Lived off-base 3 times in our career...the year we were at the Pentagon, and the two times we were at Scott AFB (rented one house in Shiloh, one in O'Fallon). One of my off-base living complaints was that the "locals" treated you like you'd been a local forever. I was always lost roaming through the schools, didn't know what or when the local town celebrations were, hard to break into scouts or pta....you get the idea.
ReplyDelete