Jo is feisty, strong-willed, curious. She also likes to torment her younger sister, Susan, who is loosely based on me. Susan is a bookworm. She does, however, concede to her sister's experience as her elder. Susan is a follower, often reluctantly.
We, like Jo and Susan, grew up in an Air Force family. We remember living on Guam. There are many elements in the book that originate from our own experiences and rather foggy memories. As we created the story, Lynda remembered things I didn't remember and visa- versa, but there were many memories we shared. Some of those real-life moments appear in Mystery of the Cave.
In the book, Jo and Susan have a younger sister, Graci. She is loosely based on our younger sister, Traci. When we moved to Guam we three were the only children of Bill and Joan Wilkerson. Graci is only three years old when the Wilks family moves to Guam. Like Traci, she probably wouldn't remember as much about the Island as her older siblings. She lives in her own 'little girl' world. She hangs out with her mom and spends time with other little girls her age in the neighborhood.
As military brats, the glue that held us together was our parents. Not unique to military brats, certainly, but as we moved from one assignment to another we always moved as a family, and while we left friends, schools, homes and familiarity behind, we always had our little family circle - the one certainty in our lives.
Things that were unique to military families: our neighbors were also military families, our fathers wore a military uniform to work (not as many women were military members back then), we heard the 'Klaxon' (a loud, piercing siren) at least twice each day, at noon and five p.m. We also heard it when there was an "alert". That's when our dads would wake up from a sound sleep, jump into their uniforms and run out the door, never knowing for sure if it was a practice drill or the real alert to danger.We had dinner at the NCO or Officer's club, went to the movies and stood for the National Anthem before the news of the day or cartoons started.
Our dads went on "TDY" (temporary duty) for some undetermined length of time to do something 'secret', while our moms held down the fort and ruled the roost; they kept things as normal as possible until Dad returned home - often with gifts from far away lands.
In the meantime, we kids carried on with our sibling shenanigans, unaware that we were creating a bond that could not be broken - this was our 'normal'. We didn't think we were special or unique. We were a family. Yes, we moved from place to place. We expected it, but didn't look forward to it. When we moved, we went together. We moved to a new set of quarters, went to a new school, made new friends.
Not mentioned in Mystery of the Cave are our younger siblings, Mark and Kimberly.
Lynda was the first but, 20 months later I was born. Traci, who has always bemoaned her position as middle child, was born four years after me and four years before Mark, who was actually born on Guam. Two years after Mark, the last child and youngest sister Kimberly, was born in California while Dad was stationed at March Air Force Base. We didn't live in military quarters when Kim was born because we were on a 'waiting list', but a year after her birth we moved into base housing and back to our familiar military world.
We, the children of Bill and Joan Wikerson (the most amazing parents EVER) are all military brats, even though Kimberly was only seven years old when Dad retired from the Air Force.
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| Lynda, Terry, Dad and Mom, Mark, Traci, Kim The Wilkersons 1995 |
But we are siblings. Bill and Joan's kids.
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