Christine Kastner’s charmed memoir of her Army brat childhood will resonate with many. For those of us who grew up in that life, this is how we go home again: sharing our stories, finding the roots that shaped us. She is to be congratulated on adding to our storehouse of memories from a unique culture at a fascinating period in 20th century history.
–Mary Edwards Wertsch, author of
Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress
Some military brats rode camels in Arabia . . . others leaped from parachute training towers . . . but this little army brat rode backwards in the rear jump-seat of the family station wagon all the way across America . . . without a seatbelt!
Christine Kriha Kastner grew up the only way she knewon military bases stateside and around the world. By the time she turned in her military I.D. card, when her father retired from the U.S. Army, she had lived in fifteen different houses and attended ten different schools.
Situation normal for an army brat.
Living on Okinawa was a memorable overseas assignment. So when an opportunity to return to that little island in the Pacific Ocean arose after forty years, she couldnt pass it up. Kastner returned to the island she remembered from her youthwith the 73-year-old mother of one of her best friends.
Together, they took a Kubasaki High School reunion trip timed to coincide with the 4th Uchinanchu Festival that brought thousands of Okinawans back to the island from all over the world.
It was the adventure of their lifetimes, just not quite the karaoke, sake and pachinko experience they expected.
Japan has long been known as the Land of the Rising Sun, but it is now better known as the Land of Cat-Cafes, Green-Tea Matcha Lattes, Love-Hotels and Orion Beer!
Together, Don and Christine Kastner traveled to Japan to attend the 5th Uchinanchu Festival on the small Pacific island of Okinawa, where Chris once lived as a teenager in the 1960s with her U.S. Army father and family.
The sound of choppers hovering overhead . . . takes me back to my childhood. I grew up hearing them in the background . . . or coming in for a landing. It was a comforting background sound, along with the roar of jets streaking through the skies. I was a military brat.
where to buy my books
Both books are available on Amazon as Kindle eBooks, hardcover, and paperback.
For a signed hardcover, email me at chris@christine-kriha-kastner.com. I take PayPal payments and I know what to do with paper checks.