Thursday, April 16, 2009

Growing Up on El Toro MCAS

Ginny shares her memories of growing up a military brat on El Toro Marine Corps Air Station...

When I was 5 years old, we left El Toro Marine Base, and we lived in base housing during that time. I remember sneaking off the El Toro's Elementary school. We were all military brats, and we lived on Trabuco Road, right at the very end of the air strip. My fondest memories in life are from those days. Although, one of the fondest is the carrott fields we used to plunder during as soon as the new harvest was cut. I loved it there and wish we had never left. I remember the 82 Marines killed at Saddle Back Mountain, the time the president flew over the air base and they dropped candy from the plane, it was so awesome. If only we could go back to those times, a time when there were not so many people and construction, among other things. I have pictures of my brothers and sisters, and my Mom, standing on the sidewalk in between the houses at El Toro. I could be mistaken, but I believe we lived 1938 Trabuco Rd. Anyway, I loved it there. Anyone interested in the pictures can contact me. I have more than a couple for sharing.
That sounds cool, the President's airplane dropping candy down on the kids below.

2 comments:

  1. Ginny - YES! The carrot fields at the end of base housing on Trabuco Road! My sister, brother, and I did the same thing - we would go take carrots out of the field and take them home for our Mother. She knew where they came from, and would give us a hard time about going into the carrot fields, but she still cooked them. The funny thing is that even back then, and to this day, I don't even LIKE carrots! We lived in one of the last homes on Trabuco Road, and like you said, it was at the end of the air strip. We lived there sometime during 1965/1967 time-frame.

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  2. My Dad was stationed at El Toro in the 50's as MC pilot. When I was born, that was my first housing. I don't remember it though since we moved to Santa Ana when I was 18 months old. But we did go there to the PX and for medical. Remember the old clinics? How about the blimps at LTA. What memories. We were such a rebellious group and now we long for those times

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