I have a thing for odd news, I like to search the Internet for stories that don’t make the head lines, but are intriguing. Like the “Message in bottle tossed off NJ in ‘69 found in NC”.

The one story that I do want to talk about is this one. ” In pictures: 20 of the world’s most dangerous places” . When I saw it, I had to click, and as the page loaded, one thought came to my head, what are the odds that where I was born and raised is in this list? Well lets get the suspense over, it made the list, congrats… I write this post, and I will not talk about the political or religious nature of wars, I will focus more on the bitter sweet experience associated with it, There are so many, here is just a sample.

Last Christmas, while I visited with my parents back home, we where sitting having a nice gathering, its been a while since the extended family had gathered up like that, actually last time was during war. Food, drinks, jokes, memories, laughs, a rocking good time to be honest. A few minutes after midnight, my dad stood up and announced (to my shock), well guys, you better head home. Head home? what are you talking about, we are having a great time!!! Yea I know, but its best you leave. But why, what is your problem man. Well we are going to lose power in 20 minutes and we wont have any power until tomorrow morning, so you better head out now so you can take the elevator up to your apartments. You gotta be kidding me, forget that, we are having a good time, remember in the old days, when the war was really cooking, we did not have power for months, oh dad your losing it…

But dad was not losing it, we lived in a concrete jungle, as many buildings as the eye can see, and you wanted to make it home, you had to beat the scheduled rolling outage or you had many flights to scale. Not the best idea when its pitch dark. In a way we where lucky, we lived very close to the the X-presidents house (be it on the other side of the tracks). And that meant that when things like power and running water where to be restored, our area got them first. It also meant that the X-Pres could have been found there sometime, and that means extra troops around to keep them safe. And yes yes yes it also meant we got a larger share of incoming rocket attacks, more than our share of sniper fire, more than our share of all the good things and bad things that war brings your way.

Special perks: Now here is the thing, if over night your car managed to get hit be a rocket and burn, odds are, the army came and picked up right away, instead of other neighborhoods where it would stay for a while. If your neighbor is hurt because a rocket hit their apartment, you are able to get them quick to the hospital that happened to be not too far and the army will help you out get them there, if they are hurt bad and the rockets are flying, you get the special treat riding to the hospital in a tank. And if you friend lost and eye or died from a sniper bullet, odds are the army would fire in every possible direction until they get them Bastards, who did this, so you can walk safely for the next days or so. Best of all you get bread and basic supplies faster than the rest, the arm delivers even Santa came in tank, guess the sleigh was shot down over our airspace.

Fitness and savings: Those stairs made you real fit, You gotta carry even your water up those steps, boy oh boy, if you lived on the 6th floor, and had to carry all that stuff a) you where fit b) you think twice about filling up that shopping cart with junk

Special Education: The best part about war for a kid, is the war itself meant, NO SCHOOL, which meant that you could enjoy the regular scheduled breaks as well the unscheduled breaks (which sometimes added up to more than the scheduled ones). You get to do speed learning.

A Refined Pallet:  Best of all, where the treats, war time was like Halloween on speed. your parents saved the best junk food for war, how else will they keep the kids and themselves sane. You would sit there, eat junk all day. You develop special recipes for SPAM, Corned beef, Caned hot dogs, etc… You truly become a caned food expert.

A game champion. Playing cards or board games all day is a must, you start when the first rocket hits and are in there for a few days until it was safe enough. That is why, i am going to give this free piece of advice. If you are playing a board game especially Risk with someone who spent more than 1 week in a shelter, you better quit, you are going down, they mastered the game with the best of them.

Put away the yellow pages: At the rate you have to repair things damaged by rocket shells, you would go broke calling in the plumber or the handy man. You just learn how to fix it all. Water, electrical, construction, car repair, even the practice of basic medicine become your domain. None done well, just well enough before the next round comes along.

Weapons expert.  Your favorite fast time is playing “guess where it came from” you look at the rocket, at the angle it hit, the direction, which floor in the building etc… and then everyone gathers up and theories (all incorrectly i bet) at the source of where this was launched, and every time, someone will be the black sheep and guess friendly fire. They usually sleep alone next time we gather up in the shelter…

The list of special skills and perks goes on and on.

War time, is bad time, but also war time in many ways is a good way to learn, to appreciate things, spend time with family and get really close and trusty of each other. I would not trade those days up for anything, hard and horrible as they may be. War time gives you a different perspective on life, and if you are lucky to get out like I did, you see the world quite differently.

Peace.