Can anyone from a military family help me with a story detail

[InbetweenDreams]

Hello,

I am writing a story, and it is really a sort of minor detail but I still want it to be authentic. In my story, in the 80s, the father of the family was a military man with the family moving around other countries etc. I want to set a particular scene on a day trip that the family takes one day. Most of the story does not revolve around this period of time, and I suppose this element is loosely based on my own mother’s family upbringing so the rest of the story will have that authenticity. However, she grew up in the 60s and this family is more contemporary, so I don’t know where anyone would have been stationed in the 80s or what kinds of places (if any??) families might have visited on days off. Did they get days off to spend with their families? My mother was young when they lived abroad and can’t remember much about daily life etc.

Anyone raised in a military family and took a day trip they can remember? I’m not looking for personal details, just a “we were in Germany in the 80s, and one day we visited Berlin cathedral” or anything at all!

Thank you in advance for any help anyone can offer!

Just to add I went to Haig primary school and we were often evacuated due to suspicious packages.

Cars were bomb checked with long handled mirrors ss you went in and out of base. You had to check your car yourself before you got in elsewhere.
My mum was pregnant with my brother and couldn't bend down so I had to crawl round checking under the car. I'm not sure how they expected 6 yr old me to know what I was looking for!

I think it was the 80's when the IRA declared that wives and kids of military personel were legitmate targets!

I went to Trenchard and Kings. Trenchard was fine, in the middle of Gütersloh with no obvious security at all. Apparently they thought no one would want to blow a bunch of RAF brats up. Kings on the other hand...them searching the school bus every morning with guns and dogs came as a bit of a shock. Got in trouble once for a flippant answer to "did you pack your own school bag".

I suppose for added fun/detail you could make the day one (and there were many) where the hooter had gone off at three in the morning and all the serving adults were running around pretending WW3 had started….

We were in Bergen. There was an inland beach we went to once, and serrangetty (sp) theme park.
We'd get the white bus to the cinema on a Saturday for the matinee performance, only dc, no parents.

There were 2 primary schools with their rivalry, and the big(secondary) school had no go areas we avoided when being shown round. I never went there though as we were posted back to the UK.

In Germany we also had to change the number plate on the car to a different one (right hand drive was still a uk number, lhd would be a German plate). I think there were also schemes to encourage people to change to a lhd car while in Germany in the eighties. Service men had to wear civilian clothes (civvies) -most people had a sweatshirt in the car to pull on over the uniform if driving but had to change completely if on foot. Before getting in the car the serviceman would always check underneath the car for bombs. They were also checked when going into camp. Everyone (including families -dependents) had an id card-I think for children over 12? Permission had to be sought for visitors from uk-some naafi shops would check the id card as they were only for use by authorised people (ie not Germans/non military). We could also use the American shops (PX ) which were in the south-Wiesbaden was probably the closest-@4 hours drive). This was a popular trip especially at Xmas as goods were generally quite a bit cheaper. We had to change money into dollars to shop there.
Bielefeld was a huge garrison in the 80s with 5 camps and lots of different regiments stationed there. It was reduced to 1 camp in the 90s I think. We often got the tram into town. Popular trips were to the outdoor swimming pool in summer (hallenbad) and ice rink in winter. We also went regularly to the Tier Park (a small animal park with mostly European animals and birds-it was free so very popular!) Some camps had a cinema which showed films in English-usually a few months after release. They were generally pretty run down. The national anthem was always played before the film! There was only one channel in English to watch on tv-BFBS which had a mix of programmes from the UK. BFBS also had a radio channel.
most servicemen had cars, the patches where the housing was situated could be a few miles from their camp. Patches were strictly segregated by rank-corporals and below were always in flats, sergeants and warrant officers (NCOs) were in houses and officers were in a different area-also houses which were a bit bigger. Quarters were built in a ‘British’ style so tended to stand out in a German town, but usually had cellars and German style loos!
most servicemen had weekends off, and an early finish on Wednesdays (sports afternoon!) and Fridays unless they were on duty.
There was still hangovers from the Cold War (remember the Berlin Wall was still in place ) Berlin was a posting and it was a popular place to visit as we could get a tour through to the Eastern side and checkpoint Charlie. I think we had to get permission to go there and to cross the border!
Feeling very nostalgic now!

Regarding vehicles and transport, it very much depended on your income, same as on civvy street. We were pretty skint when I was little - dad was paying maintenance to his ex, and he was a corporal, so not earning the money an officer would earn. We always had some kind of banger and you always seemed to be able to borrow a van - for example - if you needed one. Friends in Germany whose dad was higher ranking were driving around in a Mercedes. Mum didn't learn to drive until we left so we would be using public transport when dad wasn't around.

Speaking of which, there was (and probably still is) a social divide between the officers and NCOs - it dictated to a large extent who you socialised with and even where you were allowed to go at times.

We were in Singapore in the 1960s (naval family). I was very young, but I remember a fathers and daughters picnic by boat. We went to an island. On the way back we got stuck on a mud bank coming into harbour (very embarassing as these were all highly trained naval officers!) and had to be rescued.

I was in Germany for most of the 80's. There was the Rhine Army Summer Show every year, we went a couple of times. The regiment organised transport for any family that wanted to go but didn't want to drive. It was a good day out.

I remember the security at that time, armed soldiers on the bus that took us to the NAFFI supermarket. I worked at the kindergarten and we had armed soldiers on the bus to take the children to kindergarten.

We had BFG number plates, which made cars an easy target, hence the checking underneath.

We were in Germany in the early 80s, as a child it was just the best lifestyle. Yes, I'd been to 3 primary schools by the time I was 8, but it definitely gave you a good foundation for being able to embrace new things.

We had all sorts of days out, one memorable one was getting the train from Hildesheim down to Nurenberg for the Christmas market. None of the pretend UK Christmas markets will ever live up to that.

We lived off camp in Hildesheim, the married quarters were in amongst the locals. The officers married quarters were about 20 minutes away from where we were. We used to have to get a bus to camp everyday for school. I once got the bus home forgetting that mum was at work at the medical centre on camp and I was supposed to have walked to her.

My husband was stationed at RAAF Edinburgh Field, SA in the mid sixties. Probably too early for you?

@trockodile Oh yes BFBS - I still remember listening to Tommy Vance in the afternoon and Richard Nankiville. Kenny Everett sang the jingle for Tommy Vance and Nankers had his own very long jingle about losing his horse if I remember rightly.

The numberplates were changed after a solder was shot in his car while on his way back to the UK at the end of the posting. I think it happened in Zeebrugge, he was recognisable as a serviceman because of the BFG numberplates.

Another late 70s / early 80s Gütersloh / Trenchyard military brat who grew up looking under cars for bombs here. We used to go to Bremen and Hamelin and also to Winterberg - I remember being taken to the top of the massive ski jump there, looking down it and thinking 'nope - never doing that'.

A good day trip you could write about is to Hermannsdenkmal - a massive statue of a local who gave the Romans a pasting (though apparently historians now think the statue is in the wrong place...) - apparently one of the best statues in Europe.

Thank you so much to all the replies! I will definitely steer clear of naming any military regiments or anything like that. The story is about the family, not the military, so I don’t need to go into detail about anything like that.

This has been so helpful and I’m glad it started a trip down memory lane for so many of you :) my mother’s family were in Düsseldorf and a few other places. She was too young to remember a lot of it, but as I said, I am also setting the story 20 years after she lived that life, so wouldn’t help too much to ask her!

Haha I remember BFBS from when we were in Saudi! They’d send out video tapes of things like Coronation Street and they’d be passed around the compound when you’d finished with them. A world away from Netflix etc!

Speaking of which, there was (and probably still is) a social divide between the officers and NCOs - it dictated to a large extent who you socialised with and even where you were allowed to go at times.

Yes! The horror when some of the Squadron discovered that we (my dad was a senior NCO) used to go on holiday with the Wing Commander... It was meant to be a secret but I was in the holiday photos that his wife shared around the wives club, riding roller coasters with him because his own daughter was too nervous. After that, they stopped hiding it but apparently some people really disapproved.

I used to love the Christmas parties. At Trenchard when I was there, Father Christmas used to land in a Chinook and for the Squadron Christmas parties, he'd arrive in whatever they flew. So at Gütersloh, it was always a Harrier.

We were in Menden near Dortmund until the late 70s.
I don’t remember much as I was no older than 10 when we moved back to the UK

I do remember dry slope skiiing, and picnics.
The family car into the 80s was a Polski Fiat (probably a 125) These were copies of Fiats made in Poland under licence - and look very similar to Ladas
Cheap & cheerful - perfect for a young family of 4

Wonderful memories. Our situation was different in that both my brother and I were in boarding school in England. Also, DF was on the NATO side of things and associated with Campbell Barracks, which was mostly Americans.

With respect to day trips, we often did those (rare) trips in a group, in our case often with American kids. I was always surprised at how outgoing and confident they were, compared to us. I was surprised that so many of the American kids spoke such good German. Later, I found that many of the Americans had local family (married German women and were settling there, kids speaking German). The UK was such a grim and economically poor at the time.

We were posted to Gutersloh mid-80's, great days out to Stukenbrock theme park, swimming in the Feldmarksee at Sassenberg, to the Mohne Dam - you could still see a large 'V' of newer stonework, plus holidays to Cochem am dem Mosel and Holzminden on the river Weser. Fabulous!

I am in full nostalgia mode! Born in Rinteln, lived in Celle, Paderborn, Soltau and Munster until I was 10. My favourite place was Heide Park 😄

I remember having to check under the car for devices, and my dad having to be in civvies when we left the camp (first in our Datsun and then in our VW Sirocco which I loved!). Most of our time as kids was spent roaming around the camp, assault courses etc or sitting outside the Mess with crisps and a fizzy drink while our parents drank. My mum had 3 degrees but wasn’t allowed to work an admin role becaose my dad wasn’t an officer, so she worked in the NAAFI and in the burger van that went round the camp, and in school holidays she’d take me and my brother with her. I remember it as a fun, carefree time where there was always a friend to play with.

Lovely to read those posts! I was in Frankfurt back in May, and went down to Heidelberg over the weekend. Way too many tourists in Altstadt, but it was interesting to see the developments in the barracks area (not all for the best I think). I also got to visit the New Synagogue and meet an old friend of my wonderful stepmother. It's amazing how temporary those groups of people and circumstances were. As a teenager I thought it was forever. I was rushing for time, and am determined to go back in the next year or two for a longer time, do some cycling, walking, etc.

@Skade My stepmother was a nurse (midwife) but could not work there. She spoke fluent German and worked in a legal practice as admin, but hated it 😕

My grandparents were in Jordan from 84-87