The book: “Confessions of an Overseas Brat,” is stylish, accurate, and a lot of fun to read! Ronald Walker grew up as a Military Brat mostly in Madrid, Spain, and in other exotic locations in Europe during the late sixties and early seventies: a time of great political, social, and artistic upheaval of all kinds.
The keywords for Ron’s generation were: sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll, and Ron and his cronies explored all of it fully! For me personally, one of the most entertaining stories is about the time that he, his brother and a buddy named Andy made a trip to Morocco with Ron’s father during a school vacation. Besides getting a chance to visit this wonderful and ancient country, the boys had one express intention: to buy and smuggle back into Spain a kilo of high-quality Moroccan hashish. Ron’s father, of course, knew nothing about this caper. All went well, with no problems developing at customs, but the story was one with edge-of-the-seat anticipation all the way through!
He recounts all kinds of very diverse adventures in this marvelous book—from his first explorations into the hormone-driven world of the teenager, to watching the Beatles perform live at the Bullring in Madrid and how that experience changed his life, to working with some brilliant teachers in high school, to spending a brief time in jail, to camping on an island in the middle of Frankfurt, Germany after spending a summer among the hippies in Amsterdam. He held numerous unusual jobs which included a time spent working as a “carnie” on the Midway in Myrtle Beach and elsewhere, and later working briefly for a circus in Holland, among many others. These are just a few examples of the exciting adventures and experiences that he describes in great detail. And Ron really got around, having opportunities that few American youths had available to them.
Ron has done a splendid job of capturing the essence of life during this most exciting of times. He has also conveyed very clearly what it was like to be a “boy without a country,” an experience many military brats share. The feelings of rootlessness, restlessness, and lack of a sense of clear national identity are very common for the children of military personnel who move often. Friendships are hard to form and sustain, when everyone is moving around all the time. Ron actually did a far better job at maintaining friendships than many “brats” do, because he was a very loyal friend who really made an effort to stay in touch with his compadres.
As the book progresses, Ron proves himself to be a kind, sincere, generous, curious, and trustworthy person—with a very appealing and consistent character—someone whom anyone might like to know better.
By Marguerite Wainio
—author of “The Horses Are Running”
