Monday, May 11, 2009

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Harmon Village-1965?

We lived in Harmon Village from around 1960 through 1968. We were there during Typhoon Karen in 1962 which removed over half of Lower Harmon.

I remember playing in the boonies, the bomb shelters (did you go in them during typhoons? I remember one in 67 or 68.

It really is too bad there is not even any pictures of the bomb shelters although I can't imagine anything taking them out. When we lived there the boonies were growing on the sandbags and they were disappearing, but still there and still safe during typhoons (well the water got a bit high but the men would bring beds in)

We were the Braffets-five kids. We surely played together. My parents were high school teachers. For a while we lived in Agana boat basin on the trimaran my father built.

Interesting reading your 2007 blog entries.

Chris

12 comments:

DRL said...

We moved there in '71
I loved Harmon, we lived in the quonset hut area. We could walk or ride our bikes to two lovers leap, or NCS beach.

It is amazing how many of us hauleis started there.

juliet said...

Hi Chris, My family came in 1968 but we never lived in Harmon. That is an interesting addition to our information reagarding early days on Guam. Thanks for the info about the bomb shelters, I had never heard of them before.

Joanna said...

That was interesting. Did you know boys with the last name Branch or their parents and grandparents?

Dave said...

Our family moved to Guam in 1965. We started out in a quanset hut in harmon village also. I remember the bomb shelters and riding my bike all over the vilage, roaming free as a little kid. Everything was lush and green and tropical. What a cool place to live. A lot of memories are still there in the jungle.

juliet said...

Did anyone ever track down my old friend Mark Stotts. I know his family lived over there around that time. I ate Thanksgiving dinner there once when we were all in elementary school. I know he lives in Hawaii and was working at a place called "Aunti Pestos". Dave is your brother Chris still active.

illustrationISM.... said...

     I remember we would take the 'short-cut' through Harmon Strip and dodge the pot-holes - we'd pop out by JFK or the FOREMOST plant....the Guam Flea market was there for a while in the mid-late 70's...
     i don't remember the quanset area, BUT those other Harmon/strip memories...every once and a while there would be a bad car accident on the news that happened there...
     i remember one time, early saturday morning, dad and i parked on the up-side of Barrigada Hill and walked down to the harmon strip flea-market, there was a huge rain puddle at the entrance of the market and dad jumped on the bumper of a truck that was going through it and broke off the back bumper! The driver didn't notice and we faded into the crowd of the flea-market!!!

DRL said...

Now these are the memories we are here for. Hu, Juls.

Mark, I think you are thinking of Harmon Field, the old airport. No, Harmon village was between two lovers leap and NCS beach. On one side was the quonset huts, the other was the newer (probably the 50's) square houses. But that is one funny story about breaking off the bumper of a pickup truck. I had an old B210 that we were scared to open the hatch back for fear of the window falling through. The old Guam Bomb.

I don't remember names very well, but anyone remember the man that was building the airplane next to his house? He offered us a ride when it got done. I never was the brightest bulb on the marque, but even then, I didn't wasn't to ride an airplane built in someones yard.

illustrationISM.... said...

AH SO DESU-KA! Yes, yes.
Harmon Village was between Marine Drive
(turn by Teen Challenge) and Lovers Leap.

DRL said...

Yea Mark, das da won!!!

Jar da memory.

Anonymous said...

I remember the way Mark did, thinking Harmon village was the Harmon cut through. Remember all the tents when the Vietnamese came after the ending of the Vietnam war?

Ric Larson said...

I loved Harmon Village! Oh what memories! What I remember most was exploring those old Marine Quonset huts in the boonies. I remember some of them still had the sand bags (then petrified) around them.

One of my dreams in life is to venture back to Guam (how about it Sean and DRL) to explore that area. From viewing “Google Earth”, the area is swamped by boonies now. But I am certain that there must be some remnants of those old Quonset huts in the boondocks.

Rod said...

I was there! We moved to Guam in
'68, and lived in the "upscale"area,known as Cliffline..Just before Harmon Village..We had a luxury Quonset hut, and I too remember the bomb shelters all over the area..Those
2"steel doors were a bear to open/close.. They made great places to hang out and learn to smoke at, when you were 8!!!