HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1969-09-11, Page 22••,
10A GODERICH SIGN AL -STAR,, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1969
Holiday,..-,Persion- style By Lorna Vincent
(Part 111)
Ashrars handsome young
cousin arrived in the afternoon
to discover us sipping 'whiskey
and soda like a couple of female
alcoholics. We explained that we
scarcely ever indulged at such an
hour, but this wasthe result of
hardship and sleepless nights. He
suggested taking us for a drive to,
which we hap -pity agreed.
Abadan grew up. around the big
oil refinery: An unpleasant smell
lingers in the air. There is
nothing unusual to see but the
process of oil refining. The
bazaar, though fairly large,
contains junky displays and
shoddy wares. The foreign
colony is served by a big
company store where they may
buy a great variety of imported
goods. The Iranian employees of
the oil company have been
supplied .with small neat houses
, of two and three rooms
according to the family's size.
The entire city has a look of
neatness and order, but without
beauty or artistry. Every
building seems purely
functional.
We visited the .oil company's
guest house on the river bank.
The spacious lawns and tall trees
look across the water to Iraq.
Some of the guests sat in
comfortable swings, others in
garden • chairs. The modern
building is spacious,
w'ell-furnished and
English -looking: a nice spot for a
quiet rest from the noise of a big
city. We left the guest house to
walk along a path on the river
bank. Two freighters were
anchored in midstream. On the
other side, the shores 9f Iraq
stood silent and bare. It was
difficult to realize that this.quiet
river had created a dispute
between the two small nations
on either side.
Ashraf told me of sharks that
swim far up the river from -the
Persian Gulf. During the past
year, an Ara b mother dipped her
small child in the river to give it
a bath, but suddenly it was
snatched silently beneath the
• surface and carried away.
Bathing, here is not allowed,
except at one's own risk.
That evening, the men joined
us for dinner at the oil company
prestaurant. We enjoyed the clean
surroundings, the north
American .atmosphere, and the
best food we had tasted in Iran.
For visitors, there was nothing
to do in Abadan. The people
who live- there take their -
recreation in club activities arid
the cinema.
After dinner, We all returned
to the doctor's apartment. He
played the mandolin and sang
folk songs. The railway official
demonstrated a Persian • dance
with graceful movement. I
joined him until I became out of
breath. We all tried a simple folk.
dance to Persian music, then the
doctor taught us the rudiments
of the cha cha cha. Thus the
evening passed quickly in
laughter ana good fellowship.
The men left for their various
abodes, and we settled down at
last to a heavnly sleep on a
„comfortable bed. In the
morning, the doctor rejoined us
for breakfast, then Asha and I
were left to while away the day
in leisurely walking, reading and
chit-chat. I had never travelled
se far and seen so little that
impressed me. •
Next, day 'We returned to
Khorramshar for lunch at the
Railway Club. Mr. B. and the
official escorted us to a dingy
dining room where the tables
were covered with orange and
red tablecloths. Two huge and
hideous paintings stared at us
from both walls. A waiter placed
in the centre of our table a big
ty
7,7 "
at • "
Wallets
Camel Bags
Coin Purses
Jewellery
Hasty -Notes
Place -Mats
Braided Mats
Hooked Rugs
Carvings
Candles
Quilts
Pot -Holders
HiifrPads•
Coasters
Aprons
Belts
Knitted Toys „
Wood -Turnings
Pottery
„Embroidery
- PLUS- Cr'ziffeir
items from
Spain
India
Russia
Dermiark
Sweden
Greece
Morocco
Portugal
England
platter bearing, what looked
like, a mountain of rice. He
followed this with another
platter of tough stringy thicken,
and even tougher kebab. While
we were testing our teeth on
these unappetizing morsels, a
large bowl of coarse salad greens,
which might have been discarded °
by a flock of sheep, appeared
before us. My appetite fled, and
I could not eat anything but a
little rice followed by a
rubberish jellied dessert. We
were overjoyed to get back to.
Abadan that evening and eat in
the good restanrant.
The following day, Ashraf
and 1, bade farewell to our
charming host who left us to
perform five operations at the
hospital that morning. We
lunched by ourselves, then
looked for a taxi to pick up our
bags at the apartment. We found
t.hat policemen anti soldiers lined
the roadways, and that traffic
had been rerouted. The Shah
was expected to arrive at the
Abadan airport within the hour.
When finally we found a cab, it
took us one half hour to drive
three blocks by a circuitous.
route and to find the apartment
again. .
The taxi crawled along the
highway in heavy traffic. Many
people had gathered on either
side, and the school children in
freshly laundered Uniforms held
their flags at the ready. We
passed through brightly
decorated and flower garlanded
arches at every intersection. AS
night, colored lights would be
gleaming along the river bank,
their reflections mirrored in the
water.
We had the same trouble
getting across to Khorramshar in
those awkward boats. I hadn't
learned to board them with any
digniti. But we did finally arrive
at the railway station with
nothing worse than split seams
on our skirts.
On the homeward journey,
we took ordinary first-class
instead of deluxe, in an effort to
avoid the deep-freeze treatment.
But it was not clean, and the
toilets were the most revolting I
have ever experienced.
;The homeward ride in an old
coach was really rough, and we
bounced up and down merrily in
our seats until we felt dizz.y and
exhausted. Finally, the porter
brought us a' sheet and pillow
the color of jube water, and they
smelfe'd\ just as musty, but since
the three of us were again
sharing a compartment, we slept
in our clothing. However, this
accommodation was good
compared to the first night of
our journey home when we
stayed over,.,in Ahwaz, a city in
the middle of the desert where
Mr. B. had railway business to
- negotkate.
As the city lacked. an
acceptable hotel, we were taken
to the Railway Club where they
informed usthat only one room
was available, and the three of us
would have to share it. Our faces
dropped when we saw the
depressing place with spotty
grey walls, threadbare carpet and
dirty curtain's. They brought in a
.third bed for Mr. B. but all of
them had sway backs. The
mattresses -alternated between
holes and hard lumps, the flat
pillow felt like a board with
knots and the sheets were dark
grey. The toilet was at the end
of a long dark hallway. The door
had lio lock and it woUld have
been easy to follow one's nose
there.
To take our minds off these
depressing surroundings, Ashraf
looked up a Persian friend who
took us to a nice club for dinner,
after which we saw a film about
a mechanical monster a brilliant
scientist had created. This plus
the other conditions assured us
of a sleepless night.
We again settled down
without removing our clothing/
•
The Waxworks
CANDLES and CRAFTS
Adjacent to,Riverside Park by the
Upper Dam in Wingham
Home of the most interesting
collection of selected Hand-
crafted items from Western
Canada and around
the world.
PLAN A TRIP TO WINGHAM
THIS SUMMER FOR A VISIT TO
THE WAXWORKS BOUTIQUE.
YOU'LL -BE GLAD YOU DO.
THE WAXWORKS
BOUTIQUE
CANDLES AND CRAFTS
20 Water Street - Wingham
(Department of
Estate Marketing Services)
When Mr. B. stretched his
Mountainous frame on the awful
bed, which didn't seem to
bother him in the least,
tremendous snores like an army
of men sawing wood arose and
reverberated from the ceilirtg.
After about two hours, Ashraf
and 1 were on the verge, of a
nervous cellapse. - While
dissolved into helpless giggling,
he got up and pounded Mr. B.
until she awakened him. After
explaining that his snores not
only kept , us awake but
endangered, our reason, he
merelyjemarked, "W,hat the hell
woman, go back to bed," and he
resumed snoring even louder
than ever. We spent the rest of
the night alternately talking 'and
laughing to keep up our spirits.
The cold, grey, but welcome
dawn, . arrived at last and we
dragged our aching bodies from
the holes in our mattresses and
groped our way about the room.
What we' had already seen of
Ahwaz convinced us that there
was nothing on -eat interest here.
Ashraf and I decided that a walk
to the bazaar might help to
repair some of the night's
damage to our nervous systems.
We crossed the long bridge to
the other side of the wide,
shallow river. The brilliant
sunshine warmed our aching
bones and helped to loosen our
gravelly eyelids, but the bazaar
was junkier and more
uninteresting than the one in
Abadan. After traversing many
dusty blocks, and looking at the
trashy merchandise of dozens of
tiny shops, we hailed a taxi and
returned to the club -pension. It
had, at least, a rather pleasant
though unkempt garden. We
settled ,on a sunny corner of the
terrace and ordered tea. Ahwaz
couldbe written off 'a.s a dusty,
drab city, struggling •to look
modern in' the middle ,Of the
desert.
Mr. B. returned from his
businessappointment and
announced that we were going
to the Park Hotel for lunch. At
last, we thought, we shall enjoy
a more pleasant atmosphere.
However, when the taxi stopped
at a square, austere building with
its entrance off the sidewalk, I
couldn't believe that it was the
right place. We entered a dark,
greasy -looking dining room with
a dirty tile floor and crowded
atmosphere. J lot of unkempt
male characters were slouched at
various tables. A sloppily dressed
head waiter asked if we. would
like to go through to the garden.
We followed him in silence to a
back terrace overlooking a
wee.d-.choked plot of. ground
with a few ragged palm trees and
wandering vines. Dusty tables
Were crowded together
undbmeath.
We .chose, a cleaner looking
table on the terrace and gave Our
orders from a spotty menu.
After an interminable time, the
waiter returned with a huge
platter piled high with greasy
rice, tough meat and slabs of
bread a meal not to
remember. When we again
returned to the Railway Club, it
seemed like coming from a flop
house to a well-bred ,mansion.
Hordes of workmen were busily
preparing the garden and
finishing an auditorium to
receiv.e within the following days
His Majesty', the Shah. A great
iron arch with colored lights was
being moved to the entrance of
the garden. Gardeners were
raking up the dead leaves and
painting around the pool, but no
one was paying the least
attention to those dingy
bedrooms with soiled walls and
•
peeling paint, which housed the
guests. The Shah wouldn't be
seeing that part of the building.
His reception would be held in
the gaudily -painted new
waditorium which had been
literally thrown together for the
occasion. What would it matter
--if the building fell to pieces
within a year, their Shah would
have been impressed at the time
by their accomplishment.
How glad we were to board
the train at last, even though we
again slept in our clothes. We
arrived in Tehran the next
morning unkempt and
exhausted. The revolting toilets
on this coach had left me
nauseated.
I had always thought of
Tehran as a city "to be endured
rather than enjoyed, but when I
alighted from the train cold and
weary, I looked at the city with
new respect and a semblance of
warmth in my, heart.
This had been a trip to end all
trips in Iran. When my husband
unlocked the door of our bright,
clean apartment, it looked to me
like paradise regained.
ae •
*A'
'014°
.•
Attendance was good 'for the Goderich Industrial League Fastball
Tournament:held Labor Day weekend with teams from Owen
Sound, London, Holmesville, Goderich, Varna, Exeter and Zurich
BEWARE FRIENDLY ANIMAL$
When a wild °animal
approaches humans and appears
to be tame, it is probably
suffering from rabies. Its bite
can cause illness or death.'
W. 1 Denomme
FLOWER
SHOP
1,h0no
8132
DAY
OR
NIGHT
Agont' for 24 -hr.
FMDEVELOPING
sfi
taking part. Holmesville was the overall winner. This is to be an
annual event. —Staff Photo.
Ask for this booklet.
It tells how
you may obtain
an IDB loan
to assist in starting,
modernizing or
expanding your
busines.
INDUSTRIAL
• DEVELOPMENT BANK
TERM FINANCING FOR CANADIAN BUSINESSES
,LONDON, ONT.: 291 Dundas Street — Telephone: 438-8363
idb
INDUSTRIAL
DEVELOPMENT BANK
A SOURCE OF FINANCING
FOR
CANADIAN BUSINESS
=4-
1',
13
Natural. Gas keeps things cooking right along,
seven days a week.
alteitiitattheCOlontL,
Colonel Sanders serves up
tat' fried .chicken and appetizing.
salads at over 50 different loca-
tions in South•Western Ontario.
That's around Tive million
pounds of chicken every year •
And natural -gas plays a very
moortant role in helping him
;;!erise•the palates of tholisancis'of
huisgry custon-)e.rs • ,
Natural gas helps Fun, as the
heat energy source for his cus-
tom-built cooking pots .(Oils used
I n his famous frying process must
be maintained at a precise temper-
ature and the.Colonel finds natural
gas heat completely dependable.)
He likes the ease of conflol and
instant reponsiven-ess of natural
gas, too With the thousands of
customer S he serves in a day, his
cookery must run efficiently.
The Colonel doesn't lirrrit his
use of natural gas to cooking.
either
It heats all 'his water for normal
use
And natural gas provides his
Outlets'with clean, modem, sh-
air heat No mean task in the
middle of winter when his doorS
are forever opening and closing.
Isn't it about time you got cook-
ing with natural gas? Or heating
your water with it Or heating
Union Gas
TOTAL ENERGY FOR TOTAL COMFORT
your office or factory or store or
'hdme with it?
You don't need 50., different
retail locations to make natural
gas make sense for ybu.
One quick chat with your gas
company representative or heating
contractor will tell you how eco-
nomical it is to install and maintain.
Just ask the Colonel. Hell tell
'you he's never had it so finger
lickin' good.
e
•
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c‘.
ATTENTION
home owners
If you are located on the same
side of the street as a gas line
which was installed prior to
April 1, 19613 and you change
to a natural gas central heating
system from another fuel between
now and September 30, 1§69
011
may qualify for
a $50
ALLOWANCE
or...
A completely
installed charmglow
AS-'
LAMP
And if yogi install a new automatic
gas water heater at the same time
as you convert to your natural gas
central heating system as stated
above in lieu of the fdregoing offer
You_marreceivean
ALLOWANCE of
$50 plus
2YEAR'S'
FREE
RENTAL
on the Gas Water
HeaterItr•-• •
ee
•
•
•
•
0
•
•
6
A $100
ALLOWANCE
".See your _heating
corttractOr, department store
or Call .1Thibn Gas Company.
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