"As far back as I can remember the fundamental rule of life was to never walk along a street when an alley was available. The alleys of Dhahran offered so many advantages that Milt and I could never figure why the adults didn’t use them too."
"Life moves on, but so too does remorse. Contemplating our crime I began to think that Milt and I had done a great service to Aramco. Now all the radios would be more secure, or at least the windows rolled up and the truck doors locked."
"I’m fairly certain that there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. I can only plead not guilty on the grounds that it seemed like the thing to do at the time. Actually it is much better to think of this story as entirely a work of fiction, and any resemblance to anything that happened in Dhahran during the summer of 1964 is entirely coincidental."
"In retrospect, I’d have to say that Aramco’s school system was superb. The company was fully committed to education even though it was very costly. I admit that I didn’t always pay attention to my teachers, but a few of them made a big difference in my life."
"With the end of World War II Aramco was finally able to ramp up production and start shipping a decent volume of oil after waiting a dozen years for a chance to get a return on the investment of tens of millions of dollars sunk into the Arabian venture since 1933."
"May 1st, 1939, Saudi Arabia shipped its first tanker load of crude oil to join the ranks of oil exporting nations. Aside from the initial discovery of oil at Dammam #7, this was the most historic moment in the company’s history. Nine weeks later, seventy five years ago today, disaster struck and changed the company forever."
"It was the summer of 1964. Smith and I were 17, working as apprentice divers for the freshly established Al Gossaibi Diving Services, the brain child of the legendary Dee McVey. Dee had been the lead diver and manager of undersea operations for all of Bechtel’s offshore projects since the mid-fifties."
Close Call at Jabal Shamaal - Part 1
"Smith is in the hospital. Despite half a summer spent in the sun, he's as pale as a Norwegian in winter. Beneath his sweaty brow and coke-bottle Buddy Holly glasses, an oxygen mask obscures the rest of his face. He's got double-pneumonia at least, the doctors are frightened that he might have a virulent variation of Valley Fever."
Close Call at Jabal Shamaal - Part 2
"In Part One we made camp at the top of Jebel Shamaal and then descended to the mountain’s base to plink bottles and rusty cans in the desert. On the way back up the hill to camp, a classic pellet gun war erupted with the usual disastrous results that your mother always warned you about."
"It was November 18th, 1978. Two years earlier I had started a video electronics business in Jeddah that serviced video equipment, installed closed-circuit TV systems in hotels, hospitals, and compounds, and distributed the only legitimate video programming in a country awash in bootleg videos."
"Milt and I are hunkered in the oleander bushes along the side yard of my house in Dhahran talking about how to blow up Soviet tanks in Budapest."
Tim Barger Publishes "Dhahran Fables: Fiesta Room Tales"
"In the late 1940s and early 1950s Dhahran, Saudi Arabia was a bare-bones oil town in the middle of nothing but desert, a very different place then the Dhahran of today. There were no trees or lawns, no radio or television, and few amenities beyond the recreation center."
"In the early fifties, Aramco began an intensive effort to combat the number one public enemy in the Eastern Province, the fly. A massive mosquito eradication program had been very effective in reducing the incidence of malaria in the region, but DDT alone wasn’t enough to reduce the fly population. What was required was a change in public behavior."
"With Lou Reed’s passing and so many people discussing his impact on the contemporary culture of the 60s I can’t help but to remember the first time I ever heard the Velvet Underground. It was in Dhahran when I was 19."
"Tim Barger’s collection of stories about his years growing up in Aramco are a study in impaired judgment and poor impulse control - yet they are entirely recognizable to any of us who lived in a place where you woke up to the muezzin and went to lunch at the whistle."
75 Years Ago Today - The Kingdom Changes
"Seventy-five years ago today, Casoc, now Saudi Aramco, had its first customer for a tanker-load of oil. If the company had been a mom and pop bakery, they would have proudly framed that first dollar bill."
"Until 1953 it was legal for Americans to drink alcohol within their compounds. HM King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud granted this privilege to the oilmen in appreciation of their heroic efforts to extinguish the runaway oil fire at Dammam #12 in the summer of 1939."
"In the mid-1970s if there had been an institution of higher learning such as Harvard, Oxford or the Sorbonne that hosted an advanced degree in Automotive Survival there is little doubt that doctorates would have required not only a learned thesis, but also a 90-day residency in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – a hands-on tutorial in a turbulent driving environment that was part pinball machine, part bumper cars, and always a game of cat and mouse."
"There were a lot of pick-up trucks available, though the Japanese models were too compact for me, and I wanted a back seat. The vehicles most closely to what we now call a SUV were the Chevy Blazer and the Toyota Land Cruiser, but they were new and pricey."
Driving Riyadh - King of the Wadi
"Hamud finished his pitch, and I was about to take the jeep for a spin when the call to evening prayer sounded and the din of the arena began to settle. I pulled out a thousand riyals deposit and said I’d return tomorrow with a friend to check out the mechanicals and close the deal."
"We’ve all gone to school for endless years but it’s rare to remember a certain day when you actually learned two things. In 1952, I went to Dhahran Kindergarten in the portable that later became the infamous Teen Canteen. In First grade, I went to the portable close by that eventually became the Hobby Shop. What a great place. Anyone could come in and use all this marvelous equipment: drill presses, table saws, grinders, belt sanders and the like."
Sleigh Bells Ring in 1952 - Watch the Video!
"It was the winter of 1952. Aramco had just produced its 300 millionth barrel of oil. The Administration building was so new that the parking lot is still unpaved."
"I’m about eight and have ten riyals to buy Christmas presents for my family. No problem. The morning of Christmas Eve, I go to the canteen next to the mail center in the holiday spirit."
"In Part One, eight-year-old Tim has set out on Christmas Eve morning to buy Christmas presents for his family at Aramco's canteen which is situated in a green portable next to the mail center."
"By the early 1950s, the extravagant waterskiing shows at places like Cypress Gardens in Florida had ignited a rage for waterskiing that swept the nation."
"There is stupid, and then there is another category even dumber than stupid. At seventeen, I was pretty much the poster child for beyond stupid though it wasn’t entirely my fault."
Girl Scout Cookies Arrive in Arabia
"In 1950, the Girl Scout Cookie sale came to Saudi Arabia for the first time. In the photograph below, fourteen-year-old Mariner, Louise Snyder of Stamford, Connecticut, gives cartons of cookies to her father, L.M. Snyder, Vice-President of Arabian American Oil Company, to deliver to the Girl Scouts in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 9000 miles away."
"After I graduated from college, I worked in film and TV for six years before I returned to Arabia in January of 1974 to start up the television department at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. I was one of the first 20 American employees, and the hospital was still being built when I arrived."
"I’ll call him Clark Randall. At 18, he volunteered for the Army. In early 1945, he went through basic training and was sent to Ft. Ord in Monterey to be trained as a diesel mechanic. He barely finished his training before the war ended and he was mustered out."
"The radio just now played the song Tequila by The Champs and carried me back to a much earlier time - 1958. The new Dhahran school had just been built on 3rd Street and I lived on 11th Street which unveiled all kinds of opportunities for an unsupervised lifestyle."
"There was a housewife in Abqaiq in the beginning – 1950 or so. Her husband was one of the best, if not the best, driller that ever operated out of Abqaiq. He was in the desert making Aramco rich and she was in their house newly-built in a patch of desert scraped off flat with a bulldozer."
"Willard Drumm was a senior Aramco executive through the 50s into the 60s. In his work he travelled to most of the company’s sites and installations in the kingdom, ranging from the Rub Al-Khali to the offshore field at Sufaniya."
"Fortunately for us, Willard was an enthusiastic, accomplished photographer. Thanks to him we have this fine collection of color pictures that truly capture the people of Aramco and the places of Arabia from 60 years ago."
"In 1958 Willard flew over the countless dunes of the Rub’ Al-Khali to visit the preparations for the company’s first drill site right in the middle of this enormous desert known as The Empty Quarter."
"It’s not a parade without a marching band and majorettes high stepping down King’s Road. After WW II, the camp put on a parade and big event every 4th of July."
"Deflating the tires of a Dodge Power Wagon for driving through soft sand. Painted cherry red, this crew cab wagon was, even then, rare in Aramco’s fleet. In today’s most complimentary sense of the word … it’s one cherry ride."
"Doug Strader was a lanky sixth grader who lived on the next block. Our families were close friends, so even though I was a fourth grader— if there weren’t any of his peers around— he’d mentor me on the finer points of sophisticated behavior."
Walking the Plank in Old Jubail
"Who can forget those fantastic dhow trips out to the islands? I particularly remember the ones I went on before they turned Jubail into a super-port - when was that? Somewhere before 1980, I would guess. Back then, Jubail was just a little fishing port and the dock for the fishing dhows was quite tiny and set behind a group of old custom buildings."
"Growing up in Dhahran in the 1950s without television and barely radio the movies were everything, our only link with the outside world. Three movies a week with a rerun on Thursday, as kids we’d go to pretty much anything that was playing. Even if the feature was some unfathomable drama about thwarted love, boundless ambition or existential trauma in 1950s America, we’d go just for the pre-show filler."
"A couple of weeks ago I first saw this photograph of me standing with my two grandchildren. Bea is six and Theo is three. They are lively, bright, funny and, unlike most of society, actually enjoy my company. They are positive proof of the wise old adage, “If I knew how much fun my grandkids would be, I would have had them first.”"
"Readers of my various stories will know by now that I have a fondness for special techniques. The planning and tactics I applied at the age of six to procure grape-flavored Jello from the highest cabinet in the kitchen was perfectly executed only to end in ruin."
"Half Moon Bay! What can I say? Living in 1950s Aramco, it was paradise. Not as much for the Ras Tanurans who lived at the beach, but for those of us in Dhahran living on the rocky jabal or the citizens of Abqaiq, planted deep within a vast sand dune field thirty miles from the coast, Half Moon Bay spelled happiness."
"Think ahead. Be prepared. Always have a plan B. These are the kind of concepts that my dad tried to pound in my head, and probably your parents too. How hard could it be to remember them? The first two consist of only two words. Pithy, sound advice, except that when you are 17 who needs advice?"
"For some unknown reason, throughout my life, various circumstances have led me into unusual situations. Perhaps the drummer I was marching to played Stockhausen on the snares, but it began early in life. I was born in Dhahran in 1947 where I lived at 1134 Hamilton House..."
"As a child growing up in Dhahran in the early 1950s, I had an unrequited obsession with sugar – the more the better. At the time, the Dhahran commissary didn’t have much beyond Droste chocolate and O’Henry bars, Khobar had even less to offer. Hard candies and hopelessly expired candies from England such as Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles..."
"It’s amazing how far the attitude towards smoking has changed in 50 years. In the 1950s I remember going with my mother to the doctor and after my exam, the two of them would be smoking like fiends as they discussed my current affliction awhile."
"In the 1970s the airports in Saudi Arabia were actually near their cities. Dhahran International was at the airbase a few miles from camp. The Riyadh and Jeddah airports were right in town with their entrances just off the street. After the price of oil quadrupled in 1973 Riyadh was awash in Petrodollars and deluged with thousands of businessmen, contractors, experts, carpet baggers and schemers from all over the world..."
"In 1964 on yet another misguided adventure, my great friend Ben Michaels, his older brother Roger and I decided it would be a great idea to walk to Ras Tanura. We ate a giant dinner at the Dining Hall and set off with one water bottle. The first 10 miles are a breeze as we march through the desert into the dusk."
"On May 1st 1939 King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud inaugurated the first tanker load of Saudi oil at Ras Tanura, two months later the well being drilled at Dammam #12 exploded into a blazing inferno killing five Americans and Saudis. Burning eight thousand barrels of oil a day, the well was lost but if the blowout continued the whole field was threatened because it might lose reservoir pressure so that the oil would have to be pumped out at great expense."
"It all began in September 28th, 1933. The geologists Bert Miller and Krug Henry pitched their tents on the edge of what was then known as the Dammam Dome and established the site called Dhahran."
Desert Explorers: Part 1 of Distant Arabia
"We invite you to enjoy part 1 of the 12 part Distant Arabia video series. The majority of the film clips are comprised of films taken in Saudi Arabia between 1937 and 1940 by Tom Barger, Les Snyder and Jerry Harriss. They are among the few moving pictures that record that critical and brief moment in the country's history when an ancient pastoral way of life was coming to an abrupt end, to be replaced by an industrial society."
Pearl Diving in the Gulf - 1938: Part 2 of Distant Arabia
"We invite you to enjoy part 2 of the 12 part Distant Arabia video series. Next to dates, pearls were the biggest business in Al Hasa. Though the boom days of the 20s were long gone due to the Depression and the introduction of cultured pearls there was still a sizeable fleet."
May 1st, 1939: Part 3 of Distant Arabia
"Distant Arabia part 3 - May 1st, 1939: Six years after the oil concession was signed the first tanker load of oil was shipped at Ras Tanura on this date. King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud arrived to celebrate the occasion. The tanker D.G. Scofield awaits offshore."
Bahrain in 1938: Part 4 of Distant Arabia
"Distant Arabia part 4 - Bahrain in 1938 In 1938, Bahrain was the undisputed commercial center of the Gulf. Its suqs were the best stocked of any place between Basra and Bombay. In contrast, the Bedouin of Al Hasa lived a simple life in tents and dependent on their camels."
Well Fire at Number 12: Part 5 of Distant Arabia
"Well #12 was down to 4,725 feet and cemented in when on July 8, 1939 while preparing to perforate the casing, the perforating gun accidentally discharged setting off a conflagration that destroyed the rig and took the lives of five drillers - two American and three Saudis."
Bahrain Holiday 1938: Part 6 of Distant Arabia
"Oil men from Dhahran travel to Bahrain for a weekend. They visit the suq, the vast artesian wells of the island and then assemble for a demonstration of Bahraini stick fighting. The agricultural workers were prohibited from owning weapons so much like the Japanese practitioners of Kendo..."
Jeddah 1953 and to the Iraqi Border with King Saud: Part 7 of Distant Arabia
"Produced from film shot by Aramcon George Mandis, this video opens with scenes of a Jeddah that would be all but unrecognizable to residents of the city today if for no other reason than the virtual lack of automobile traffic."
Gymkhana in Saudi Arabia: Part 8 of Distant Arabia
"Filmed by Aramcon Dean Cantrell in the mid-60s this clip opens with a mare and her filly. At 0:20 riders from the Hobby Farm pass in a 4th of July parade. At 0:26 is Sher Lyn Cruise, followed by Lynn Martin, Patricia Dixon..."
Out in the Blue: Part 9 of Distant Arabia
"In this clip excerpted with permission from the documentary The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power based on the book of the same name by Daniel Yergin, the story of Tom Barger’s first journey to Saudi Arabia is related through his movies and letters."
Authentic Whirling Dervishes: Part 10 of Distant Arabia
"Filmed by Aramco Brat and Aramcon Doug Webb at the ancient Sufi school in Aleppo, Syria during a visit in the mid-80s, this video is a crowd-pleaser. The dervishes dance to a drum accompaniment that is centuries old."
Dhahran in the Summer of 1965: Part 11 of Distant Arabia
"Filmed by Peter Benjamin, this film shows the familiar landmarks of Dhahran beginning with the Gateway to Safety. The Mail Center is seen at 0:33, the commissary at 0:48, followed by the Ad Building and the Dining Hall. At 1:11 the scene cuts to the Swimming Pool and the returning students lounging in the sun."
Tim was an incredible storyteller and we are thankful to have had the opportunity to share his collection of stories with the Aramco ExPats community.
Tim passed away in 2018. Read his obituary.