My roommate there (in the Mother House) was a woman from Abqaiq Camp named Rosemary Gushue (Mrs. John Gushue). When I arrived, she had been in the annex long enough to see two women, expecting their first babies, come and go.
The company did not allow anyone but personnel to travel on their plane, but Dhahran was a commercial airport for TWA, KLM, BOAC, and several other large, well-known lines. The round trip plane ticket would average around $1000, varying with the season and place of purchase.
All the celebrating wasn’t over yet. To start the New Year off right, we went to a dinner party for only “people from Texas” on January 1. The host & hostess were one of Oran’s bosses and his wife from Bandera, Texas, Walt & Daisy Mayfield.
Oran had been back in Arabia long enough to warrant his short leave or vacation, which every employee could go on once a year. We had decided to go to Beirut, Lebanon, so at 1:30 a.m. on November 14, 1951, we flew out of the Dhahran Airport aboard a KLM airplane for a two week local vacation.
On Saturday, July 21, 1951, Charlotte & I decided to take our first trip out of camp to Al-Khobar, the port town near the airport, where many things from other countries can be purchased.
For the first time I was all alone the next day, Thursday, June 7, 1951, as Oran went back to work in the Refinery. He was on day shift from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m., so we were up at 6 a.m. It was like waking up in the middle of the night, but since he was home so early, we had time to eat and go someplace before going to bed.
This book contains the highlights of my first trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where I lived with my husband, Oran Wilson, and children, Olan Keith and Victoria for five and a half years in the early 1950’s. It was written for the express purpose of recording the events of my life and those of my family and friends, during that time, as I documented and remembered them.
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.
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.
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.
So life goes on; one chapter ends and another begins. Since our arrival, we had been going at a pretty fast and exciting clip, especially while the kids were there, but on reflection, at that time, we didn't think it was nearly as nice as it had been when we lived there 19 years earlier.
Saudi Aramco celebrates 75 Years of Excellence at the Grand Event Tuesday, May 21st. Saudi Arabia's beloved King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the sixth king of Saudi Arabia, visited Dhahran to take part in Saudi Aramco’s 75th anniversary celebrations.
Among the many Aramco events that take place heralding celebration and much fanfare, the visit of the King and other members of the royal family to an Aramco camp continues to be an event for the record books.
John Lunde, Assistant to the Chief Engineer, is a veteran of 18 years of Company service and has spent a total of 12 1/2 years in Saudi Arabia. This U.C. graduate from Vallejo, California, was able to find other alumni here even in January 1939 when he arrived in the Field. The previous year Lunce wintered in Alaska while on a Socal wildcatting venture.
Distinguished by being both the first Montanan and first redhead in this column, Scott Harrison, senior surveyor, General Office Engineering, has been in Saudi Arabia 12 ½ years.
In 1937, Tom Barger left North Dakota and Kathleen, his young bride of two weeks, to seek his fortune as a junior geologist in a remote desert country. Out in the Blue is the story of the people he met and the places he explored in Saudi Arabia - before there was oil.
On 1 May 1939, after dinner with him in the new mess hall, I gripped briefly the scarred, long-fingered, sinewy hand of the first king of Saudi Arabia: Abdul Aziz ibn Abdur Rahman ibn Faisal ibn Turki as Saud.
Arabs believe that Hadh, Luck, is a gift granted only to a few. It is a trait like courage or intelligence, and is a requirement for successful leadership.
Daily Weather Data - Chart 1, Data Collected by George Blakslee.
Average Range In Temperature By Month - Chart 2, January - May 1950.