The early 1950's found me living in Morocco and caring for my
first two babies. Husband came home and announced that I could
begin house-hunting because he was being transferred to an air
base in the Atlas Mountains.
That was good news to me because I always preferred mountain
air to sea air and it would be safer getting out of the crosshairs
of the civil unrest of the revolution that was in it's early stages. I
was literally being followed by gunsights as I'd push the pram to
the market each day. I was always mistaken for being French and
it was the French they were fighting back then, not the Americans.
Early the next morning, I arranged a baby sitter, dropped husband
off at the base and continued up into the mountains to find us a new
home. That was an easy task as I found a pensione almost immediately
and began the drive home.
Bang, flop, flop, flop. A flat. Dang, dang. Even though I was
strong and agile at that time, I couldn't budge the lug nuts. What to
do on this sparsely traveled mountain road and I could feel new
milk arriving and looking for a baby. (Only the gals know that
feeling)
A big black shiny caddy came around the bend and stopped. The
windows were dark and I couldn't see inside. For a moment my
gut fluttered in slight panic. The window opened and I saw an
older Arabian gentleman wearing the red/white checkered
kaffiyeh on his head. In almost perfect English, he asked if I
needed a ride to Casablanca. I assured him I did and he said
something to the tune of, "hop in." Well, it was only something
close to that and it was so long ago, I don't remember our exact
conversation.
But it was a pleasant exchange of words even though "in after-
thoughts," I knew I had made a huge blunder when I jumped
into the front seat in enthusiastic American style. Thank
goodness he didn't seem to notice or care.
Mist clouds my eyesight now when I recall all the acts of
kindness paid to us while we were guests in their country. That
was evidently the "old guard" and they are long gone. Times
have changed, governments have changed and nothing seems
the same. A new breed in all the countries and oh....
I just don't know. I simply just don't know...........................
