Our kids in pool in our yard in Tehran Alborz Mountains
A note to readers: When you see when some of the things I write about took place, you may say to yourself, “Gosh, that’s ancient history! I wasn’t even born then!” Let me put you at ease. As a person of my years, I try to show you the world we lived in, but I also can see what is going on today in Iran
This blog was published on May 3rd, 2011, but is now re-issued, with some additions.
Getting Settled. We found our house in Sahebgraniyeh, in the northern part of the city. It was a very upscale part of the city—every home was enclosed by high walls, and within the walls were very pleasant gardens and tall trees. About three blocks away was Niavaran Palace
Our landlord was a wealthy Persian engineer. In our garden lived a little family. Hossein Massoumi, with one eye that looked askew, was our gardener. His wife, a teenager, was Keshvar, and they had two small children-- Nassir, a boy, about 5, and Batul, a girl, about 2. We lived in a nice house with glass all along the south wall, which was our living room and hall, looking down over the whole city of Tehran
We were at 5200 ft. of altitude, and the city slopes down to the center, at about 3750 ft. above sea level. Windows along our back upper floor allowed beautiful views of the Alborz mountains, which border Tehran
Moving into a house in Iran
We hired a badji (maid), Parvin.
One evening she made a huge chelo kebab for us. She used a large metal bowl, about 2½ feet wide, filled with fragrant, delicious rice, with marinated lamb, cooked on skewers over a fire, laid by skewer across the top of the rice. Then in the center, a raw egg yolk. This is a real Persian delicacy.
Chelo Kebab--Wonderful!
Parvin was nice enough, but after a short time we found she was stealing a lot of stuff. She left, and we hired Mehrab Mehrabi, a houseboy. Mehrab was a diminutive fellow, very polite, and very shy. Sometimes he brought his wife, Qoli. She was loud, with a shrill voice, and darting, suspicious eyes. Mehrab was Iranian, and she was an Arab from down in the Persian Gulf .
Hossein, our gardener, would break a branch off a tree to use to rake leaves. I produced a rake that I had brought from home and showed him, and he appeared grateful. But the next time he needed to rake, he broke off another branch. One day he wanted to use the water hose to wash off the roof outside our second floor windows. He turned on the hose and walked through the house with the hose spewing water over the tile floors as he walked across them and up the stairs. He would never have thought to wait till he had gotten to his work to turn the hose on.
Next door to our house was the ASS Dry Cleaners. One of the employees made a habit out of going in the back yard of the cleaners every morning after I had gone to work, and squatted and did his business, in full view of my wife. I don't recall what "ASS" meant. Next to this was the Barf Laundry. “Barf” means “snow” in Farsi.
The Lulekesh, simsaz and other notables. “Lulekesh” means one who pulls or draws pipes, or a plumber. To move into a house in Tehran
You need a “Simsaz”, (means “cutter of wires”) or Electrician. The electrician uses his fingers to check for the 220 volts of electricity. They count on their thick, Pakistani-made tennis shoes to insulate them. My wife would say, “Someday I expect to see nothing but those tennis shoes standing there!” To find a wire, they demolish the whole wall, because wiring a house Persian-style is quite a bit more haphazard than in the U.S.
After the electrician has done his damage, you’ll need a plasterer, and then you’ll need a painter to “rang zadaen” or “hit with color”. And when an Iranian painter paints a room, that’s what he does—hits it with color.
We had Red the Cashier install a 5 kw transformer to convert the house electricity from 220 to 110 volts. Iranians seem to think they can do about anything, but it seems most are still back in the camel-driving era. Red worked for the Americans here, so he spoke English. However, when he converted our electricity, he did it for the first floor only. I unpacked our small television and plugged it in to the wall socket and poof! American TVs don’t work so well on 220 volts.
Karaj Dam near Tehran
Our "Bomb" of a car. It took quite a while for our car to arrive from the U.S. Karaj
Anytime Americans showed up somewhere, a crowd of curious Iranians would gather. They are a very helpful people, even if they haven’t a clue what they are doing. Several men tried to help open the hood, and finally a mechanic did it with a big crowbar. The water pump was “tamum shod”—finished! he declared, and so this looked like it was going to take several hours. A cab came by that already had an Iranian family in it, but the driver and the family were glad to have us, so our family of five jammed in, and off we raced to Tehran
Iranian taxi drivers always go as if they were on fire, so fast that you know you are in grave danger. You learn early on to say, “Yavash!” (Slow!!) and this might make the American feel better, but it has absolutely no effect.
We got to visit with a lot of plain, everyday Persian people during our two years in Iran
Western coverage of Iran Iran and the U.S.A.
Iranian men protest
Here are some books and papers the Personal Navigator is offering:
Rawleigh's 1917 Almanac
Rawleigh's 1917 Almanac, Cookbook and Medical Guide, 28th Year: A Valuable Hand Book 1916 Freeport , IL India
Baby Doll Poster
Baby Doll: Warner Bros. Picture, an Elia Kazan Production of Tennessee Williams' screen play, starring Karl Malden and Carroll Baker; Advertising-Publicity Campaign Packet 1956 Warner Brothers. Advance Publicity campaign and advertising campaign samples for film"Baby Doll", has been called “notorious, salacious, revolting, dirty, steamy, lewd, suggestive, morally repellent and provocative.” This was 25-year-old Carroll Baker's second film, and she received an Oscar nomination for her part in the film. Its advertisements and posters featured a sultry young "Baby Doll" curled up in a crib in a suggestive pose, sucking her thumb. 21 x 28 cm. Paper folder contains Samples of Ad Campaign and Big Ad-Pub Campaign. Very good. (7092) $29.00. Advertising/Cinema
Burdock's Blood Bitters 1892 Almanac and Key to Health 1892 Buffalo, NY: Foster, Milburn & Co. Josiah Lewis of Sing Sing, NY had dyspepsia for years with no cure until he took Burdock Blood Bitters. Hettie McCourtney of Remus, MI had a pain in her back, head, heart, poor appetite, constipation and more until she took BBB. Mrs. Samuel Rieder's little boy (of Summit Hill , OH Norvell , MI
Wright's Pictorial Family Almanac 1865 Philadelphia, PA: Dr. Wm. Wright, NW Corner Fifty and Race Sts. Civil War edition of Almanac, which advertises Wright's Indian Vegetable Pills, which cleanse the bowels and purify the blood, with good effect upon asthma, acidity of the stomach, biles, dropsy, dysentery, erysipelas, female irregularities, foulness of the complexion, fever and ague, jaundice, scrofula, ulcers, worms, yellowness of the skin, Yellow fever and much more. Humorous cartoons. Testimonials from men in Yankee camps. Man from Pennsylvania Yorktown , VA Camp Convalescent , Alexandria
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