Local woman recalls time spent in Iran

Dear Editor:

I do not know if many people who read this paper have been to Iran. Really it is such a beautiful country. Hear so little good about the country now. Has things to offer tourist, that no other country has. Their mosques (churches) are such beautiful works of art. Are almost always blue. Made of blue tiles, about the size of a thumb nail. There is pink one, that the tour guide made sure that we had seen that one.

At one time the largest refinery in the world was at Abadan, right on the Pershin Gulf. Grady worked at that refinery for a year. In the sixties. The other job that Grady worked on in Iran was in Esfanann. Almost central Iran. Esfanan was such a beautiful city. I was with Grady on this job.

One thing that I remember so well about Esfanan was the Shaw was trying to get trees growing every where. In Esfanan the tress were numbered. No one was allowed to damage in any way. The Shaw was trying so hard to get Iran improved and the ladies going to school. So often I wonder what Iran is like now.

This is one job that Grady didn't have a company car. So Grady purchased a motor cycle. And I seen so much of Iran from the back of the motor cycle. We would often park the motor cycle at the police station and then take walking tours of a city. Had many young people tells us that we were not typical Americans. We should be riding around in a taxi. So often people would buy a sandwich for us.

One thing that is such a nice memory was a bus trip we took. A local fellow on the job suggested the trip to Grady. Said fix your lunch, take a change or two of cloths. Make reservations for a couple of nights. So we did that. We stopped about half way to our hotel, everyone took their lunches and we ate on the side of the road. The people were so friendly wanted to share their lunch with us. I do not remember the name of the town we went to. The hotel fixed our lunch for the trip back home. The fellow who suggested the trip gave us the name of a taxi driver who would not charge too much. And we really seen a lot of that part of Iran.

The Persian rugs are to die for. If I could have afford to purchased one, we sure would not have walked on it. Would have hung it on the wall. I have rugs from South Korea and South Africa in my museum.

I just heard on the T.V. that Iran was going to out law Valentines Day, Grady and I both spent a lot of time in Iran and we didn't know that they even done anything about Valentines Day. If the country had of done anything about Valentines Day. Grady would have done something too. As Grady was a Valentine Day nut . . .

Irma Houts Epps

Poplar Bluff, Mo.