A Completely Stupid Vice

 

I like dragons. I'm a sucker for gadgets. I bought a dragon lighter once just because I saw it online during a COVID lockdown.  I know I hadn't charged the arc lighter in years.  Today, I plugged it into a USB port to charge and found it still had 3/4s of a full battery.

I took a photo above in 2021.  The bottom was snapped today.

I will put them here to remember how long ago it was when I actually used lighters.  I didn't smoke through high school or college.  However, in the early 1980's I started during my first job in Kuwait.  Some of the other teachers smoked.  They were generous with their hand outs, until I started buying my own packs.  Cigarettes used to be extremely cheap in the Middle East as they weren't taxed.  My brand of choice was Marlboro Lights.  Sometimes I'd finish a pack in a day.  

I didn't quit until after coming back to Canada. I had smoked for a total of around 17 years.  The habit was excessively expensive in BC and I knew, of course, it wasn't a healthy.  So, I had my last cigarette in February of 1999.  I haven't had one in over 25 years.

 

Old Snapshot Arrives in Time for Retirement

If you've seen daily posts on 'my eJournal and images' in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed many old snapshots have surfaced. My goal has been to scan everything so that I can throw away around fifty pounds of yellowing paper and albums. These have been sitting in our closets in Canada for about twenty-five years. I'm making pretty good progress and estimate my work is nearly half over. 

I recently added all my fading images from Kuwait in the early 80s. Once I knew they were securely on Flickr, I looked for an up-to-date contact at my former school. Of course, forty years on, it was easy to turn to social media and I sent messages to Mr. Kevin Fullbrook. Here is our exchange:

 

What auspicious timing! I can send my wishes for a happy retirement to Lamies just in time! Sixty of my recently-scanned, school images can be found here.

 

A Bit of Kuwait (circa 1982)

Over the last dozen years, I had scanned a few dozen snapshots from my days in Kuwait. I worked there as an elementary teacher from 1981 to 1983. 

 

Last month, however, I finally bought a dedicated photo scanner in order to make copies before the ink and paper deteriorate further. I completed one set of nearly two-hundred images this afternoon. Many will eventually benefit from some quick editing, but I can get to that at a later time.

On the Road to Damascus

My new multifunction printer has a scanner. I don't know if I like it as well as my very old flatbed Canon. However, I was able to drop a really poor-quality print from the 1980's onto the glass and scan it directly from my tablet in another room. It was easy to crop in the tablet's software with which I'm now familiar.



For some reason this photo was sitting un-scanned on the glass of my older scanner. The shot was taken in 1982 or 1983 when I worked in an elementary school in Kuwait. We were on a road trip during our spring break. I crossed Saudi Arabia with Trevor; however, the girls had to fly to meet us in Jordan. In those days it was not a problem to cross into Syria and we all made a visit to Damascus in Trev's GMC (Jimse). The trip, obviously, wasn't completely 'smooth sailing'.

Weird Coincidences

People like to find patterns in apparent randomness. I'd even venture it may well be this tendency which drives human intellect.

It does seem strange that just yesterday, I mentioned we were thinking about destinations for a spring trip. And two strangely-connected things occurred today. First, I had a long message from Lynne Thomas. That is not unheard of but special. In it, she asked if were were planning any trips. Moreover, later in the afternoon, ex-colleague Pam Cashbaugh-Hewitt posted some old photos on Facebook. They were pictures from our teaching days in Kuwait the early 1980's. Strangely, the one below was taken in Jordan while we were stranded in a mountain village during a snowstorm. Due to the poor weather, we had to skip plans to visit Petra on that vacation. Petra is one of the very places we have been thinking of trying to visit during the upcoming trip.

I will take the occurrence of these two events as a good omen.

Stranded in the Mountains

There's a fairly big box containing old photos in my closet. It's really heavy and full of my history. I seldom take it out although I know it always seems worth it after I scan some of the images. Sharing is only possible when the paper has been turned into a jpg file. I know that, but it always seems too much of a hassle to plug in the scanner. However, after the fact, having access to exhibit events which happened thirty years ago seems invaluable.



I scanned this image this morning. It is a few months older than 30. Here is the condensed background:

During a school break, some teachers decided to take a trip from Kuwait to Jordan and Syria. Trev and I drove across Saudi Arabia in his GMC Suburban. The female teachers, as they were not family members, had to fly to Jordan where we met them. In the photo above we had left Aqaba travelling through the Jordanian mountains. We were stopped in our tracks by an unexpected snowstorm. We were stranded in a small village not far from Al Karak. Having no shelter, a village family offered us a part of their home in which to stay. We were strangers but they made us quickly feel at home. None of us spoke Arabic but I recall a local school teacher acting as translator. It was a very magical moment and ended up as one of the trip's highlights.

A Picture from Before the Internet

I got a Christmas newsletter by mail this year. I always get one. It used to come from Oman but now arrives from Florida.

I met a colleague, Judith, before flying to Kuwait for our first teaching jobs. A number of us made that flight together. It was there, in the burning desert sands that Judy met Trevor. Trevor, as his name might indicate, was British. That sounds a bit like a romantic comedy, and I guess, actually, it was. I was witness to their wedding in Massachusetts a few years later. Time marches on. Their boys have now grown up! I feel lucky to hear from them once a year.

When going through old pictures from around 1982, I found this gem. I am not sure whether this was taken at the US Embassy in Kuwait or if it may have been taken in Jordan on a vacation. The only thing I can be sure of is that this image is going on thirty years old.

I suppose I should email them and let them know it's now freely available on the Internet. Or maybe it'd be better to keep quiet about this one!

When I was in Old Kuwait

Oh, a blank page! Such potential. Yet, I've so little to say.

I don't want to ramble on incessantly about my Android phone. I really don't think I can post again about the weather either. I certainly don't feel like discussing the hectic schedule for the next two weeks of classes. I guess these blogging droughts can happen at any time.

I'm lucky though as I have a wealth of current and old pictures online. Yet, there are literally thousands that I've not discussed at my eJournal and images. So today, I'm simply jumping into the way-back machine.

The picture above was taken about 28 years ago. This was the old souk in Kuwait City. At the time, the country was rapidly developing and I was there to teach elementary school. I fear it would be impossible to find such a seemingly historic image now in the modern shopping malls that must have replaced this scene completely.

Extroverted, Gestalt, and Visual

I'm a teacher, so I respect the fact there are many different types of learners and learning styles. A personal style probably stays fairly consistent throughout one's life. I'd have to file myself under the following categories: extroverted, gestalt, and visual. First, the extroverted part means I prefer discussions and group work. The gestalt means I like 'big picture activities. The final one means although I'm a whiz with symbols, I grasp more by seeing than by hearing or doing.

My love of photography could stem from my propensity for the visual aspect of learning. I don't so much appreciate pictures for the art, but for their immediate ability to convey history. A photograph's knack of capturing a different time or place is amazing. At the risk of repeating myself, the ordinary becomes a subject of worth given an adequate passage of time.

The picture above was taken in Kuwait almost thirty years ago. I taught in that country right after finishing college. Going there was an excellent introduction to the big world we live in. Bear in mind that in 1981, fewer average Americans knew anything about Kuwait.

Networking

He was one of the first students I ever taught. Although, I now have a hard time remembering the names of BCIT students I had last term, I will never forget the students in my original class. As a freshly certified teacher, I went to Kuwait the September after graduating from college. I taught Grade 2.

The bright and mischievous have always been the ones for which I felt immediate affinity. Jihad was my very first favourite troublemaker in 1981. Long ago, I concluded those times were just a part of my past. I held no hope I'd ever hear from any of them again. After all, that was not only decades and a great distance but also a few Gulf Wars ago.

The world really is a smaller place nowadays. After prompting, yesterday afternoon I joined a facebook group for former Al-Bayan school students and teachers. A former student had added photos which I'd once scanned and uploaded to flickr. She had marked many other students in it using facebook tags. (To see the whole class photograph, click the cropped image above. It's also available without a facebook account here.) Jad had left a comment under it. He tried to excuse his toothy grimace as being the result of my kung-fu grip. I added a message that implied he most probably deserved it. Last night, I got a direct message from him.

Facebook changes things. Who knows, maybe we can meet again someday. It would be very interesting as neither of us are kids anymore.

A Moment Frozen in Time

Thankfully, a blog doesn't have to be created in chronological order. Mine really doesn't have much of a sequence at all. Tricks, such as tags, can add order after the fact. I took this photo of a student in Kuwait in 1982. I needn't go into great detail as I've discussed my initial teaching job and working in that country previously in my eJournal and images - Kuwait.

The reason for the addition of today's image, is connected to yesterday's topic. I have been trying to find materials to verify my previous employment. It's no easy task finding documents which are over twenty-five years old. Just being highly mobile for so many years means it'll be wonderful luck if I'm be able to put my hands on a lot of it. There are things however, such as the picture of a student goofing around at recess that makes this image from old paper seem timeless.

Too Cheap for Our Own Good

As a teacher, I find there are a few materials one clings to year after year. One such booklet I use contains short listening comprehension articles with true and false questions. When I have an extra three or four minutes during class, I rummage through the several dozen that are there. Near the end of the booklet there are two related texts. They deal with energy transitions. First, the transition from wood to coal is outlined. The second traces the switch from coal to petroleum. The latter ends with some vague references to the need for societies to eventually make a switch to newer forms of power.

I'm only mentioning this as Bloomberg shows oil trading at less than $72/barrel today. In inflation adjusted dollars, that's about the same price as it was during the years I taught Kuwait. I graduated from college in 1981 and my first job was teaching at the Al-Bayan Bilingual school. The photo included with this entry was taken at the time. To help keep our history straight, that was the period of time after the Iranian revolution and during the Iran/Iraq war.

However, from 1987 to 2004 the average price had fallen substantially to between $20 and $30 dollars per barrel. This was perhaps too cheap for our own good, I think. We were like pigs at the trough. On the other hand, the recent $150 spree probably had more to due with the speculative bubble in the global finances than with an actual supply and demand imbalance. Still, there's nothing I'd like to see better than a sustained effort on the part of the West to invest in high-tech, more environmentally-friendly alternatives.

From Another Place and Time

The world is such a smaller place nowadays. Really. In the early 1980s going overseas was more of a commitment. This was due to a much less developed adoption of communication technologies. When I went to Kuwait after graduating from college, I had a very immersive experience. International telephone calls home were, of course, possible but expensive. Writing a letter to America was easy but receiving the response took at least a month. Now, it's quite possible to exist in one place but have a virtual presence elsewhere.

Today, the Internet makes so many things much more accessible. For example, I mentioned Iftah Ya Simsim in yesterday's entry. Now, we can travel not only in space but in time. I would like to thank the people who took the time to upload these decades-old clips from the children's TV program. It was only a vague memory until I found these examples on YouTube. I had to include a few here.

I'm still able to follow the entire clip found on the bottom left. However, it's a little embarrassing that after all those years in the Gulf, my Arabic never got beyond simple addition and subtraction with oranges.

Two Small and One Large

I love my teaching schedule. The courses I teach are very draining as they're 16 hours per week with the same group of students. The great thing is that these COMM classes are just five weeks long. Students can put in a sustained effort when they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You see, these Intensive classes require a lot of work.

Between teaching these hectic sessions, I need the week off to recharge my own batteries. That's what is coming to an end soon. So, I'm already set to take on a new group on Monday afternoon at the Burnaby campus.

It probably is a bit soon to start dreaming about my next vacation, but we just bought air tickets online a few minutes ago. It'll be the second short trip of the year. In the autumn we try to get away for three or four weeks. For this short one, we're driving across the border and down to Bellingham, WA just to catch a cheap flight to Phoenix, AZ. That'll be the week of May 10 to 17. Actually, Allegiant Air flies into Mesa Gateway Airport where we'll rent a car. The exact schedule of the road trip is pretty flexible but the main destinations will include the Grand Canyon and Palm Springs, CA. One week really isn't long enough for much of anything else. New Mexico will have to be on another occasion. I've not seen the deserts of the American Southwest since I was a child.

Of course, I did see a dry, sandy environment during my fifteen years of work in the Middle East. The picture above was taken in Kuwait around 1982.

Freeing an Old Photo

It was just a picture taken without much planning over twenty-five years ago. I didn't know the guy in the photo nor was the location anyplace special. I recall thinking it was interesting and once enlarged it to an 8" x 10" wall photo after I left Kuwait. Then, I didn't see it for a few decades. At the end of October 2005, I scanned this particular copy from a piece of aging 3.5" x 5" photo paper.

Interestingly, today it is my third most-viewed Flickr image. So much life has gone on since I pressed that shutter. I seldom think about the two years I taught in Kuwait at this point in my life. Yet, the popularity of this photo prompted me to say a few words about it in my eJournal and images.

Tongue Tied

I nearly forgot about writing an entry today. That's pretty strange considering how long I've been doing this on a daily basis. I never seem to forget to do other daily things such as putting on underwear. So, I guess, I am not going to put down this temporary lapse as being an age thing.

 

Today, among the other things accomplished, I went through my neckties. I used to always wear ones to class in the past; however, I haven't been during the last few years. I was looking to weed out the collection. Some were really wide and others were extremely thin. I'm not so sure I know what is actually 'in' nowadays.

Looking at my ties was a trip down memory lane. I did find one I bought in Kuwait during my first teaching job. That would've been in 1981, so at least one of the ribbons of cloth was 26 years old. I used to joke that I had neckties older than some of my students, but I'll be damned if it isn't actually true!

Little, White Lies

My class this afternoon seemed especially long. There was a general lethargy in the room that I tried, fairly unsuccessfully, to alleviate. I joked with the students that perhaps it was time I change careers. I said that my mother had suggested I not be an ESL instructor. I always say she suggested that medicine was better paying and less stressful. Actually, she never said anything of the kind.

In a teacher's repertoire, if I'm any example, there are a number of little lies told so often they've become fact. At least, some have become reality in my own mind. I am fairly positive that I never had a student who was sitting on the back legs of his chair and accidentally fell backwards. Although this may have never really happened, I've become very familiar and fond of the tale. I can almost swear that this poor, imaginary fellow had to be rushed to the hospital for three stitches to the back of his scalp. At a minimum, it's a good story to ensure people sit safely in their chairs.

In response to the fanciful thought of doing something else for a living, an especially keen and mature student asked me how long I'd been teaching. I quickly responded that I started in 1981. Quicker yet, he exclaimed, "Twenty-six years! I think it's a little too late to change careers." I guess he's right, but there's not much else that I'd really want to do with the possible exception of nothing.

I wonder what this student looks like 26 years after I taught him. I taught him in pre-war Kuwait, so I even wonder where he is.

Past Time

 

My online photo collection increases daily. Many are just simple snaps but others are historical. One reason they're there is that it's a very accessible backup method. Another reason for using Flickr involves the ability to share, not only for friends but with random folks as well.

I like seeing how many of the photos are viewed by visitors. For example, I uploaded about 50 old, scans from Kuwait in the early 80's. They've been quite popular with folks who live there now. The little kid above was also in that set. I was just walking about the neighbourhood and snapped this kid who was accompanied by some family members.

For some reason, I think the one above does deserve to be in the top 200 listings. To me, it looks a bit like something out of a National Geographic magazine.

Portable Music 25 Years Ago

During the last several weeks there have been a fair number of blog references to the purchase and use of my Creative Zen mp3 player. Getting podcasts is a new hobby and listening to them while driving is now the norm.

 

I used to sometimes walk around with a Sony Walkman in the very early 1980s. Just today, I noticed I'm wearing what appears to be headphones in this old scanned photo. It was taken in Kuwait. I'm in the photo with Jamal. I was later involved in a car accident with him and others. They were killed and only I escaped alive.

It Happened Again!

On 2/5/07, I received this comment from the online form here:

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Name = Wassan (family name withheld for privacy)
Seen What? = This Silly Form, ePicture Albums
Arrived How? = By accident!
Location = Africa / Middle East

Hello Mr. Dennis,

That's the only name I remember you by. I don't know if you remember me but I was in Grade 2 when you were teaching (Miss Vicky's class). I'm not sure but I believe you were my teacher too. I googled Kuwait's Past and decided to check out your sight. I was shocked and delighted to see that you had pictures of Al- Bayan ( Now Bayan Bilingual School or BBS). I recognized the painted walls and ofcourse you!! I am currently a Kindergarten 1 English Teacher at BBS and I am working on my Masters in Education. I just wanted to say hello and that I rememeber you very well.

Take Care,
Wassan

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Hello Wassan!

Thank you for getting in contact. Did you happen to come across my
Flicker collection of Kuwaiti photos too?

www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=kuwait+DennisSylvesterHurd&m=text

It's amazing to hear from people from so long ago. I am pleased to
learn that you are involved in the 'noble profession'. It can be a
wonderful way to spend one's time. For many years now I've been
working with adult ESL students.

I do hope this letter finds you in the best of health and happiness.
Please share my email address with any others who may have been your
classmates.

==Dennis

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