Show Who Vho Wants It t Anyway Othman Recalls Abadan as Place glace He Lost Appetite By fly n Frederick C. C othman V WASHINGTON I I dont don't believe believe believe be be- lieve I ever told you ou about the time I lost my appetite in Abadan r This is r a small island at t the top of oC oft 0 t the h e Persian Gulf Gull It is as ashot hot a as s the s 's hinges of oC you ou 4 know what In Inthe Inthe the middle of f. it is the greatest great great- est oil refinery refinery ery cry in t the h e Mr Othman world This the Iranians are arc trying to take away from the British warships warship's are arc hovering in there now and the diplomats diplomats diplo diplo- mats are arc hinting darkly that here may come conic the shot that starts World War III Abadan is front page news and insofar as I know nobody has attempted to tell in print how it smells or looks or how v hova howa a I manages to live were in no ones one's way vay but took up a few minutes of his time timea a day clay Th This s did not suit the greedy cour owner court owner and upon orders these hard earned boxes were thrown upon the and later burned while the luckless owner stood by with tears in his eyes How low can people be so mean If the above is a fair sample of your our charity I am delighted delighted delighted de de- de- de lighted to sign myself m self selfA A Sinner there at all Even without a n native nati in a goatskin hat poking a it gun in his direction Bear with me and md Ill I'll do a little recollecting No Landscape I was pounding over from Cairo after the war var in an army DC 4 down below the landscape landscape landscape land land- was mostly nothing colored tan This This went on for hour after hour the sun went down and bang it was dark Pitch black The plane did a little pitching too on account of the hot air eddying up from the earth We Ve started to come in for a landing at Abadan finally and there through the plane window I saw one of oC the most startling sights in my life thousands of electric lights studding the la landscape below for mile after alter mile almost as asif asif asif if Los Angeles had been transplanted transplanted trans trans- planted to the wilderness This was the oil refinery Soon we could get a whiff of oC its fumes As the plane bounced lower the temperature grew hotter When hen I stepped out on the runway runway at about 10 pm p.m. the heat hit Jut me like a board across the face The odor of oC the cooking cooking cooking cook cook- ing oil everywhere was present present present pres pres- ent so were Iranians in their peculiar hats of oC shaggy goat oat manning the fire extinguishers and hauling haulin out the gas tanks A Cool Evening enin The thermometer read The locals said this was a cool evening evenin Dinner in the restaurant restaurant restaurant rant was was waiting wailing I ordered eggs A barefoot waiter brought em fried and left the door to the thc kitchen open Through that I could see the cook lIe He was a gent in a goatish goatish goat gont- ish cap gray-colored gray diapers and nothing else The sight of him plus the blast of oC hot air ail carrying the odor of oC burning grease took away my desire for hen fruit I had to spend several hours in Abadan while the mechanics labored on the flying machine It was a good thing they said Id I'd arrived at night or they could have done no work It gets gels so hot by day on this fantastic island that no man dares touch his monkey wrench for fear of blistering his hands For day d y after alter day and week after week eek the tempera temperature lure hovers between and de der grees grecs The refinery workers do most of oC their labor by night in the day lay when its too hot even en evento evento to think they try to sleep They have air conditioning in their house free movies and no telling what all else They earn hefty bonuses for enduring enduring endur endur- in ing the place at all but they take furloughs every few months If they dont don't the heat gets em cm and they go haywire men mentally menially tally The natives have a village near the refinery This generally general general- ly is off bounds for Im foreigners simply because the chance is too t great for contracting one or another near eastern disease 1 |