• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Amish 365
  • About
  • Amish Recipes
  • Amish Culture
  • Amish Marketplace
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Amish Recipes
  • Amish Culture
  • About
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Amish Recipes
    • Amish Culture
    • About
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » The Plain Columns » The Amish Editor

    Throwback Thursday: Amish Meets Arabia

    Published: Sep 4, 2014 · Updated: Sep 4, 2014 by Kevin Williams | Leave a Comment

    It's always painful to turn on the news and watch the Middle East unravel.  This isn't a political post, but a personal one. I'l leave the politics of the Middle East for others to debate.  For me, it was just home.  The steel company in our hometown sent my Dad overseas to work in their international division.  So from 1976 - 1982, I spent off and on in the Middle East.  First, a tiny country called the United Arab Emirates and then Saudi Arabia.  Back then Dubai wasn't the ostentatious ode to opulence that it is now.

    arabiaCAPTION:  me and my brother on the first day of the school.

    By Kevin Williams

    My memories of that time in my life are still relatively clear.  In fact, sometimes I can remember my time there more clearly than what I ate for lunch yesterday.  Ahhh, short-term memory.   Anyway, I remember those days as relatively peaceful, idyllic.  We lived in a beach-front villa.  This photo was taken on the first day of school in the fall of 1976 in our front yard.  The Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf is the more common name) can be seen right across the street.  We were spoiled in that sense.  We did go to the beach, but I don't remember it as a daily thing.  More of a special occasion thing.   I think there was a bit of an intimidation factor being foreigners in a different land.  But, wow, as a teenager or young adult or even now, if I had a beach right outside my front yard, I'd be there.  Every day.:)

    Not in the photo, just off to the left, was an old, crumbling Portugese watch-tower, a remnant of the days when the coast was colonized by those intrepid European explorers.

    The United Arab Emirates, where this was taken, was  a quiet backwater in those days.  The Muslim majority there were a peaceful people and I think even today you don't hear much about problems there or in neighboring Oman and Qatar, models of moderation in the Middle East. But it does sting every time I turn on the TV and see fighting in the Middle East (almost daily) and this new brand of barbarians, the ISIS.  I've always thought it'd be fun to return to the UAE, to visit the old hang-outs of my childhood: the souks, the shipyards, the beach...but as long as the area remains so unsettled, I think Aster will have to settle for just looking at photos with me.  So, perhaps, for me, spending an adulthood studying the Amish isn't a stretch.  I spent my childhood immersed in another culture, as an adult I've been immersed in another, but the two are very, very different.

    « Thursday Amish Photo Mash-Up
    Random Recipe: Easiest Amish Pork Chops Ever »

    About Kevin Williams

    Hi, my name is Kevin Williams and I am owner of Oasis Newsfeatures and editor of The Amish Cook newspaper column.

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Kevin Williams - The Amish Editor Amish Cook Column

    Hi There, I'm Kevin!

    Welcome to Amish365, where I share my knowledge of Amish cooking and culture! I’ve spent almost three decades exploring Amish settlements and kitchens from Maine to Montana and almost everywhere in between. I’ll occasionally throw in stories of my travels, journalism adventures (I’m a Pulitzer prize-nominated journalist), fascination with grocery stores and Kmarts, and much more!

    More about me →

    Latest Amish Recipes

    • How Do The Amish Celebrate Easter?
    • Amish Easter Brunch Casserole
      Amish Easter Brunch Farmers Casserole
    • Do the Amish Allow Photographs?
    • Amish Maple Cream Pie
    dutchcrafters

    Download The "Almost Amish" Ebook

    Footer

    Footer

    About

    • About The Amish Editor
    • Download "Almost Amish" Ebook
    • Amish Communities
    • Amish Marketplace

    Contact

    • Work With Us
    • Contact

    *As a member of various affiliate programs I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2000 - 2020 Amish 365 | Powered by Touch The Road