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Dick Middleton
© 2003-2011 by Author
While I was in Turkey, from late 59 to fall 62, I had my wife and son with me. My son Rik was just three years old at the time. I managed the NCO club on base for the last 2 years and my wife worked in the base nursery. It was a wonderful time and a wonderful place for a youngster. Because it was a place of great adventure and mystery for fertile minds. I remember thinking at the time that I hoped he would always remember his experiences in Turkey.
THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK
While living there, I had purchased a couple of motor scooters. One of our favorite things to do was to go for rides in the country on the scooters. One of our favorite places was Turmoil. This was a hot springs park and hotel complex where you could get an excellent meal and play in the hot springs too.
One day after having visited Turmoil, we were on our way home. Rik standing on the floor of the scooter, holding onto the handle bars and my wife mounted on the seat behind me. Suddenly Rik yelled for me to stop! "I want to see the sheep Daddy", he said. There near the edge of the road, we saw a shepherd with his flock. I stopped and took Rik to the fence where I held him up so that he could see them. The shepherd approched and in my broken Turkish and his broken English, we made each other understand - he wanted to take Rik into the flock so he could see something important.
With our permission, he lifted the boy up over the fence and stood him down and led him into the sheep. Rik was amazed that the animals parted so easily allowing him to walk among them. Then my wife and I saw what he was taking the child to see. One of the sheep was having a lamb. The man put Rik down near where the birth was taking place. As the lamb came out, the man wrapped it in a towel and laid it in the astonished child’s arms. I looked at Rik and saw that amazed look. I looked at my wife and she at me and we both saw tears. This was surely an event for us all to remember. And we have....
RIK'S FRIENDS
There weren’t very many children of his age for Rik to play with while we were there. Due to the lack of on base housing ,everyone was pretty much spread all over the area - wherever an apartment for rent was to be had. So for this reason we encouraged Rik to sharpen his imagination.
Therefore each day, usually before I got home, he would set up his little tea set at his table and chairs. Then he would gather Teddy, his teddy bear, and Donald, a stuffed duck, put them on chairs to join him around the table and would proceed to have high tea with them. During these times he would carry on complete conversations with his guests. His mother and I became used to hearing him talk to one or another of his stuffed friends.
THE BEAR
One afternoon I came home early and Nance (my wife at the time)and I had settled ourselves in the living room to listen to some music. There was no T.V. We heard Rik out on the front balcony talking to someone. Then he came running in shouting, "Quick Dad open the door, the bear is comming for tea". Well we thought that this was another of his imaginary friends he was talking about so I didn’t rush to the door. He repeated his excited plea again. So getting into the spirit of the game, I rushed to the door and flung it open. Just try to imagine my surprise when I seen that huge brown bear standing there.
Well I quickly slammed the door shut, and ran to the front balcony to see where the beart had come from. There on the street below were two Turkish Gypsies by our gate. Then as if to confirm that I wasn’t seeing things, this huge brown bear came down our steps and out the gate. I knew this was something that called for a photo so I picked up my trusty camera and with Rik in tow, we went down to get a kodak moment . I put Rik near the bear and asked if they would let me take a photo. They agreed , and when I started to take the picture, the leader of the group stopped me. I said, "you said I could, didn’t you"? With that the leader picked the youngster up and placed him ON the bear’s back, as tho he were riding a horse.
The look on my son’s face was priceless. I snapped a photo and then reached into my pocket to get some lira. I had only fifties so I gave the man one. To me this was only $5.00, to him it was perhaps a week’s wages. As I reached to remove my boy from the bear’s back, once again the leader Gypsie stopped me. Instead he proceeded to lead the bear down the street. Hoping that in my broken turkish I had not sold him my son, I hastened to keep up. So did half the neighborhood. We proceeded in this weird parade.
There was the three Gypsies, the huge brown bear with Rik on his back and many people (mostly kids) and me, snapping pictures. Our parade continued down to the ferry dock about four blocks away. It was looking more and more like a scene from the pied piper as we returned to our house. Rik was dismounted to the cheers of the assembled crowd. Then the bear and the trainers and the crowd went on their way.
As I found out later, these bears are trained to dance to flute music and then go into the assembled throng of bystanders to pick up donations in their special little buckets. They move around on their hind legs most of the time. Hence the fright I got when I opened my door. Well it had certainly been another great adventure for my favorite three year old boy. One that none of us will ever forget.
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