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Stan en route. The ride to the airport into Shiraz, about a mile, was
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From Shiraz it was a ride of perhaps 20 miles to Persepolis. Some of the
area alongside the road was covered with new forest. I had not realized
it was possible to grow evergreen trees without irrigation in that kind
of climate. The government had done so by planting small trees and
then threatening Bedouin with dire harm if their sheep or goats nibbled
on the young trees. We passed shepherds herding their animals and we
noticed that they very carefully kept their animals from going into the
forest. Indeed, the Iranians claimed that the hills in southern Iran had
once been covered with trees, but the forest had been destroyed to pro-
vide fuel for the boilers of the drilling rigs in the old days. Rightly or
wrongly, they blamed the British oil men for the deforestation. Whether
the story was true or not, it was obvious that it was possible to grow
trees there if they were protected from the animals. Persepolis had been
the ancient capital of Persia in biblical times. All of the wood structures
had been burned long ago but the stone pillars and frieze carvings and
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visit, Jean and I were eligible for housing at Steineke Hall in the Aramco
camp. I had arranged with my old boss, Larry Crampton, for Honey
and Stan to stay in their house during our visit. As we landed, Honey
informed us that she would not stay with the Cramptons because she
didn’t know them! She had decided that she and Stan would stay at
Steineke Hall. This was absolutely forbidden in Aramco because Ar-
amco wanted to avoid such company facilities becoming a commercial
hotel open to all. We were very lucky, because Larry Crampton was now
the manager over community service facilities, which included Steineke
Hall. He very graciously made the switch, although at peril to himself
for a violation of a very strict company policy.

Jean and I were delighted to be back in Arabia. She quickly no-
ticed that the streets were now all asphalted, trees had grown ten feet

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