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In 1980, I attended a HR conference between Aramco HR man-
agers and representatives of the four companies. It was fascinating to go
back to Saudi Arabia. Several times as I walked down the halls of the
administration building men or women whom I had known in Aramco
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to Ras Tanura. Instead of jolting over the old road I had known, it was
now an easy freeway trip aboard a Greyhound bus driven by a Filipino
driver who kept his bus spotless. I went out to the Rahaima town site
and was amazed at the explosive growth that had occurred. Most homes
built for employees were larger and were two stories high. I was unable
to locate any of the old landmarks. It was great to see! By this time, Ar-
amco had funded over 10,000 houses in Saudi Arabia for its employees.
While in Dhahran on a Friday, I attended an LDS church service
that was held in the gymnasium of the grammar school. There were
at least 150 men, women and children present. Amazing! Our largest
church conference when we had lived in Saudi Arabia consisted of
about 20 people, who came from Abqaiq, Dhahran and Ras Tanura.
In March of 1981, I again attended a similar conference in Dhah-
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Rub Al Khali. This is the Empty Quarter that very few people ever
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of sand dunes, there were sand mountains. These mountains were sev-
eral hundred feet high. Rather than the typical sand color, they were
pink. The tops of the dunes were whipped by the wind like the top of
a lemon meringue pie. The camp consisted of several portable build-
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for and successfully struck water, so they had satisfactory water for all
but drinking purposes. The fellows in the camp were Australian, work-
ing for a contractor. In talking with them I found that we had friends in
common in the oil business in Perth, Australia. In northern Saudi Arabia
one can see a little grass in the springtime and some small bushes. In the
southern areas there was nothing but mountains of sand. It was a great
opportunity to see that area because at that time not one percent of the
Americans in Arabia had ever been there.
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