Hidden Places

As kids growing up in Dhahran in the 50s we were naturally attracted to alleys and ratholes and hidden places totally devoid of adult supervision. One neat but prosaic place was inside the tepee-like hedge that anchored Christmas Tree circle. You could go through a small door at the bottom and hang around within, maybe smoking a stolen cigarette or just laughing at some inanity or another. However it was very popular and far from secret.

The first recreational place Aramco built was the tennis courts, probably in the late 30s. They put a fence around it to keep out the wind and it made a good place to show the outdoor movies. They planted a hedge around the fence and added water. The fence grew taller as did the hedge. By the mid-50s the fence and the hedge were maybe twenty five or thirty feet high. Prowling around one day looking for something to do, one of us noticed that there was a narrow space between the fence and the hedge. So with some difficulty we wiggled between and started climbing up. It wasn't exactly simple because in many places the hedge and the fence were completely entangled together. Also the hedge was filthy with years of accumulated dirt and malathion and we eventually were dusted from hedge to toe with the stuff. But it was all worth it when we got to the top.

We crawled through the hedge to the outer side and thirty feet off the ground we perched in the tangle of branches like some kind of strange birds nesting. We could see everything from the school, later the pool hall, to the swimming pool, the patio, the bowling alley, over to the theater. Way up in the air we watched people come and go, the gardeners working over by the pool, the bachelors and bachelorettes flirting with each other en route to the Fiesta Room, mothers hurrying their children to the pool. Cars driving down King's Road.

We could see them but because they had not the slightest inclination to look up, they couldn't see us. Like mocking birds, we mocked and laughed high above the world as we knew it.