14 March 2008

Hey anybody out there and still with me? - I’ve had a hard time getting to the computer this week. Today, I have been thinking about the library. Henry loved the library; all our life together we were either at a baseball field, or in the library.

This is a literal statement. On driving trips, when coming into a town, he would be looking, and spot baseball field lights from a mile away. We always had to detour, check out the field, and if there was a game in progress, we would watch for a bit.

He had fond memories of his time doing homework in the Carnegie Library here in Fort Smith. The New York Public Library was a destination when we had a day there.

The Aramco libraries in Abqaiq, Ras Tanura, and Dhahran were outstanding, considering where they were – in oil company towns. Aramco spent some money on those libraries, and nobody appreciated that fact more than Henry, who was there very often.

Here is a short story, a brief insight to one facet of Henry’s life.

In our later years in Abqaiq he became a drilling superintendent, and so was out of the field and worked in the drilling office, and therefore available for community service. Henry was asked to run for the school board. I remember someone calling me from the Dhahran school administration office, asking me to encourage him serve in this capacity. He agreed. However, it was necessary to run for election. He said he would let them put his name on the ballot, but he was not about to campaign. Are we surprised? So, the day of the election, I called a few people, reminding them to exercise their right to vote and therefore he won, as whoever was also running evidently didn’t make many calls.

Most of the school board meetings were held in Dhahran, occasionally in Abqaiq. I remember attending only one meeting. But Henry did his duty, driving off to Dhahran to these meetings.

The issue that sealed his fate to only one term, was the Gifted and Talented Program. The Aramco schools had finally gotten the program started, and after a few years, this subject was “re-visited” while Henry was on the board. There must have been some intense discussion – wish now I had been there. When it came to a vote whether or not to continue the program, Henry voted no.

He was not run out of town on a rail, exactly, but he became a pariah to many in the education field, and certainly he was not expected to ever run for the school board again.

He returned from Dhahran, after that intense meeting, and then having to drive home on the Abqaiq Highway, the world’s great death trap, the sides of the road littered with burned out hulks of Haji busses, and wrecked Mercedes trucks, and parts of charred oil tankers, and what was left from head on crashes with taxis, (remember when we all wore shirts: “I survived the Abqaiq Highway”) and told me about the discussion that evening, and his no vote. I was – well, surprised. Honey! Why would you vote against it? Peter was in that program. Allsion was in it, and just loved it.

He sighed, very disappointed that he had to explain, yet again, and to someone should have understood. He said, and this is pretty much verbatim: “Aramco only allocates a limited amount of money for education. The gifted and talented students KNOW where the library is. We should be spending what education funds there are on helping the other students find it.”

Bye for now, got to go to the library!

Much love from Bonnie and the Cook Family