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TADMORE
"You may go now, the party is over." These few words in English by a Syrian soldier were music to our ears. For an hour, four Americans had been sitting in a little Volkswagon Bug, waiting for some one to give the signal that all was clear.
On Nov. 11, 1961, Verna and I, accompanied by the Embassy nurse, LuAnn Ziebarth and Beverly Persse, the secretary from the Embassy, left Amman, Jordan for a trip t the old Syrian city of Palmyra, known in Bible times as Tadmore. Tadmore was once a prosperous city on the trade route from Persia to Damascus, when camels were used to cross the desert.
The heavy rains had washed out some of the main traveled highway and we were required to take the old road to Homs. The old road took us thru the village of El Mnin, a village of clean white-washed buildings with blue painted frames around all the windows and doors.
It was obvious when we entered the village that some- thing was very wrong, people from every part of the village were running toward a large bus sitting in the middle of the village. They all seemed to be carrying shovels or sticks, and some were picking up rocks and throwing them at a bus that was in the middle of the road.
We were four scared Americans. We had been in a riot in Istanbul when we arrived in Turkey, and We knew that we had no business being where we were. This was a riot and we didn't know what we should do. The sticks and rocks were breaking all the windows in the bus, and we were within fifty feet of the bus, I tried to turn around, but there were so many people around us that this was impossible.
We didn't have to wait long, a 200 Lb. well dressed policeman pulled the car door open next to Verna and tried to get in beside her. He didn't fit very well, but he hung onto the door and hollered "Yella" in Arabic, I knew that he meant get out of here, NOW. He was a scared policeman and his lack of composure didn't help my state of mind.
With much hollering, he was able to get the people out of our way, and we drove past the bus, and a house where people were trying to get to, by crawling over the fence. When we got past the crowd, he motioned for us to drive up side road that was very steep and rocky.
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Metzger Memories
