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TURKEY 1982
March 1, 1982, 6:30 a.m. Verna to Jim, "How would you like to make a trip to Turkey? Half awake, I mumbled, "It sounds O.K., but let me wake up before I answer [sic]" I have been working on several projects, and one of them has a time limit. We are having a membership drive for the Chamber of Commerce, but that should be finished in a couple of weeks. Our passports are in order and we do not need visas, so perhaps we could go in two or three weeks.
Surprise trips have been proposed by Verna before and have turned out to be some of our most interesting experiences. The trip to Mesa Verde in 1951, with all the family, the one to Africa in 1966 from Amman, Jordan, and the one to Mexico with Russ and Peggy, the fastest decision we ever made, in eight hours after the trip was proposed at breakfast, we were on a flight to Mexico City. Perhaps it is time for another surprise trip, this time to Turkey.
At 6:00 o'clock the morning of March 23rd, we were on our way to Izmir, Turkey, where we lived for 5 years, from 1955 to 1960. I had served as Irrigation Advisor to the Turkish Government, and Verna taught English in a Turkish Girls school, under the Congregational Church Mission. These five years had been a very rewarding experience for both of us, and we were anxious to see Turkey again.
We took TWA Flight 754 from S.F.to [sic] Boston, where we spent a few days with Jack and Linda Blake. Verna met two of her former pupils she had taught while in Turkey, both were teaching in Wellesley College, Sumru Erkut, a top student had her PhD. and was flying to San Francisco to present a paper at an astronomy conference.
When we were ready to leave Boston, the airport was fogged in, our flight had to leave from N. Y., and it wasn't until midnight that we could get a flight to New York, and then to Frankfurt and Istanbul, so it took us nearly 24 hours to get from Boston to Istanbul.
We were met in Istanbul by Mel Wittier, a friend from previous days in Turkey. We spent two days in Istanbul with both Turkish and American friends, and were able to see our former landlady from Izmir, Nemica Aysoy, now retired and living in Istanbul.
I had an international drivers license, and since we had driven in Turkey before, we thought it would be our best method of getting around, but renting a car proved to be more difficult and expensive than I had thought. We soon found that we could hire a driver and his car for much less.
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Metzger Memories
