Sandy Clause Visits Sahara

I was cleaning out some stuff and found this article below I ahd written during my days at Kilgore College.


Sandy Claus Visits Sahara
Kilgore College Flare Christmas Edition 1981
By Mike Midkiff

Christmas. A word that brings smiles to faces. The celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and a visit by Santa Claus. Childhood memories of one Christmas bring back especially good memories for me.
The Christmas of 1969 always lays heavy on my mind. There was no “Jack Frost” nipping at my nose, no “chestnuts roasting on a open fire,” and no white Christmas.
The reason? I spent that Christmas on the Sahara Desert located at the northern end of Africa.
Why spend Christmas half-way around the world from relatives and friends? My father was transferred to Africa by the oil service company he worked for, Halliburton.
My family and I lived in Tripoli, Libya, from June 1969, to June 1971. During this time, we were separated from television, McDonald’s, and the Dallas Cowboys. And only 400 or so American families lived in Tripoli working for various oil and service companies.
With all the political problems in Libya today, headed by Colonel Moammar Khadafy, very few, if any American live in Tripoli now. How well I remembered the days when Khadafay took reign on September 1, 1969. It sure was interesting watching tanks and other armored vehicles travel down the street in front of our house.
My father’s job meant spending 14 days on and seven days off. He commuted via airplane from Tripoli to Fox Trot Three, one of several Halliburton camps, located in the Sahara. Fox Trot Three could be compared to a small community. Trailer houses were living quarters for the men. The trailers surrounded the mess and recreation halls. Various warehouses and cement storage bins made up the rest of the camp.
The Christmas of 1969 was spent in the Sahara because Dad was working. All other Halliburton wives and kids who had husbands and fathers in the Sahara got to spend Christmas in the Sahara too.
We flew into Fox Trot Three on a DC-9 landing just outside the camp on a sandy runway. What a sight to see upon our arrival! No pine trees, grass or paved streets- just sand, sand, and more sand.
Stepping off the plane, the only thing I recall is that it was warm. Temperatures in the Sahara, during the winter, ranges from 65-75 degrees during the day and near freezing at night.
After getting settled in, Dad took us sight-seeing. Sight-seeing! All one could see was sand. But believe it or not, there were a few points of interest.
Dad took us, in a four-wheel drive Toyota truck with big tires, to visit three places: a drilling rig, a Mobil Oil camp, and a black top road that ended in the middle of no-where- I mean, no-where.
The Sahara did not have paved roads except for a little strip that went through a small village built around an oasis. The road was about a mile and half long running through a village that the Halliburton hands simply called “Oasis.”
The village had houses built from limestone blocks with plenty of palm trees. The road was built with the idea of eventually stretching from one end of the desert to the other end. The project ran out of money and ended after 1 ½ miles.
Sure, Christmas in the Sahara was not like spending it in the United States. No trip to Grandma’s house for us. Still celebrating Christmas with new friends was great.
Friends were not from Palestine, Texas, but from Louisiana, Mississippi, Canada and even Libyans who prepared Christmas dinner for us. It did not matter that we were all away from home in a foreign land because Christmas is celebrated in the heart- not at a particular place.
The Christmas of 1969 will always be a happy and meaningful memory for my family and me.