OT: How a Suth'ran Boy Came to Be in Turkey and Dealing Essential Oils

[Guest guest]

Hi Dede,

 

You gonna be sorry you asked me to tell you about this .. but here it

is. ;-p

 

A lotta folks was asking me 'bout the above and I was having to reply

one at a time - so, here's to killing a bunch'a birds with one rock.

 

Why am I in Turkey and messing with essential oils? Probably 'cause I

am a danged fool but I don't think that's whut ya'll really was trying

to find out so I'll tell it but just hit the hi-lites.

 

Well, I guess it started when I was born a poor white child. My pappy

came back from the big war after being a prisoner and he wuz a little

bit crazy and wanted his freedom - so when I wuz just a baby, my

mother and me went to live with my grandpa, and he had a farm.

 

Then later my mother married a gud ol' Kentucky kuntry boy but I still

worked a bunch on my grandpa's farm.

 

I'd say the biggest deciding factor of my life was that tobacco patch.

I hated working in that danged tobacco patch. I decided that soon as

I could, I wuz gonna join Uncle Sam's Army and see the world.

 

So, when I graduated from High School (2 months short of 18) I signed

up in the US Army - 101st Airborne Division 'cause I wanted to be a

bad dude and jump outta airplanes - 'sides, our pay wuz just $78 but

if you jumped outta airplanes you got $55 more for hazardous duty

(officers got $110 .. I reckon it wuz more hazardous fer them.)

 

Anyway, I weighed 124 pounds and during basic training, I didn't

qualify 'cause parachutes is s'posed to come down - not go up (I'm

serious) and if'n a little feller gets caught in an updraft, why he

might be up there till suppertime or even longer. Anyway, I started

living a routine and rigorous lifestyle (we did lots of PT and a 5

mile run ever morning) and purty soon, I weighed enough to qualify and

after I learned how to shoot cannons down at Ft Sill, OK, they let me

go to the 101st Airborne Jump School at Fort Campbell, KY - home of

the World Famous Screaming Eagles!!!!

 

Won't go into the details, but I figgered them sergeants wuz trying to

kill us in Jump School even afore they let us put a parachute on - and

all you had to do wuz say, " I quit " and they'd leave you alone. But I

decided that it wuz better to die in uniform than live in shame so I

just let'em beat on me and first thing you know, we wuz jumping and we

wuz graduating and everbody wuz just'a smilin' and wearing them purty

ol' silver jump wings which made you stand 'bout ten foot tall.

 

I did a few more schools. Then I noticed there wuz a war in sumplace

called Vietnam, so I jumped up and put me in a volunteer paper fer

that place. That's whut soldiering wuz all about ennyway and the old

file all told me that wuz the thang to do. So here I wuz, not old

enough to vote or buy a beer in America, but I wuz old enough to go

ov'air and first thang you know, I wuz ov'air - and I wuz assigned as

an advisor to the Vietnamese Parachute and Ranger Forces and I wuz

scared to death on account'a they knew more'n I did! I turned my 21st

birthday ov'air - cept'in it didn't matter none 'cause we could get

ennythang we wanted - and sum thangs we didn't want - in the Nam if'n

we had the money - age wasn't no barrier. That time done a lot fer my

learning about life & death.

 

When my time come to go home, I done decided that I like this here

stuff a'dealing with furn'ers 'cause I felt like a big fish in a

little bitty pond, so I asked'em high rankin' fellers if'n I could go

sumplace else furn'n and not go back to America. And the Army told

me, " Yep. "

 

So, in June 1964, I was standing in a military formation at around

0500 (at's about zero light-thirty) at the Ft Dix, NJ Replacement

Detachment. The ol' sergeant was calling out names and telling people

to get on this bus and that bus. And in those days, assignment orders

wuz classified and listed only APO number so and so and not the real

location. But I done snuck off to the post office and learnt that I

wuz going to Tehran, Iran - which the other fellers said wuz good

duty. Anyway, I met a dude there and we got along pretty gud and he

wuz'a going to Ankara, Turkey - so, when the sarge called out for

all'em that's going to APO so and so, I jumped on the bus with my pal,

and nobody said nuthing.

 

They drove us out to a military airfield, loaded us on a plane like

dang sheep and off we went. When we got to Turkey, another sergeant

looked at my orders and started jumping up and down and hollering I

was in the wrong place. I told'em, " Gee, Sarge - I just done what the

other Sarge told me to do - I got on the bus he told me to git on. "

The sergeant hemmed an hawed a little .. then he told me don't worry

none 'bout it and he'd do sumpin' - so, they amended my orders to read

Turkey! That was when I learned that the Army never made mistakes.

 

I spent three years here - married a Turkish lady - she wuz the best

lookin' dadburned woman I evah done saw. And rich too! I figgered

that a woman that gud lookin' and with some loot to boot would be just

about as easy to love as would an ugly one what wuz poor. And I also

didn't wanna leave this'n fer sumbody else to grab onto nohow. Best I

can say is that purty woman fum a real influential family done

impressed this ol' kuntry boy somethin' fierce.

 

Anyway, in '67 we came back to the USA to Philadelphia which ain't no

city of Brotherly Love - less'n you count them weird dudes whut hangs

aroun' at Rittenhouse Square. I worked there at the Drexel University

(wuz Drexel Institute of Technology then) teaching them little spoiled

rich brats sump'in bout ROTC.

 

Then in 69', they sent me to a year'a Vietnamese language school and

off I went to Vietnam again. And whilst I wuz ov'air this time, I got

kinda lucky doing this and that and the first thang I know they done

whipped on me a dang battlefield commission. I become a brand new

butterbar Second Lieutenant in the United States Military Police Corps

with all the rights and the privileges but with no time in grade and I

done lost all that prestige a'being a bad ass sergeant 'cause I wuz

now, according to a Official Act a'Congress s'posed to be an officer

an a gennelman - so I decided to act like one and I danged shore wuz

one - and I still am!

 

Well, I came back to the USA (Ft. Bliss, TX) fer 11 months and didn't

like it so much and got a buddy in Washington to send me to Hawaii fer

three years and that wuz OK cept'in fer the island fever you get fum

running around in circles. We used to volunteer to take the prisoners

back to Leavenworth, Kansas - 'specially in the winter time just to

get off the dadgummed rock and see some cold weather.

 

Anyway, in 75' I came back to the mainland USA (Ft. Riley, KS) fer

three years, etc., which wuz the 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red

One) and I had some real honorable duties there and I'll say that's

the proudest danged military outfit I ever done served in. And I

stayed there long as I could and I liked it 'cause it wuz real Army!

 

In the meantime, I won a Regular Army (RA) Captain appointment so I

wuz in like Flynn now. I wuz required to have an alternate speciality

(RA Officers gotta have two - my primary was Military Police.) So

they gave me one that they said wuz right up my alley - Political

Military Officer with area specialization in Eastern Europe, Turkey,

Greece and Cyprus. Had to have a Masters Degree to do that and I

already had one so I just figgered that wuz a little bit of the

decidin' factor on their part. But I liked that 'cause it was a way

to stay in them fur'in countries. And I worked in a lotta them.

 

So, Uncle Sam sent me to schools fer a long time to learn to be one'a

them politic types; Turkish Language school fer a year in Monterey,

some others in Washington, D.C., and in Ohio and in Ft. Bragg, NC, and

back here to Turkey in '80 to the Turkish Military Academy (Command &

General Staff College) as a exchange officer which wuz the hardest

thang I ever done in peace time 'cause them Turkish boys worked 20

hours a day ever day - if I'm lying I'm dying!

 

Then when I graduated fum that, they sent me to a NATO organization in

Izmir, Turkey where I worked fer Turks and Turks worked fer me. My

big boss there was a nice feller name'a Major General Rick Anson ..

and he plays a part later on in the tale I'm telling here now. Bottom

line, I wuz a Exchange Officer, Attache, NATO Staff Officer and a

Student all at one time - and a part of that training wuz'a just

travelin' around the country and the neighboring countries whenever I

wanted to and seeing the sights and then a'writin' about'em on

account'a this here training wuz called Area Orientation. Now all

them whut thinks travel is gud, try to do it fer a danged year whar

you gotta be out and about fer 20 days ever month! It's exciting but

it ain't so much fun! But I was promoted to Major there so I reckon

it was good.

 

Spent a total'a three more years thar in Turkey and returned to the

USA and they sent me to another blamed school at Norfolk, VA which wuz

the Armed Forces Joint Staff College. I reckon my Uncle Sam had some

plans down the road fer me but it just wasn't in the cards. Well, I

graduated fum that and in '86 went to the U.S. Army Central Command at

Ft McPherson, GA (them are the boys whut done whupped Saddam's butt.)

And duty wuz gud 'cause I got to stay on the road and visit the Mid

East & African countries and coordinate with the corrupt Arab and

Somali Generals and such who wuz acting like they wuz our friends

which they wasn't. I got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel while I wuz

there so I reckon it wuz good.

 

Now this next part is hard fer some folks to unnerstand cause they

ain't give no thought to the differences twixt unhappy and not being

happy .. most folks don't think on it much so they don't know why life

is mebbe a bore fer them. I thunk on it .. watched them married folks

shopping together in the supermarket when one asked the other if'n

they wanted to buy some peanut butter or whutever .. and the other

made it clear they didn't really care and didn't wanna be there nohow.

I said to myself, " Self, " that's where you're at now but is that how

you wanna live your life till you go under snakes? " And Self told me

it wuzn't.

 

Anyhow, purty soon I noticed that my kids done growed up - which is

sort'a whut I been waiting on, so I decided (fer the 10th time) to get

divorced and my wife didn't wanna go along with that program so I up

and volunteered to come back to Turkey. Now we had a delux house and

land and all so I came back to Turkey unaccompanied and she stayed there.

 

So then my Uncle Sam sent me to a buncha more schools at Wright-Pat

Air Force Base, OH and Ft. Bragg, NC and one in California and a bit'a

this and that in Washington, D.C. and some humma-humma here and thar

and purty soon I was rite back in Turkey agin working fer the U.S.

Military Mission for Aid to Turkey .. which was more political than it

was military and it warn't really my cuppa coffee but a soldier don't

always gotta like whut he's doing to be serving his kuntry.

 

Well, I wuz gonna divorce and I wuz gonna give her everthang I owned

and most'a my retirement pay so I knew thet I had to get me another

dang pay check sumwhars and first thang you know, an ol' retired

buddy, Major General Rick Anson, come along and told me thet he wuz

gonna be the new Program Manager fer the Turkey Base Maintenance

Contract which wuz run by the Vinnell Corporation in VA and Brown &

Root Engineering at Post Office Box 3 in Houston, TX and he wanted me

to come work fer him.

 

So I went on back to the USA and got divorced and gave that woman ever

dang thang I owned, 4,400 sq ft house and furnishings and everthang

else plus half my retirement pay and then two weeks later, on 1

January 89, I retired fum Uncle Sam's Army, changed clothes and went

to work as Director of Plans, Operations and Quality Control for the

VBR Base Maintenance Contract in Turkey.

 

Best thing came out of the divorce is we are gud friends now .. more

than I can say we wuz when we wuz married.

 

I'll tell you that being a single man whut spoke Turkish and had a

nice apartment and a bit'a extra cash and being a smooth talkin' devil

whut wasn't all thet ugly to begin with didn't hurt me none a'tall and

purty soon I done figgered this civilian life is sort'a whut it's all

about. Another thang I learnt wuz that it just wuzn't so that we only

live once!

 

I worked fer VBR til April 1994 when I resigned and took a year off to

goof off and get to know myself. I traveled around Europe and Israel

and this part'a the world and had a nice time. Then I decided to take

myself to Law School on account'a my Uncle Sam owed me for a couple'a

years of schooling from my Vietnam service and I done always did wanna

be one'em danged slick catfish lawyers in some little bitty town in

maybe Tennessee anyhow, so I up and sold my Chevy Blazer and shipped

all my household goods back to America and put'em into storage in

Tennessee and that's whar they still is today.

 

But I reckon my heart wasn't really in the leaving 'cause before I

left Turkey, I wuz sitting around looking at whut I wuz gonna miss and

all and first thang you know, I done decided to open my own company

and all this planning come about in one night whilst sitting at a

outside cafe drinking ice-cold Efes Beer and gnawing on pistachio

nuts. So the next day (had to hurry a'fore I changed my mind) I done

deposited some money with the Turkish gummit and started doing all

that bureaucratic paperwork to get approval on my new company. And

Business Services International (BSI) wuz borned on 27 July 1995.

 

I thought I knew whut I wuz a'gonna do with that company and that wuz

a bitta gummit contracting and also be the expert fer all the American

companies what wanted to do bizness here in Turkey - which I still do

a bit of. But one day the US Embassy sent me a letter fum an American

whut wanted a steady source to buy oregano oil. I didn't even know

whut it wuz but I told'em I wuz danged sure the right man fer the job.

To make a long story short, in the next 6 months, I done sold that

boy right at 12,000 kg of oregano oil and 2,500 of rosemary oil. And,

I learned whut it wuz too!

 

Then I figgered I wuz onto sump'in so I contracted out with some

cookers and started doing sump'in they wuz'nt used to - quality

control - using gas chromatography and such. And them that wuz

cookin' soon found out that if they couldn't cut the mustard - they

wuz out in the cold. And I told'em they gotta stop all'at dang high

price crap that the danged fool buyers wuz paying on account'a we wuz

gonna do bizness different - we wuz gonna go fer the high volume and

the low-profit margin on the sales, and we wuz gonna test all'em oils

and gar-an-tee that whut we done wuz right. And we wuz also gonna do

bizness like Suth'ran Gennelmens do - real honorable. So that slimmed

down them whut wuz willing to work with me.

 

For a long time I just sold a bunch'a bulk oils with minimum order of

100 kilogram. Then in August 1999, I opened up another company in the

wild and wooley Appalachian Mountains and now I got Appalachian Valley

Natural Products in downtown Friendsville, Maryland (Pop: 597) too.

And I'm able to do retail and wholesale and bulk and ever other danged

thang I'm wanting and I like it cause we got happy customers in 50

U.S. States and 87 other countries. So here I am still just'a doing

whut I do gud and whut I like.

 

Oh yea .. I gave up my freedom .. married a purty little Russian gal

who was a math teacher at the Russian school here in Ankara. Tatiana

(Tanya) has now completed the full domestication of this Ol' War Horse

fer'shur. We be real happy now cause we got us a purty little angel

child named Alexander The Great who added to my reason for living ..

and that's why we are going back to the U.S. of A. come late May.

There are some photos of us in the Photo Section of this list.

http://health.ph./photos

 

And that's my story. :-)

 

Y'all keep smilin' now, you hea? Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

American by Birth ** Suthran by the Grace of God ** Patriot by Choice

[Guest guest]

You gonna be sorry you asked me to tell you about this .. but here it

is. ;-p

 

[Dave:] Well, my story isn’t half that interesting. Even though there were

a couple of well-known doctors in my family, they came from a different

tradition of medicine, and essential oils (I didn’t know that’s what they

were called until 30 years later), herbs and other traditional medicines

were used by my folks since long before I was born. I’m an ole desert rat –

spent my whole life in the southwest except for 23 years in Dallas, where my

former wife, my two kids, and every damn thing I once owned remain to this

day. I guess I’m what they now call an Indigo. My mom used to call me the

hippy redneck. She also used to say that if women loved me half as much as

dogs do, I’d be dead. She was a smart woman, but she sometimes went into

overshare. Anyway, there’s only one of me, and most folks would say that’s

a good thing. I come from a family that’s been in the country for over 200

years, and two of my direct ancestors were early Presidents of the U.S. I

may be a hippy, but I take my country seriously.

 

About four years ago I started making herbal soaps, and that rekindled my

interest in EOs on a larger scale. I found my soulmate on the internet, or

rather she found me, and she was the one that got me interested in making

soaps (before that I only made paints, varnishes, furniture polish,

aftershave, toothpaste, and various stains and specialty finishes used in

wood restoration). We met in a Baha’i chat room on AOL. At the time (2003)

I was just slightly bitter and angry, my former wife having dumped me by

long-distance phone call on the day before our 21st anniversary two years

previously. So when Kaye started sending me IMs, I told her I didn’t know

what kind of weirdo she was, but would she kindly just leave me alone. She

didn’t, and eventually I told myself it wouldn’t hurt me to be nice to her.

So that led to long emails, which led to hours on the phone (we lived about

600 miles apart), which led to me saying one day that it would be nice to

meet in person one day, which led to her showing up at my place 24 hours

later, and now we’ve been married 4 ½ years. Anyway, Kaye has fibromyalgia,

and so we started eliminating chemicals from our diet and our environment,

which has led to a whole journey through all kinds of healing modalities,

and soapmaking. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

 

 

 

 

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