Page A20 www.coastalbreezenews.com Apr 22 - May 05, 2011

The Blue Heron • 387 Capri Boulevard • Isles of Capri • FloridaReservations 239-394-6248 • www.the-blue-heron.com

Fine Dining On The Waterfront Since 1975

Come by Car... Come by Boat...

Make Reservations Now!• Traditional Menu Always Available

• Free glass of wine with this ad(Expires 4/30/11)

• New Boat Slips Available

Don

and

Ela

ine’

s A

rt G

lass

Stu

dio

Visit us at donandelaineartglassstudio.com1500 Honeysuckle Ave., Marco Island, FL 34145

239.394.9736 • 239.272.5571

• Custom designed Stained Glass • Carved Glass, Etched Glass, Murals• Serving Marco since 1984• Free in-home estimates

Call us when you want to make a scene...

Detecting and pinpointing leaks in aging properties and new construction buildings utilizing high tech equipment with experienced service techs with minimum damage to property.

994 N Barfield Drive • Marco Island, FL

239-970-2779

Serving Marco Island and All Collier County

LOCATES:• Under Slab Water Pipe Leaks • Sewer Pipe Leaks in Walls & Under Floors • Landscape Piping Leaks• Under Slab Water & Sewer Piping • Underground Plastic Water Piping • Cable & Phone Lines

OTHER SERVICES:• Video Inspection of Sewer Piping• Swimming Pool & Pipe Leaks • IR-Thermal Imagery• Test & Inspect Plumbing Systems Before Your Home Purchase

A Message of Appreciation

� e Marco Island Fire Rescue Foundation would like to thank our spon-sors: Publix Supermarkets, Mutual of Omaha Bank, Cocomo’s, Coastal

Breeze News, Erin’s Isle, Terry Ward, San Marco Catholic Church, Hoot’s and Pyramid Janitorial Supply, for their contributions in making our

Spring Pancake Breakfast a huge success, serving more than 500 people. We wish to also thank our members and community volunteers, along with Chief Murphy and his wonderful crew of First Responders. In a message from Chief Murphy to our foundation, “What a family event

this has turned out to be for the community, foundation and fi refi ghters.”

If you wish to become a participant in our foundation, call Roy Birkeland 642-9122, Dianna Dohm 331-0908

or write ­ e Marco Island Fire Rescue Foundation

PO Box 925, Marco Island, FL 34146

Appreciation

L ast Friday afternoon, I went to the Barnes and Noble store at the Wa-terside shops. My intention was to

check out some new books and just sit in peace, type a story on my laptop and have some strong dark coffee. I must confess I also like the smell and feel of new books and there is no better place than a book-store to smell and feel as many books as possible by walking through the many aisles. After my walk-through, I sat down, turned on my laptop and started to look up current news items in the Middle East and North Africa by checking out various world newspapers’ websites.

A gentleman dressed in khaki pants and a rich looking polo shirt sat next to me. As I searched through the websites and started writing notes on Syria, Libya, Ye-men, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia he started to watch me. Finally, he said “Looks like you are interested in world events; are you a professor, attorney or a politician?” I politely responded “No, I am not any of those but I write for a local newspaper and I am doing research for my next article”. He then asked me what I thought about all the recent events in those countries I was looking up. I thought this is great.

Someone is really interested in the events in the Middle East instead of the latest results from the Masters! So I gave him a 10 minute passionate report about the Arabs, Palestine, Israel, Libya, Syria,

Muslims and what this all may mean to us as Americans. He listened intently and then turned to me and said “by the way where is Syria anyway?” I was crushed and brought down to earth very quickly. Trying very hard to hide my “feelings of the moment” I responded; “North of Israel, South of Turkey, and West of Jor-dan; somewhere in that general neighbor-hood” and shut down my laptop.

On the drive home I decided not to write about the events in the Middle East this week. They were getting too compli-cated to fit into a 900 word article. Then I remembered a conversation I had some weeks ago with Dr. Jory Westberry, Prin-cipal of the Tommie Barfield Elementary School here on the Island. I was telling her about the elementary school I attended in Istanbul from 1955 to 1960, and how she listened intently to every detail and told me; “You must think of writing about this in the Coastal Breeze”. Elementary school days were a long time ago, but somehow memories of attending elementary school in Turkey were very fresh on my mind.

After attending pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, time finally came for me to go to elementary school. We lived in downtown Istanbul and my mother regis-tered me in an elementary school ten min-utes away from our home. It was the same school she and her brother attended when they were young. I anxiously waited for September as that summer did not seem to end. It was an exciting time. Turkey had become a Republic only a short 30 years earlier after almost six hundred years of Ottoman Empire had come crashing down.

Under the rules of the new Republic, Western looking schools were opened all around the country. Old Madrasas which

educated children based on the Koran were all closed by the new government under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, father of modern Turkey; a new alphabet was established; Turkish re-placed the Ottoman language and many young and idealist new teachers were spread out all around the country teach-ing the kids of modern Turkey. It was an exciting time for the country. As was the tradition, a number of black smocks were purchased for me to wear to school along with the white collar attachment which indicated that I was an elementary school student. My mother bought me a small book bag and we also purchased an ink-well since everyone had to learn to write properly using a pen which you dipped into the inkwell after every word you wrote!

School opened on the first day of Sep-tember. Holding my mother’s and my fa-ther’s hands I walked through the front door, into a large garden where many stu-dents were playing. Teachers, also wear-ing black smocks were walking around with authoritative looks. My father ap-proached an older lady who was going to be my first grade teacher and said “Ms. Ulviye, this is my son Tarik; his meat is yours, his bones are ours” and with that let go of my hand and I was left alone with this tall, strong, serious looking lady with snow white hair and big, thick glasses.

What did my father mean by that scary expression? What meat? What bones? Ms. Ulviye looked down at me and said “follow me and the others in to the class-room”. With that, she walked briskly to-wards the three story concrete building

BEYONDTHE COAST

Tarik Ayasuntayasun@taray.com

SUBMITTED PHOTOSElementary school kids with blue smocks.

Do you know where Syria is? School days…