"As the years fly past"

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Woodrow said:
Pictures are all long gone, several times in my life I have lost all things I thought I owned. Once to a flood, once to a fire, once to a tornado and three or 4 times to mismanagement. Most recently in Sept of last year when Aabidah and I moved from Minnesota. We trusted somebody to put all our belongings in storage and instead they dumped them in a land fill. But material goods can always be replaced with something better Inshallah

Fortunatly most of the picture I took last year are stored on photbucket.
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Wow. Masha'Allah, you have patience. If it were me, I'd be really angry...
 
Uncle Woodrow... we are waiting more. Even some those pictures you possible still have at photbucket.

:statisfie

Please.

When I read your stories about life in the USA before I saw it wasn´t so different than life at the same times by my parents (even they are Europeans and a little older than you - my dad is 80).
 
Woodrow said:
Pictures are all long gone, several times in my life I have lost all things I thought I owned. Once to a flood, once to a fire, once to a tornado and three or 4 times to mismanagement. Most recently in Sept of last year when Aabidah and I moved from Minnesota. We trusted somebody to put all our belongings in storage and instead they dumped them in a land fill. But material goods can always be replaced with something better Inshallah

Fortunatly most of the picture I took last year are stored on photbucket.
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If they did do that, dumping that in a landfill, then you should sue them or something. Why on God's green Earth would they do that.
 
1960-1969 (Approx dates, some events a year or 2 before, some a year or 2 after)

This was a time of change for me. It was also a nice time and a very bad time. I had finished a semester as a seminarian to be a Catholic Priest. Many changes were rapidly taking place in the Catholic Church. Latin was dropped as the church language. Replaced by local language, it became permissible to eat meat on Fridays and many other changes. I became disillusioned with the priesthood and left the seminary. I began a military career. Applied for and got accepted as an aviation cadet. Became a fighter pilot. It was a short flying career. For various reasons I won't go into I was in a region were I got shot down. After a year in a body cast I returned to active duty, but no longer in flying status and in an enlisted grade. I had intended to stay in for 20 years but got married and settled down. I spent an additional 4 years in the military. During this time we had our first 2 children. After I got out of the military I went to work. First job back in civilian life paid $260 per month. It was not enough to support a wife and 2 kids. Went back to school this time in Structural Engineering. While in school got a job working in the enginering dept of a Structural Fabricating company. Pay jumped up pretty good to $400 per month plus over time making an average of $600 per month. Was able to buy a new car for $165 per month on a 3 year note. That was actually a higher than average salary for that time. My job was primarily doing design drawings of large structures wide range of structures but mostly Oil refineries, bridges and large buildings. Biggest projects I worked on were The Refinery in Inchon Korea, a gigantic fertilizer Plant in Odessa Russia, and the pipe Stanchions for the Alaska Pipeline.During this time I continued part time with my education

Wages were low then but so were prices. We bought our first house for $9,500, did considerable traveling around the world. I left Catholicism and became an Evangelical Preacher. Lived and preached in a number of Islamic countries. Don't believe I managed to convert one Muslim during that time. But made many friends, attended the University of Rabat to learn Arabic. Used to often spend a few days in a hotel in Tangiers (Tanja), Price was about $4.00 per day. average income in Morocco was $60 per year. Muhammad 5 was king and after his Death, his son Moulay Hassan became king. My second involvement with combat when a border war broke out Between Morocco and Algeria.

Tuition costs were reasonable. I went to what was considered a very expensive school and my school expenses were under $2000 per year. Fortunatly very little came out of my pocket, I had a scholarship, a grant and my benefits from having served in the military.

Several events stuck out, The Cuban Missile crisis of Oct 1962. We felt Kennedy had sold South Viet Nam down the drain. In exchange for Russia removing their Missle bases out of Cuba Kennedy agreed to non-escalation in vietnam, no USA combat forces would be sent to Vietnam, only instructors and military advisers. We would only supply the South Vietnamese with weapons no more advanced than what The Viet Cong had. Later we learned that the USA and Russia were within minute of mutual annihilation. If we had not agreed with Kruschev, the Soviet Union would have launched and etimated 30,000 nuclear Missles to targets in the US and if Khrushchev had not agreed with Kennedy we would have launched a like number to targets in the USSR.

The next big memory was the assassination of JFK. Most of us were convinced Oswald acted alone, and his real target was John Connaly but he was a poor shot and hit Kennedy instead. as he had a grudge against Connaly and had made vocal threats against him.

But overall Americans were optimistic about the future. There was relative peace in the world, and Vietnam did not appear to be escalating.
 
$10K for a house in the US. :hmm: How big was it?

You used to preach and try to convert Muslims to Christians? No way. ;D SubhanAllah.
 
Rashad said:
$10K for a house in the US. :hmm: How big was it?

You used to preach and try to convert Muslims to Christians? No way. ;D SubhanAllah.
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It was quite large. In fact too large for us it had 15 rooms and 3 bathrooms. It was in Louisiana and property values in Louisiana were very low at that time. The house essentially did not have a yard. a person could barely walk between it and the neighboring houses. We only kept it a few years and sold it for less than $7,000 just so we could get rid of it and move out of the city.

Yes from the mid 60s till the mid 70s I was an Evangelical. Have some very funny stories about that era. At the time I did not think they were were funny but now I think they were hilarious. One was when I was in Agadir, Morocco. a rival preacher, from another denomination, was having a tent revival and several hundred if not a 1000 Moroccans attended his revival every night. He did not speak or understand Arabic, but had an interpreter. Each night the Moroccans showed very high levels of enthusiaism. On the next to last night he Asked the crowd to bring their Qurans with them on his last night. They came back the next night. He had them set their "Qurans" in a pile and without warning set them on fire. The people almost started a riot, but he jumped up and handed out Arabic Language Bibles to the crowd, then he discovered the books he burned were not Qurans but were Arabic language bibles and the people that had been coming to his revivals were not Muslim, but were Pentecostal Christians.
 
Woodrow said:
It was quite large. In fact too large for us it had 15 rooms and 3 bathrooms. It was in Louisiana and property values in Louisiana were very low at that time. The house essentially did not have a yard. a person could barely walk between it and the neighboring houses. We only kept it a few years and sold it for less than $7,000 just so we could get rid of it and move out of the city.

Yes from the mid 60s till the mid 70s I was an Evangelical. Have some very funny stories about that era. At the time I did not think they were were funny but now I think they were hilarious. One was when I was in Agadir, Morocco. a rival preacher, from another denomination, was having a tent revival and several hundred if not a 1000 Moroccans attended his revival every night. He did not speak or understand Arabic, but had an interpreter. Each night the Moroccans showed very high levels of enthusiaism. On the next to last night he Asked the crowd to bring their Qurans with them on his last night. They came back the next night. He had them set their "Qurans" in a pile and without warning set them on fire. The people almost started a riot, but he jumped up and handed out Arabic Language Bibles to the crowd, then he discovered the books he burned were not Qurans but were Arabic language bibles and the people that had been coming to his revivals were not Muslim, but were Pentecostal Christians.
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I could see how you wouldn't of this as funny at the time, but now think it is :).

Also, you're a very learned person, I'm sure that you're one of the most knowledgeable people on this forum, uncle.
 
MashaAllaah great thread, and great Story by Brother Woodrow, very Inspiring MashaAllaah.."but were Pentecostal Christians" that is soo miracilous like, woww Alhamdulilah they didnt burn The Holy Q`uraan:)
 
I think we should ban uncle woodrow from future writing competions on IB . At this rate he would win them all :p
 
Is the autobiography to be continued....

I am waiting eagerly of what happens next...

Mashallah, a piece of history, yet very entertaining! Would like to know the approach to Islam of brother Woodrow and between the 70's and 90's...
 
Woodrow said:
Yes from the mid 60s till the mid 70s I was an Evangelical. Have some very funny stories about that era. At the time I did not think they were were funny but now I think they were hilarious. One was when I was in Agadir, Morocco. a rival preacher, from another denomination, was having a tent revival and several hundred if not a 1000 Moroccans attended his revival every night. He did not speak or understand Arabic, but had an interpreter. Each night the Moroccans showed very high levels of enthusiaism. On the next to last night he Asked the crowd to bring their Qurans with them on his last night. They came back the next night. He had them set their "Qurans" in a pile and without warning set them on fire. The people almost started a riot, but he jumped up and handed out Arabic Language Bibles to the crowd, then he discovered the books he burned were not Qurans but were Arabic language bibles and the people that had been coming to his revivals were not Muslim, but were Pentecostal Christians.
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Hahahahaha..... HILARIOUS...

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
 
1960s (cont'd)

This was a time of major social changes. The civil rights movement finally brought results and much of the blatant discrimination in the USA ended. For the first time all schools had to be integrated. No more separate facilities for white and non-white. Gone were the days of separate doors in stores for white and non-white, reserved seats on buses for "white only".

It also had some movements that produced good and bad, the drop-out Beatnik generation was replaced by the Hippies (Flower Children) this was part of the "sexual revolution" that pretty much ended modesty and brought an end to many "decency" laws. It also brought about wide spread drug usage, a big anti rules mentality, anti-religion became widespread, a major drop in church attendance in the USA, loss of many standards in the fields of education and employment. th disappearance of family farms as small farms could not compet with the large corporate farms. Rapidly increasing wages accompanied by inflation. Easy availability of credit cards, deficit spending on all levels from individuals to corporations to government.

Along with social reforms came welfare systems. There was an overall loss of work ethics, people began getting an attitude of how can I get my share, instad of were can I find extra work to earn enough to buy what I want.

Individual independance was replaced with dependence on the government.

The USA population exploded to nearly double what it had been while I was growing up. The large cities became over populated along with the ills of overpopulation. Crime rates increased, gangster attitude and gangs became surrogate families for teenagers. History may eventually depict this as the initial death bell for the USA. The USA changed from rule by small town individuals to uncontrolled big government. Apathy became the rule and the major belief became the "God is Dead theory"

But, it was also a time of advancements good or bad. The USA became dependent on foreign oil and resulted in a near crisis when OPEC raised oil prices resulting in the USA boycotting foreign oil, but paying higher prices for domestic oil. this was the end of cheap oil. Along with the loss of cheap energy came higher prices, especially in food products.

Gold and silver prices sky rocketed. The USA dropped it's long established practice of buying gold at mine prices and valuing the coinage at $20 per ounce of gold backing. Gold no longer backed the American Currency. You could no longer redeem a dollar bill for an ounce of silver and foreign nations could no longer redeem $20 bills for an ounce of gold.

There was a big reduction of American bases in the mideast. All of the bases in North Africa were shut down. As the USSR threat lessened, there was a reduction of SAC bases world wide. The Military Draft in the USA ended and the military became all volunteer.

Iran and Iraq oil fields began being devloped for larger production.

There was an incrase of military activity in South East Asia as Viet-cong, Cong-Hoa and Khymer-rouge forces began gaining control. It was becoming Apparant that soon the US would be involved in open combat missions in either Cambodia, Laos, Thailand or Vietnam. At this time the primary role had been providing military support in the form of providing equipment, advisers and training for the National Military of each nation. Under Johnson the Vietnam issue became a full war. With poor planning and much misinformation. If it had not been so tragic it would have been a good humor story going from Johnson with almost daily escalations to the Secretary of defense Robert S. Macnamara changing the entire US military to full nuclear power with no remaining conventional weapons. Virtually the entire US conventional arsenal was sold to Germany to be reprocessed into making feritlizer. When it became evident that conventional weapons would b used in Vietnam these all had to be bought back for nearly 10 times the price Macnamara sold them for. The US military was essentially haphazard and poorly trained. Every error that could be made was made. The Democratic party lost much support for getting the USA involved in Vietnam. This in turn set the US up for the Nixon Era. Nixon had never been considered a worthwhile candidate, but the errors of the Democrats since Johnson opened the door for the Republicans to win no matter who they picked to run as President.

The stupidity of Vietnam guaranteed a victory for whoever ran on the Republican ticket in 1968.

the biggest evnts I remember of this time was my living in the mideast and being amazed at how friendly Muslims were towards Americans, even American preachers. At that time if somebody had asked me who the best friends of Americans were, I would have said Muslims world wide. They were the only people we had never had a war with and had historically been our strongest supporters. (The Muslim Moros in the Philippines, were seen by Americans as Spanish during the Spanish/American war of 1898)

Some highlights during the 1960s

Assassination of Kennedy

Civil rights movement

End of the Military Draft

Escalation of Vietnam

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr

Election of Nixon
 
GuCcI said:
wow this is amazing, its like reading a book. when did you become Muslim?
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I accepted Islam in May of 2005.

For those who noticed the coincidence I joined LI in May 2006. I celebrated my first year as a Muslim here.
 

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