Chapter 7: The Ararat Cultural Club

In my eighteenth year, 1944, plans were underway to combine all the small Armenian cultural groups, in favor of a single big Unified Cultural Club. The unification was easily accomplished and ratified by all member groups. The difficulty arose when a meeting place was needed to accommodate all the members that now numbered, I would guess, around a hundred [and] which could not gather in any one member's house. There was a property not too far from our store, known as the Armenian Club . We approached them to see if we could perhaps use the lot across the street, which also belonged to them for our cultural club. This was accomodated, and now the Ararat Armenian Cultural Club had a home and address and all the members had a meeting place for their various activities, be that the book club, the musical club, the theatrical club, or many other activities, such as gymnastics. We even had a couple of ping-pong tables donated by some friendly businessman. Of course all this did not happen overnight. It took several years, but it finally got to a point of prominence and acceptance by the Armenian public, that we were able to put on different thetrical or musical shows and receive pretty warm reception from the public. By the time the year 1952 came around (the year I left for America), the club was an established part of the Armenian cultural life of Tehran, and I do take great pride in knowing that I had a part(though very small) in its beginnings and formation, although its greatest prominence came about long after I had left.

In the year 1944 my mother's aunt Verkine Kellejian underwent a surgery for some kind of feminine disorder, and did not survive the operation, she passed away within the week. It was a great loss to our family, she was very kind and a helpful member of the family. She did help in the store, as well as at home. She was also instrumental in Garo's and my discipline and manners. Stern but fair arbiter whenever we had our quarrels which we did have time and again. I particularly remember, when Garo and I were very young during the summer school vacations she used to take us to up-country trips, for several weeks (since my mother could not leave the store). I do remember traveling to Babolsar, a southeastern beach city on the Caspian Sea, very popular summer resort. We used to go to the seashore on a small rowboat which we sometimes got to row ourselves, then spend few hours sunning and swimming and we'd go back to the hotel again until the next morning. Every year, without fail I would get a terrific sunburn and get smeared with yogurt all over my back and arms. One summer we went to Sarayin, a small village near Ardabilin the northwestern province, called Azerbaijan.The lodging place where we stayed had an apple orchard adjacent to the front yard. We had so much fun frolicking and playing in the apple orchard all day long, climbing the apple trees and the pear trees playing Tarzan. Once a week Ali, the nephew of our helper Nourali, used to ride up on a horse from a nearby village where he lived and bring us fresh churned butter and fresh eggs and then give us a ride on his horse, maybe have some lunch, then he would leave until the next week. Our aunt also liked taking a dip in the hot mineral springs in the village. We did not care much for that, but it was a very memorable summer vacation for us.

I graduated from high school in June of 1945. I did register in the University of Tehran the next semester in the Civil Engineering and Architectural department, but did not attend more than a couple of months. I decided to help out in the store, and give mother some extra free time to spend at home doing more of home chores with grandma, as well as helping with the store, if and whenever I needed it. So, this scheme continued for several years, and it seemed to be working fine, until I got it into my head that I was going to go to America, and go to school again. Naturally, there were many pros and cons involved with this idea. Some in the family were not too agreeable with the thought of me going to a foreign country, with whose culture and customs I was not familiar, nor was I fluent with the language. Furthermore they believed if I really wanted to study I could just go to the Tehran University and continue my studies there, and still be living at home and save the expense of travel to a new place, new lodging, new school. All this, of course made good sense, was totally logical but it was not what I wanted. At the head of this group was my mother of course, but she was not going to oppose if I really wanted to do it. I think Garo was neutral on the subject and would go along with it. So the balance of opinions was tipping in my favor and to make a long story short, I came to America.

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