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Richard Gardner
Yes, Jimmy Lee, I’ve had quite an unexpected adventurous life after leaving Waltrip High School. You never know what God has planned for you. After college I owned a garden center in Houston and after a few years had to give that up due to back surgery, thanks to the garden center. Life looked rather dismal after that but in 1974 I received a letter from Saudi Arabia from an engineering/construction company out of California and asked if I would like to work in Saudi Arabia related to building the worlds largest petrochemical plants. I majored in Floriculture at A&M and knew nothing about engineering/construction. I wrote back and said “yes” and asked "where is Saudi Arabia and what is a Traffic Coordinator". They wrote back and said I was hired. They were looking for someone that had no preconceived ideas about either. I was their man.
During my 3 1/2 years living in Saudi Arabia and subsequent years with the company, I traveled extensively and visited 35 countries and have flown around the world twice, once in each direction. Like Forrest Gump, I happened to be in the right place at the right time over the years to see 2 kings of Saudi Arabia, Yasser Arafat, President of France, Prince Charles, and other world leaders. I’ve slept in a cave in Petra, Jordan and slept in a broom closet in a Riyadh hotel (long story), stayed in a luxury hotel penthouse in Paris, and slept in the bedroom where Queen Elizabeth stayed in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) after her coronation. I also ended up sleeping in a car over night with two friends in the Saudi desert near the Empty Quarter surrounded by wild dogs (another long story). Years later, I had a private formal dinner in a summer palace of the Emperor in Japan. Even got to see President Obama at the annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in Washington DC during his last year thanks to our daughter and son-in-law who live near and work in DC and gave us the tickets.
I’ve seen Mt. Fuji in Japan, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, walked up the base of the Matterhorn in Switzerland and drove from London up to Scotland and back down through Wales and back to London. I discovered B&B's at that time and found a little rock bungalow B&B across from Loch Ness in Scotland and stayed the night there. After I settled in, another car drove up to the house and a man and his daughter arrived. Later, before dinner, I was sitting in the living room and the two walked in the front door. I thought I recognized the man as he introduced himself and his daughter...Efram Zimbalist Jr. and his daugher Stephanie Zimbalist. We had a great time chatting the rest of the evening. He was in Scotland at the golf tournament and told me about his Russian-born father playing the violin and she was telling me about the movie she was making with Jimmy Stuart (a Lassie movie). We had breakfast the next morning and then traveled together up to Fort William where they were going a different direction.
During my trip to Nairobi, Kenya and after my camera safari there, I became very ill the morning I was to fly to the Seychelles. I managed to make it to the airport thinking it was just a stomach bug and landed in the Seychelles where I asked for a doctor when I checked in at my hotel. Turns out I had Cholera (even after receiving monthly Cholera vaccine injections in Saudi) and the doctor quarantined me in the hotel which he happened to own and treated me there (rather than shutting down the entire island if I had been admitted to the hospital). I was completely delirious for about 10 days and never got to see the Seychelles at that time. It was during my illness in the Seychelles that King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by his nephew and the country was closed for a few weeks so I would not have been able to get back in the country anyway. I recuperated in the Seychelles until Saudi opened up again. I did return to the Seychelles another time and found it to really be the original Garden of Eden as the myths go.
The unexpected journey that started in 1974 led me to find my wife, Ann, who is from Wales. I proposed 3 weeks after we met in 1978 and we were married in Wales in July of 1979. We’ve had a wonderful 44 years together and have traveled back and forth to Wales for years spending time with her wonderful family and friends and touring the UK. Unfortunately, her mom is 95 and nearing the end of her life this week. Ann has been with her in Wales since the last of August and will stay with her to the end. Growing old is no fun.
So, you never know what God has planned for you. In my wildest dreams, it’s certainly not what I would have ever imagined my life to be after I left Waltrip in 1964. I really never knew what I wanted to do or be so I'm so thankful that God laid out a path for me and I’m so thankful for the many wonderful experiences I’ve had along the way.
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