Sea, Karantina History I swim like an alligator in the sea, I was born in the sea. I used to go down, my house used to be there next to the sea, as kids we used to walk down and swim. What was the sea like? Before reclaiming it?.. I swear to God, we had a beach here called ‘Zahrit Lubnan’ [the flower of Lebanon], it was owned by Boutos Bassil. My God what beach it was. At the time, the St. Simon and St. Michael and Alca Polo [beach resorts] were not there, these came later, and we frequently went there… you know … We used to go down, take the fishing rod to fish, we went down and collected shells and murex and whatnot, and we used to plunge, and there was a little island somewhere... And there was a Gas plant… yes a Gas plant. Yes, the good old days. But you should know, we lived in poverty, in the days where we had 5 piastres [ unit of currency], sorry… you, say 10 piastres. I don’t know what that is. You don’t know it, yes. They say there was once a piastre coin with a hole in it, I haven’t touched it with my hands, my grandma wouldn’t give me one. My Grandma used to tell me “Grandson, a franc after franc [French currency] will build a bank”. Truly. She used to tell me, don’t be arrogant with your father, picking which food you want to eat or throw… Yes, life was beautiful. And then you have all these alleyways. What can I add, this is it. Life is… Did the train pass by here? Yes, the train used to pass below my window. Under my window. Many times the train would slip [from its tracks], where? Under my balcony. I would go up and put lights on so they can see and put the train wheels back in position. Yes, the train. It used to come here to the station. They used to take trips on the train to see the snow in Bhamdoun…and they used to tie the wheels with chains..And here was the DHV play court. Basketball, yes, that was it. But our life was a life of poverty, and you know …I tell you we used to trespass other people's lands to steal loquats, oranges, and grapes. Were there any orchards? Where are they? Yes there was a lot of figs. If you look there in front of you, next to St. Mary’s in the adjacent street at the end of my house’s alleyway. There yes..now you can go and check the hotel they built where my house used to stand, next to the Halabi house in this street... The Halabi house also got demolished.. That’s what I can tell you… how did I grow up, I’m not sure, how I was raised, I don’t know. How did I get into school, how did I used to study by the candle light, or the gas lamp, it was humiliating. Now everything works on lasers, right? I don’t know how we used to…Now look, sorry dear, in our neighborhood, we weren’t part of the people who could afford things... There was the house of Awwad and the house of Roufael. It was Raymond Roufael, he was the head of the Maronite League, he was also the head of engineers, his words had weight. Those people were… but all the other people were poor… living in poverty. Where the highway is today, what was there before that? Now we’re talking about something more important. I told you there was St. Theresa Church. There was a church there, the church of St. Theresa. It was surrounded by a garden, all around, and it was fenced, you know…There were orange and fig trees... Inside, there were orchards on both sides.. You know, I can still imagine the Church as if I am standing in front of it, we used to call the Church father ‘our father duck’. He was in charge of the church, it was for the Chaldeans, now let’s leave religion aside, love knows no religion... So yes… And we had neighbors, you know. A shopkeeper named Fandi, a barber named Edward Nasr. Yes, lovely lovely…they were lovely days my dear. Today people keep repeating how great Camille Chamoun was, but in the days of Camillel Chamoun we had five cars in all of Lebanon. There were fifty people in all of Lebanon, what are you talking about, what are you saying now? We have to talk about now, we have to talk about the present. Now the strong man is the one who can stand firm. Here it is, we have sacrificed sixty years in work. I had a business myself, a logistics company, it was called Eagle Transport. Now it hit rock bottom low. What? Tell me my dear? Where? What am I now? Don’t mind me, we have a few piasters in compensation [for retirees] that we put in the bank. Then? You go down to the bank; they tell you you can only retrieve 50,000 liras. Oh what is 50,000 liras, it can barely buy you cheese or a carton of eggs.