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Jack William Bell
@turbobureaucrat @tea@a.gup.pe I've been to Istanbul twice in the last twenty years and both times tea was everywhere. If you even slowed down while walking through the Grand Bazaar you'd get a cup of tea shoved into your hands. And tea sellers walked the streets everywhere. But when I was in central Turkey back in the late 1970's it was Coca Cola every rug store and market stall owner insisted you drink with them. I wonder if that was a local thing or a 'change with times' thing? 7 comments
Jack William Bell
The weirdest part about it was that refrigeration wasn't common in that area of Turkey at the time. But they had some kind of system for delivering colas (both bottles and cans) to vendors in small coolers with ice and the deliveries happened often enough the stall owner would just ask you to wait a couple of minutes if they had run out, because they couldn't talk business until both of you had a cola in your hands.
Jack William Bell
I remember one very prosperous rug store owner in particular, who was quite proud of the fact he had his own refrigerator for colas and ran a second business supplying cold drinks to neighboring stores. 
Jack William Bell
I should also mention the third business he had of buying and reselling black market cigarettes. I was at Incirlik Air Base, which is near Adana. I didn't smoke, but was allowed to buy up to four cartons a week at the base PX. So I would smuggle them off base and sell or trade them. The rug guy was always happy to buy. As I remember it was Pall Mall Golds they preferred, for some reason. (In Spain it was Marlboros.) My smuggling method was to tape them and wrap as a present.
Jack William Bell
I've written up some, but I have so many. I keep thinking I should try writing a cold-war version of MASH, only with drug-addled airplane mechanics and crazy pilots instead of nurses and doctors. ETA: I traveled all over the world and did lots of crazy shit during the four years I was in the Air Force. But it was a weird time because there were no wars – except there was. The cold war itself was not a joke, but it wasn't fought like a shooting war. Can't explain in 500 chars. |
Gregory's Server
@jackwilliambell, I’ve never been to central Turkey, only to Istanbul and in the southern parts. I didn’t notice the cult of Coca-Cola. Maybe the place wasn’t right, or perhaps they drank it enough before the 1999, when I was there for the first time.