Alkhobar city and my first Kit-Kat
Alkhobar city is located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. If you were born in 1935, then you are as old as the city of Alkhobar. I fell in love with this city since my very early childhood. And had always day dreamed to have a house in Alkhobar when I grow up.
I came with my dad for the first time to Alkhobar when I was only about six years old. It was only for a day, but I came back on weekends many times. I had fallen in love with this city from first sight. My father had taken me to the first western style supermarket in Alkhobar.
It was called Ala’ilaat supermarket (Families’ supermarket). I felt at home there because a distant uncle, Sheik Abdulaziz Al-Mulhim, co-owned it. There, I had my first ever Kit-Kat. I always got a Kit Kat my uncle, but I would always turn around and take three more when he was not looking. I hope my cousins will not read this article, they might ask me to pay them for the Kit Kat I took!
Alkhobar is a city that constructed the first modern seaport with a unique location. You can look across and see the night-lights of the Kingdom of Bahrain. it is one of the largest cities in the Kingdom with the most expensive real state in the area.
After a day in Alkhobar, I would be taken to see a movie at Aramco’s Almunirah compound and if I were on good behavior that day, I would be given a juicy American cheese burger. When I was young, the city was so small I was able to go around the whole town. And it used to be the favorite place for many Saudis and expatriates. We used to see Aramco employees every weekend shopping at King Khalid street, which, in the 1960’s was few meters away from the shoreline.
The western ladies were seen wearing the most modern clothes with knee high dresses and no abayas. One of the most interesting things was that houses didn’t have high concrete fences; only fences not exceeding 1.5 meter in height and all neighboring families knew each other. Also, before the introduction of compounds for expatriates, it was common sight to see different nationalities living side by side.
There would be a Saudi family next to an Indian engineer, German next to a Pakistani and American next to a Lebanese. The streets were so clean and quite.
From the 1940’s till the early 1970’s Alkhobar was the only city in the world that did have crime such as aggravated assaults, murders or robberies. At that time everyone respected the red light and drivers used to use seat belts even before it became law. Every Friday we used to see most of the families in Alkhobar spend the day at Half Moon Bay and enjoyed the beach, sea and the beautiful sunset.
After many years I managed to save up and was able to purchase a home in my favorite city in Saudi Arabia. Now, Alkhobar is a big city, and still one of the cleanest and neatest in the area with huge shopping malls, wide streets, and high-rise buildings. But, at the end of the day, the best thing about the city of Alkhobar is that it is still a huge melting pot.
— [email protected]
