To: Ron Reitmeyer

From: P.A. Blyberg

Re: Final claim for personal effects

Date: September 21, 1983

During home leave this year my wife and I spent two full days going through our storage lot at the Reliable Warehouse in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Reliable has been holding the items which were composed of our household effects returned from Iran as well as items originally placed with Mid-Jersey Van & Storage for storage in 1977 when we first went overseas. The two lots were combined at Reliable after the fire at North Garden State in 1979 and in 1980 when the goods were transferred from Mid-Jersey.

We went through the goods from Iran in August 1979 the day before we left for Bahrain. They had arrived in New Jersey only a day or two before, after having been lost for three months following their shipment from Iran in April 1979. We only had half a day to go through everything. Not only was the shipment a shambles but we had to do it in the middle of the parking lot. At the time we had to take an inventory of what was missing, as well as separate items for shipment to Bahrain since we were due to leave the next day.

Anna Baghdasarian who had arranged the release and shipment of the goods from Tehran was with us since her goods had been shipped with ours. She was able to point out many of the missing items since she had been present after the Revolutionary Guards surrendered our house, having occupied it for three months. They had lived in the house and made a complete mess, stealing numerous items and going through everything. This became evident during our examination when we found dirty towels and sheets, food on pots and plates and trash packed in the shipment. We noted many of the missing items but did not have time to go through everything, item by item. We resolved to do that at a future date.

Following our departure for Bahrain a bad situation was compounded by the fire at North Garden State. Having seen the warehouses at North Garden State and the condition of the premises I can understand why it happened. At this point you intervened and went out and got the shipment and moved it to Reliable. I subsequently went out to Reliable in 1981 and pulled the furniture out to have the damaged items refinished since there had been extensive water damage to many of the pieces during the fire. These were repaired and put back into storage.

We had to go through the storage lot this year to pick out items to be sent to Hong Kong. So we decided to go through everything and make a complete evaluation of all the goods. I have attached a list of missing items as well as those things which were smashed or damaged. The goods were still in the paper that they were packed with in Iran or by Mid-Jersey when they packed them for storage in 1976. The damaged and missing items were the fault of the revolutionary guards in Iran or North Garden State, not Reliable. Reliable has an excellent operation and the warehouse is clean, spacious and well run, quite a contrast to North Garden State.

November 1983

Dear Nancy and Jack,

Merry Christmas from Hong Kong! To be precise, the H.K. Hilton, where we are all recovering from yesterday. After six weeks in the hotel of planning, plotting, ordering curtains, furniture, appliances and built-ins for various rooms of our apartment, it all arrived simultaneously (with our shipment from Bahrain) and after hours and hours of total bedlam, we staggered out and collapsed! Presently we'll head back and face it all again. The carpenters were really the last straw because, once again, the language barrier zapped us. We thought everything would arrive preassembled-until the sawhorses, electric saw and hundreds of planks came up in the elevator at about the same time as our 95 boxes from Bahrain. All of which had to be unpacked immediately because there is no place in an apartment building to put all the empty boxes.

I can't remember if I managed to write to you before we left Bahrain (October 7). 1983 seems so chopped up when I think about it-starting with last Christmas when the week before I came down with scarlet fever. Where else but Bahrain!! Peter travelled constantly until Easter when we all left on a family trip to Jordan. I could write pages and pages on that alone. It's so beautiful, Biblical and we know, how, why the Beduin are called the "gentlemen of the desert." They are extraordinary people, threadbare clothing, proud and generous among other things, we even helped our Palestinian cab driver pick lettuce at an experimental farm in Wadi Rum to take back to his refugee camp. A replica of Chatila and Sabra. As Americans, we were given every opportunity to tour through these places.

Peter went to N.Y. in May. The timing was a god-send because that was when his father became so ill. He immediately flew to Florida and at that time Peter and Arne were never closer to each other. Ame died shortly after Peter got back to Bahrain. I don't know what to say except it was a hard and sad time. When we got back to the States in July, we had Peter's sisters and families and stepmother with us in Maine most of the summer. I was glad we, at least, had a place where everybody could gather and, it worked wonders bringing everybody together. We got to Connecticut for two weekends (tried calling you both times at odd hours) but the main purpose was a spend time in New Jersey sorting out the Iran storage mess. I only hope you'll never have to look at your personal possessions in such a state! We scrapped two whole wooden containers' worth. Everything had to be unwrapped, examined, recorded, put back in storage, pitched or sent on to Hong Kong-all in the warehouse. Once, we did get to Norwalk to sign the papers selling the Red Barn Lane house. One of these days we'll be out looking again!

It was just before we left Bahrain for summer leave that the Hong Kong job came up (one day before to be exact!). So we went home via the Far East, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong (found our apartment and applied to school for Janet and John), Hawaii, San Francisco, Austin, Texas (saw Fred and friend!), N.Y. and finally Maine. That's when P's sister Ann and family arrived and right after they left, P. left for London. I caught my breath for the first time and started sweeping out the acorns from last winter! P. is now working for Chemical Asia Ltd. an executive director in charge of bond sales in Asia. Nice chunk of ground, I'm afraid it's back on the road!

We had many tearful goodbyes in Bahrain but I know H.K. is going to be much better for Janet and John. They are in an American school now and love it. It's beautifully equipped, light years away from what they had before. John has already brought home ribbons he's won in track meets and Janet has been moved up a grade, so she is a hard-working 7th grader now. John loves the computers in each classroom.

I've spent my Hilton time out in the streets learning my way around. H.K. is really very compact and walking is the most convenient way to get around. The ferry and MTR to Kowloon are a snap to manage and taxis are very cheap. The shopping is a bit overwhelming--especially trying to figure out where to begin. We're now organized with curtain makers, furniture builders, framers, tailors to name a few.

Peter has been to Japan and back and leaves for London soon. I' II stick around and sweep out the sawdust!

Please write, we miss you both so much!

Merry Christmas and much love, Carol, Peter, Janet and John