Libya Was a Very Different Place

We had to look it up on a map

A postcard of Tripoli from the mid-1950s. From the author’s collection

Disclaimer: I recognize that Libya has a turbulent history of colonialism, but these are my childhood memories of a particular place and time.

One doesn’t read much about Tripoli, Libya anymore, but coincidentally, I’ve read about it twice in the past month. First, Tripoli was listed on the BBC list of least livable cities, which it has been on since 2019. That saddened me because I remember Tripoli as a beautiful and vibrant city.

The other reference, which surprised me, was when I started reading the Patterson/Clinton collaboration The President’s Daughter: A Thriller Kindle Edition. Page 1, Chapter 1 opens with the statement Two a.m. local time Gulf of Sidra, off the coast of Libya. Two mentions of Libya in a month, what a coincidence. My memories of Tripoli are far different than either of these references.

To the shores of Tripoli

My experience goes back to 1954 when I was seven years old. My father, a career Air Force man, was transferred to Wheelus Air Base, located several miles outside Tripoli. We lived in Florida at the time, so when he came home one day, and told my mother, my sister, and me that we were going to Tripoli. Libya, we looked at each other. Where? We asked. All we knew about Tripoli was from the…