Childhood in a simpler time

Dubai: Travelling out of America for the first time and coming to Dubai was a radical change for 14-year-old Dorsey Weber.

Dorsey and her younger brother Bull lived with their parents in Jumeirah for seven years until 1982.

"Our house wasn't ready yet, so we stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel and only moved to our new home on Christmas Eve," she says.

"We would have breakfast in the garden. The Dubai World Trade Centre was being built at the time and looked colossally big," says Dorsey, now 46, who studied at the Dubai Petroleum Company American Community School.

"There would be a copy of Gulf News everyday at the breakfast table, which used to look like a newsletter and it used to be rolled up with a rubber band," she said.

The siblings recently returned to Dubai after 30 years, along with Dorsey's husband Karl Gude who was invited by Gulf News to train designers how to incorporate information graphics in the newspaper.

Gude is currently an instructor at Michigan State University School of Journalism, and previously worked at Gulf News magazine and the Associated Press as the Director of Information Graphics.

Home sweet home

Speaking about their old house, Dorsey said she was delighted to see that their home still remains as it was and that someone is still living there.

She pointed out to the new tenants where she buried her cat, Katherine K. Kat, in the corner of the garden. "The new owners' dog keeps sniffing around at the exact same spot," she says.

Bull, who is now 44 years old, recalls the days when he would stand outside his house and see almost nothing for miles. "There was only a line of eight other villas and there would be herds of camels and goats. It would be so quiet, that we could hear the call for prayers for a distant mosque.

He said that the transition of moving homes was a lot easier because of the hospitality and openness of the people. "They were very friendly and we felt like we had to be the same," he said.

Their neighbourhood was an isolated one as there was only one supermarket that catered to all the expatriates. "Everybody would run to the supermarket when they heard that a new shipment of Snickers and cereal had come in, and I remember when my mom would stock up and buy 10 boxes of Frosties and cartons of candy," said Bull.

How the children used to spend their leisure time is quite different from today, as the siblings said they would pass the time either by walking around the souq or riding on their motorcycle.

"I took typing lessons and was the only non-covered woman, although my parents made sure that I was always modestly dressed," said Dorsey.

Hours in the wadis

The most noticeable change for the two of them was revisiting Khor Fakkan and Fujairah, which was where they would regularly camp out in the wild. "It's so different now and unrecognisable because there weren't any roads and it would take hours to drive through the wadis," she said.

Bull noted that he could not recognise Sharjah at all - a route he knew by heart as a child since he used to commute everyday by bus to get to Choueifat School. "There would be empty spaces during the bus ride, and the first building you saw you then knew that you had come to Sharjah. I couldn't recognise it anymore because my school used to be near the airport and since they've moved it, I couldn't remember where it was at all."

"Arriving at the Dubai Airport used to be chaotic. The new one is 20 times the previous size, and it's different to see a lot more signs in English now. Now, when you arrive, you can see a wonderful airport that's very cosmopolitan."

It was a shame though for them to witness how unbearable the traffic has become, and Bull said the only way he knew his way around Dubai was by recognising the landmarks, such as the Jumeirah Mosque, Dubai Creek and the Iranian Hospital.