Midnight at the Oasis

For months, I’ve been contemplating how I could fit the song “Midnight at the Oasis” by Maria Muldaur into a blog. That song is one of my all time favorites. Remember the words? I’m down with any song that’s about a sheik and camels.

So I know what you are thinking, “Kat, so far you really haven’t fit the song into your blog. How are you going to do that?” Easy! Last week Libyan Leader Gaddafi was here to attend the UN General Assembly…and when it turned midnight at the oasis, he was having a difficult time finding a place to send his camel to bed. See how easy that was?

No one wanted the dictator to pitch his tent on their property. Not in Central Park, Englewood, New Jersey, or Bedford, New York. I was very happy to hear how he was not welcomed.

I remember when Colonel Gaddafi kicked the Americans out of Libya in the early 70’s …off of Wheelus Air Force Base. If you're a regular reader, you probably know that my dad was in the Air Force and we lived on Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli, Libya, North Africa when I was in the 6th and 7th grade. It was an amazing experience. …the heat, the dust storms, the loud jets overhead, the Arabs beating the olive trees. As a girl scout on the base (Scouts Honor…I was one) we were always ducking from danger. We were told to wear our membership pins facing the inside of our sash so the 5-pointed star couldn’t be seen…just so they wouldn’t knock one of us poor girl scouts off.

So in the early 70’s Gaddafi insisted the U.S. close the base down. That was then, but this is now. Now it’s our turn to be a bad host. Even as a former girl scout…who used to know how to pitch a tent…I wouldn’t help that terrorist pitch a tent in my backyard either.

Midnight at the Oasis
Send your camel to bed.
Got Qaddafi looking for places, spaces,
To lay his ugly head.

Go along now, Justice is our friend
It’ll point out the way
Go along now, you do not have friends
You do not have friends