I want to share a memory with you all about the shah's last ever visit to mashad 31 years ago! if my memory is right, this was around april/may, 1978 after the ghom/tabriz riots.
now, the shah used to visit mashad once a year (almost every year that i remember), normally, they would close all the schools and the road from mashad airport (the old airport) to the Haram were closed to normal traffic from morning until "alahazrat!!!!" came & went for ziyarat. this was a distance of about 5/6 km or so... in those days, our house was on this route so we used to wait for him to come .... he & farah used to come in a very long motorcade with harley davidson motor escort (30 or so) in front of his car (open top limousine) and back and then followed by another 30, 40 or so more official cars ... and people/the crowd waiting on the pavements on this route used to sing "javid shah... " and so on ... he & farah would wave at the crowd from inside their limo and just slowly go to the Haram ... and we (as kids) were "excited" to see him and would run after his motorcade for a few 100 meters (on the pavement of course!! as no-one was allowed to walk on the road about 30 min or so before he actually came) !!! and the pavements/roads were full of police & army people ...
anyway, on his last visit... the Ostandar of Khorasan (Mr Valiyaan) really made a big show of it ... we, as teenagers were beginning to know and hear about the riots and demos elsewhere but the government was still in full control ...... so on this day, Valiyaan made him/farah extremely welcome ... in particular, the middle of the road from the airport to the Haram was covered with flower (yes flower!!!) ... the whole distance .... that is, the middle of the road/bolevard (let's say 3 meters or so) was covered with some kind of white/pink flower .... if i remember correctly, some people said that the flowers were imported from holland especially for his majesty (alahaz-rat) ... this is how people's hatred towards him was made even worse at this critical time .... but we expected that he & farah would come in a heavily protected way but, like all the previous years, he came in an open-top limousine ... deep down though, we had already started to hate him & this show only confirmed our negative thoughts towards him even more
now, the shah used to visit mashad once a year (almost every year that i remember), normally, they would close all the schools and the road from mashad airport (the old airport) to the Haram were closed to normal traffic from morning until "alahazrat!!!!" came & went for ziyarat. this was a distance of about 5/6 km or so... in those days, our house was on this route so we used to wait for him to come .... he & farah used to come in a very long motorcade with harley davidson motor escort (30 or so) in front of his car (open top limousine) and back and then followed by another 30, 40 or so more official cars ... and people/the crowd waiting on the pavements on this route used to sing "javid shah... " and so on ... he & farah would wave at the crowd from inside their limo and just slowly go to the Haram ... and we (as kids) were "excited" to see him and would run after his motorcade for a few 100 meters (on the pavement of course!! as no-one was allowed to walk on the road about 30 min or so before he actually came) !!! and the pavements/roads were full of police & army people ...
anyway, on his last visit... the Ostandar of Khorasan (Mr Valiyaan) really made a big show of it ... we, as teenagers were beginning to know and hear about the riots and demos elsewhere but the government was still in full control ...... so on this day, Valiyaan made him/farah extremely welcome ... in particular, the middle of the road from the airport to the Haram was covered with flower (yes flower!!!) ... the whole distance .... that is, the middle of the road/bolevard (let's say 3 meters or so) was covered with some kind of white/pink flower .... if i remember correctly, some people said that the flowers were imported from holland especially for his majesty (alahaz-rat) ... this is how people's hatred towards him was made even worse at this critical time .... but we expected that he & farah would come in a heavily protected way but, like all the previous years, he came in an open-top limousine ... deep down though, we had already started to hate him & this show only confirmed our negative thoughts towards him even more
