In 1942, my father and I took a trip to Kelardasht. We planned to take some goods to the Northside cities for sale and bring back rice. I was in Dorvan, and my father was in Barghan; he was supposed to go to Tehran to buy some raisins and then head to Adran; I was to meet him there so we could head North together. My father messaged that he would be there by Thursday noon; I arrived on time, and so did he. He had bought about ten tons of raisins; at that time, people consumed tea with mulberries and raisins since sugar was scarce and expensive. Good local tea was available, but not sugar.
When we reached Marzanabad, we decided to unload our goods there as they were bought at better prices. The forestry department in Marzanabad was very active; they brought various types of wood, timber, and charcoal from the forests and then transported them to Tehran and other places; hence, there were many workers there, and it was possible to sell the goods well. We unloaded our cargo at a coffeehouse and rested. When people came to buy, we opened the first sack; the raisins were of poor quality, not usable at all; the next sack was the same. It turned out that they had shown my father this year’s raisins but sold him last year’s. In the past, grapes dried in the sun were coated with a layer of clay before collection to prevent the grapes from sticking together. Since the raisins had been left for a year, they had stuck together and became one with the dirt; they were not edible at all. We were very disappointed; we had ten tons of inedible raisins that nobody wanted to buy. Someone suggested that we take our cargo to Kelardasht; it wasn’t far; we rented mules and horses and set off.
The climatic conditions of Kelardasht are very unique; it is located at an elevation, among mountains, more like a rectangular pool approximately ten kilometers long and five kilometers wide. Kelardasht is actually composed of several villages; two large villages are in the center with several others around them. Behind the villages are extensive forests and pastures. A lot of water flows from the surrounding peaks, and at first glance, it’s not clear where it goes or how it exits; locals have a legend that Prophet Solomon opened the exit route for the water with his staff; however, there are cracks in the surrounding mountains that guide the water down to eventually flow into the Caspian Sea. Below the villages, there are fields; however, agriculture is not very common there; most people are herders, owning large herds of cows or sheep grazing in the vast surrounding pastures. In short, Kelardasht is a very interesting place climatically.
We rented a house in one of the surrounding villages and placed the sacks on the ground. We decided to gather the village women to clean the raisins by hand, hoping we could sell them. My father, being somewhat religious, vowed to dedicate a portion of the profits from these raisins to Imam Abbas. Obviously, ten tons of raisins couldn’t be sold at once; people would come and buy, say, one kilo at a time.
My father returned, and I stayed there; however, he sent my brother Hormatollah and my uncle to help me, and they came there. Hormatollah was young but could help. The village women cleaned a few sacks every day and took raisins as their wages; they were very happy about this arrangement. We had arranged for a few donkeys; every day, we loaded several bags and took them to the surrounding villages. There was no money; people brought wheat, rice, and oil, and took raisins; we accepted this; we were bartering. When we returned in the evening, we sorted the goods we had received, and the next day it started all over again. I messaged my father that we were stuck here, to buy some goods and send them with mules so we could run this place like a shop. He sent some soap, jujubes, and other items, and it turned into a store. From the next day, in addition to raisins, we took other goods to the villages and sold them, still bartering. This situation sometimes led to amusing incidents; in one of the villages, while we were busy, the people gathered to exchange their wheat and rice for raisins; a woman said something in the local language that made everyone burst into laughter; we didn’t understand what it was about; eventually, someone translated that she said, “Do you also trade kisses and hugs for goods?”
I had become a permanent resident there, but my father was coming and going. Several months passed, but the raisins were endless. Finally, someone made a suggestion; he said, “People here wear traditional shoes in winter, wear them out, and throw them away; if you collect these
worn-out shoes and take them to Tehran, you can sell them at a good price to second-hand dealers”; he said, “These shoes are made of raw leather, useful for shoemakers; second-hand dealers buy them and sell them to them.” We did just that; people cooperated, bringing worn-out shoes in exchange for raisins; within a month, all the raisins were gone, and in return, we had a warehouse full of worn-out shoes. We hired workers, washed them, and neatly packed them in sacks and headed to Tehran. I was unfamiliar with Tehran; I hired a cart and asked to be taken to the second-hand market. Near the Jewish neighborhood, behind the market, there was a caravanserai where second-hand clothes were bought and sold. When we arrived, the traders swarmed our cargo. I didn’t know the price, and each of them offered a different price, two tomans, three tomans, five tomans; I didn’t know if they were pricing per kilo, per pair, or per piece. Eventually, through these negotiations, I realized the prices they mentioned were per kilo. I pretended to know what I was doing; I said I was from Barghan and this was my business; I wanted to take my cargo to Qazvin, but I ended up in Tehran; this cargo is worth four tomans per kilo, but I’ll give it for three. After some haggling, insistence, and denial, we finally settled on three tomans; we made a significant amount of money and compensated for all the losses; we also set aside a portion for Imam Abbas. This entire adventure took several months; we went to Kelardasht in late autumn and returned in May; we were there all winter.