By Elizabeth Russell
Bio

Thinking about the place of elders in other cultures, I’m reminded of my days in Turkey. Although I wasn’t, by American standards, an elder (I was in late middle age at that time), I was considered so by the people in that culture.

My
first experience was in Izmir, Turkey, where I was teaching English at
Ege University. Some of the time, I took a dolmus (share taxi) to and
from the university. I had no problem getting a space in the taxi going
to the university because we lived at the beginning of the route, but
coming home was a different matter.

The first few times I was
waiting at the taxi stand, I noticed that the taxis coming by were full
and so I backed away from the stop. Then one

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