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My name is Bonnie Davis. Dolan and I was born in Panama and my family. We have four generations born in Panama and six generations that lived there out of the 46 generations that lived there and worked there and also are buried in Cordele Cemetery. And so we are Family has, you know, our history from our family is from the canal zone from Panama also, and you know it.

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It was a wonderful place to live and, you know, to enjoy. And, uh, my heart is always there. That's my home. And so were, you know, just happy to be here and just see that the history of the Panama Canal will be continued and people will be have access to what the U.

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S. University of Florida is is providing here for Panama Canal one word or phase. It's just is to me it's one of the seven wonders of the world. I mean, it's just a feat that is when you see it when you go through the canal. Its's hard to imagine the what it took to to build the canal, and it's just it's a wonder it's one of the wonders of the world, crossroads of the America's crossroads of the world.

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There's so many wonderful memories that I have, and growing up in the in Canal Zone and taking trips into the interior Panama with my family. My father worked. Ralph Davis worked on the railroad. He was a conductor and he put in over 30 years of of service and the railroad was part of our life.

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And we had wonderful memories, family vacations into the interior before we ever traveled back to the U. S or to the U. S. So for the first time, But we just enjoyed living in in Panama and the country. And we had, ah, lot of Panamanian friends, and we still do so What it symbolizes is probably the history of at that error.

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I have my grandparent's letters that they wrote to each other when my grandfather went down in 1907 And he and so I have my grandparent's letters that they wrote to shoe boxes full of their letters, and it just symbolizes for us, for our family, the wonderful life that we had there.

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But the canal itself is just a reminder of what people you know did there I mean, they came from all over the world to help build the canal. And, um, it's just a feat that's, you know, it's hard to describe and it's, you know, it's ongoing.

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It's so it's It's hard to say what it symbolizes that symbolizes so many things. A lifestyle that is, was utopia, you know, paradise. And because of the canal, we all you know, we're, um, just lived our lives and enjoy the wonderful climate and the ships passing through.

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And, um, it's hard to describe in one word. There's so many things. I love them Ola's. And we have our house full. If you walked into our home, you know that where we were from, what country? But I have my father's railroad, um, items, personal items that were, you know, his conductor had and his, um, things from the railroad that we really, um, enjoy using and just things from the Tivoli Hotel where we had our our wedding reception and little I'm always looking for artifacts are things that remind us of our lifestyle there.

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And so we way just love everything that we were raised with in Panama. The food we cook, you know, the Panamanian dishes and and so are our life is full of wonderful things that we brought back from Panama. So and again, there's so many wonderful memories we used Thio.

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My grandmother had a house in Gore gona so we would always vacation or take weekend trips to Gore, bona and, um, the back. Then the cows would roam. You know, all over the country there weren't any fences, and we hit a cow coming back from the beach.

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And my father was driving an old old probably in the, uh, old car that was built in 19 forties. But we hit a cow and we went down an embankment, and, um, no one was injured, but we all climbed back up to the top of the hill.

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We had way had to climb into ah, passing a chicken. A truck full of chickens went by. And I remember we're having to climb into the front of this truck to get help, you know, to pull our car out of the ditch. But that was something that we laugh about now.

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But it was a memory that was the cows just roamed all over. And, you know, there was there was no fences. Um, but in the beaches were beautiful. We always would go up to the beach and enjoy the ocean and the sun and every chance we had with family and friends.

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And still we go back. Our son and his family lived there, and he works at the embassy. And, uh, so we still go to the beach when we go back, and it is just still building memories with them. Uh, just a sadness and your loss of your home because we had to leave and move back to the States in 82 moved to the States for the first time.

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I would say it was paradise living there. Utopia. You had so many different cultures, and you were educated in in living overseas and growing up in a an area that was filled with the Panamanians, Colombians, every culture. You know, that Chinese Jamaican West Indians and just it was a wonderful education, you know, for for us and for our Children.

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Our Children speak spanish and, um, you know it Z just it's hard thio to even, um just say this is what was a paradise that we lived in. And, um and we're still enjoying it to this day by being able to visit Panama on all the wonderful things there.