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My name is Bonnie Angle and, uh, my childhood years when the Panama Canal Zone Earl and Hazel Angle, where My folks, my dad, uh, worked for military, uh, maintenance of jeeps and trucks and vehicles and tanks. And my mom was a beautician in Coco Lee. Dad worked in Panama in Korea's L in the Panama Canal Zone.

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I was their only child and they were very memorable. Wonderful years for me. From about um 1949 to 57 we came back to the U S to Illinois in 1957. Well, I think it was an incredibly important and tremendous accomplishment of American determination and, um, ability to figure out the health, the challenges of the workforce.

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The health of the workforce is well, as the engineering I think, was quite amazing for that time, and it was in. In is a follow up to the efforts by the French that the Americans were finally able to get that canal built. But also it was the work of people from all over the world from many countries that were part of the workforce that brought that accomplishment for world commerce and world trade.

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Well as a kid probably playing in the jungle was memorable and lots of fun because there were in the little streams and waterways. There were crabs of amazing colors of bright blue and orange, and I think there were yellows. But the crabs were just pretty amazing in the waterways and the just the jungle itself.

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The beauty of the trails, the paths, uh, the flowers in some places, and some of the other older boys would have forts that they would build here and there so us girls would go in, follow the trail, see if we could find the forts that the boy older boys had built.

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But uh huh. Playing in the jungle playing on the beach is every Monday. Mom had often we would usually go too far Fan beach and play at the beach. And my dad was into deep sea fishing with other pals of Hiss. And I can remember going out in the ocean on the fishing boats, catching sailfish and other large fish so that those were just some of the wonderful memories as well as the trip.

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I remember up to an area where we had square trees and golden frogs and There was just a lot of, uh, amazing time seeing trees that where the trunks were little, literally square and frogs were golden. Although many of those species, or some I think, have disappeared or become much more rare now than what they were back in the fifties, I think again the accomplishment of our country and the dedication and really Thea patriotism that it brings a swell asses.

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Of course, the, uh, tremendous uh uh, contribution of the people of Panama that participated in the work force is well, and the interaction and sharing of the cultures of the music, the food, the values and the dedication to maintaining the canal and keeping it a viable operation for world commerce again.

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Probably the one of the deepest impressions I have from my years. There is three importance of loving your country. I think when you don't live in your country, sometimes you value it even more. And, uh, in that time in the fifties and the elementary schools, we said that Pledge of Allegiance every day, once a month, we assembled around the flagpole and, uh, saying, Of course, the Star Spangled Banner and other patriotic songs, and usually a teacher would talk about how important our country waas.

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We also had, uh, air raid drills where, you know, if there if the canal would be attacked, that we practiced how we would position ourselves under the desks or march to a ditch and protect ourselves there. And I also remember one particular time when we were assembled around the flagpole.

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And, of course, our schools were integrated. We had Panamanian, Spanish speaking Children as well as American English speakers. And I can remember one time after we sang The Star Spangled Banner. Uh, one of the kids said, Jose's name is in the song and we said, What do you mean, Jose, Jose, Can you see?

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And we all kind of thought, Oh gosh, yeah, Jose's name is a song until we figured out It's really oh, say can you see? But we really chuckled that Jose's name was in The Star Spangled Banner. Well, I have a very memorable memory. I don't Andi, I guess the meaning is a snapshot of the older generation, the meaning, those men, my dad's age and vintage, which referred to the greatest generation, but certainly the one dedicated to, uh, saving our country during the Second World War.

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And, uh, of course, after those years, life life continued. And there was a time when my folks and I returned. I would guess it was about 60 60 61 and we had outing with another couple on their fishing boat, and that couple was HP and Queenie Burchett.

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And what the what? The plan Waas, which we did, was to go through one of the sets of locks I think was Pedro McGill. And so it was my folks, the birch, it's on the boat myself and their son, Dickie Burchett. And so we went through the locks being a small boat, actually beside one of the big large ships that were going through and we were anchored against the wall.

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And, you know, as you know, you go in and the gates close and the water bubbled up to raise the ship toe, sea level act or to the level of gateau in lake. So we proceeded out and in GATT tune lake, which is a very large like, of course, where the ocean liners continue across.

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Um, there are various backwaters, um, and shortcuts to where one might be going. And I also might mention that the the large ships were piloted through the canal specifically by pilots who were trained to take those ships through the canal. In other words, the pilot of that cruiser ship did not pilot their own vessel through the canal.

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So being a small, um, population of Americans and Panamanians that handled all these logistics, most everybody knew everybody and especially the pilots, uh, knew each other and knew their buddies through the yacht clubs or fishing or whatever. Well, as we got through the locks and went to the, uh, late get tune, and HP got a little confused on what he thought was a passage through the through the backwater.

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And actually remember, Dickie and I run the bow of the ship and we could see just below the water's surface the fork of a tree because the lake had been flooded. And so we went right into that fork of the tree and were suspended. Well, eventually we rock the boat, and you know which there's a way to do that side by side, making it you line up all the weight.

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All the people in the middle on step 22 steps to the right, two steps to the left and continue that cadence and then eventually put the motor in reverse and we back out. Well, we did all that. And in the meantime, one of these large, uh, cruise ships is going through.

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And, uh, H people's the boat out and comes back into the main thoroughfare of the traffic. And the captain in the cruise ship had seen us in our little distress in the fishing boat. And he gets on the loudspeaker and he says, You know, HP, you won't get through the banana passage going in the backwater, and it just blares, of course, all across the the area.

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And so hp yeah, aims his vote, you know, orients the boat to the cruise liner and he goes up to the deck and he looks right at the captain's house. Captains, uh, piloting house of the cruiser. And he goes like this. He stands tall and proud, and he takes his hand and he does this kind of a salute.

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I don't know if you got that whole thing where you kind of slap your hand down to the right, but that symbolically was communicating to the captain. This is a salute to you who is full of sugar or whatever one might assume. But it was a very humorous moment and very much very memorable to this young woman that I was at the time experiencing all that.

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Well, honestly, it was a sad time because it just is. Such a was a special and unique place in terms of not only the dedication to keep that canal going, but the really the bonding among the families there. Because everyone, of course, was away from home.

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And the the Americans that work there really connected each other with each other and supported each other and us kids, you know, we knew, you know, from the halls of Montezuma Song and the Army. Kaysen's go rolling along because, you know, the the youth, the Children, their parents were in various branches of the military.

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And so that was kind of our thing to sing those different songs at times and and really, really, um, be proud to be there And, um just have, you know, it was a very positive, wholesome How happy time, really? The sense of community that was in the neighborhoods and among the people, at least that that just seemed so unique and ran deep.

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And even now, as I see my peers that are, uh, retired out of there, um, you know, we just have great memories of sharing good times together and the dedication of our parents and and the the special qualities of so many people that were there.