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My name is Frank Townsend on the third generation Canal Zone. Ian. I say that very proudly because it gives me a sense of belonging to the country. I was born there. Both of my grandfathers were there during the construction. I left there from Bobbo High School in 1958 and went to school the University of the United States.

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I eventually ended up here at the University of Florida is a professor and civil engineering, and I've been retired for eight years. I my wife, is also from the Panama Canal Zone as a civil engineer and realizing that both of my grandparent's fathers were constructed workers on it, I have a great sense of American technology, ingenuity and pride to take on such a difficult task at the turn of the century and make it into a completion is now one of the seven engineering marvels of the world.

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So it's an incredible accomplishment and a great tribute to the dedication of the people that put that thing together. I have so many memories, it's difficult to say vivid, but I would say that my most vivid memory is the tremendous freedom that we enjoyed as Children in our youth and being raised there.

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Obviously, this was a time when you did not have to worry about security or your name or your pictures showing up on a milk carton that there was able to play. You played out side because there was no air conditioning, so you played outside until the street lights came on.

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The school system was magnificent, and so my memories are that the freedom we enjoy to ride our bicycles the jungle was literally our backyard and we could play. And that's those of my memories. The canal zone made me or I'm a result of the heritage of the Canal zone, and I look at this as a tremendous opportunity.

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We were very, very unique in there that we had the juxtaposition off three cultures imposed on us. Or we were able to take the sub or of those three cultures and infused them into my the character that I am. Naturally, our schools were English and our parents were American.

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And so as teenagers, we listen to rock and roll. We listened to Elvis. We listen to Pat Boone and that King Cole that was the music and those were some of the music's we would be at the hearing are sock hops and our dances. We also were very Americanized.

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I mean, french fries and milkshakes and hamburgers were standard fare of the food. So that was the American influence and probably the predominant part of my character. However comma directly next to that was the influence of the Panama on our society. The operandi. Mo Salvador Castano.

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So we learned how to speak Spanish so we could converse. We learned very quickly at the dances in our high school, were played by Lucio Takada was a great pianist or organist from Panama. And so we were quickly introduced to the Panamanian music, the Tom burritos, the cumbias, the Madonnas.

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And so when we hear the music of Ricardo Fabrica and we hear the songs of Panama Viejo and to Boga, it literally brings tears to my eyes because I remember my youth when I dance to that. And of course, the Panamanian cuisine was infused in us.

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I mean empanadas and Kati Manolos and your Ocampo and flan. We're all part of our diet. And so basically that's something in this The third influence that was probably the smaller of the three was the influence of the West Indians. And so the West Indians were digging the canal.

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But we were interacting with them. And so we learned how to speak The King's English so we could talk to them on were well aware, the Islanders, and they brought in a culture that gave us someone. We didn't dance so much to the calypso music, but we were hearing it on the radio, and we were able to sing the songs.

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And at the same time, it brought in the food that they like. And so we were very comfortable with eating Gunga Peace and Rice and Juan do because this is and Coco and Coyote and sorrow, because this is what the West Indian food that brings us and so is result of that.

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I've had these three cultures brought into me that shaped me, and obviously I love all of the three cultures, and they've made a great influence on my life. That's who I am today because of that, because of that influence and it was unique, you wouldn't enjoy it anywhere else in the world.

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Would you get that influx on you as well as the school system that we're dealing with. And, of course, our classmates. We're part there's Panamanian classmates. And so even in my scout troop, we had Panamanian scouts in our scout troop, and so there's a lot of interaction on that.

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Obviously, the answer to that question is, I brought back my wife marvel. So basically the most significant thing I brought back from Panama was the lady that I'm married and married in Bobbo Union Church and brought back from Panama with me. Now I realize that the question is supposed to be slightly different note.

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And so tongue in cheek, What did I bring back? Obviously who I am. I mean the music appreciation, the records, the song, these air, tangible things that I brought back to you. But the cold corollary of your question should be. What did I leave behind in Panama?

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And that very quickly answers. I left Keadilan party Miyama and Panama. Part of my soul still resides in Panama. My grandfather's ashes are in Panama, my mother's ashes or in Panama. My father's ashes are in Panama, my aunt's ashes or in Panama, so you obviously I've left a lot behind in Panama.

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I may have left it, but Allah racism profundis the roots were still deep. Finding a single memory is extremely difficult, but I'll work on one in 1954. My father and other group of people came up with the idea to found a Kioko race for the Boy Scouts or the Explorer scouts to raise the Chiyoko through the canal for three days.

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And basically that came to be. I raised four times, never won first place. I have a third, another third and a second, but I never won first place. But I'll type the memory off my second, my last race, and we're talking about 1958 Kioko race. We had a beautiful, Kayoko long skinny one, and I was the stern person and I kept the stern, Eddie Dolan said in front, and he was the one that set the pace.

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Frank Miller was the next in it, and Steve Gorme was actually the workforce than the muscle guy that gave us the power to make it go. But basically we have been racing for two days and we're now on the final leg of the race and we had been we left Gamboa lead crew.

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I mean, we went into a sprint Eddie Dolan Center Sprint that I thought was going to kill us. We were quickly out in front, and we made it to Peter McGill locks well ahead of every other boat. Same thing we locked through Peter McGill locks. And as we entered Miraflores Locks in those days when you did the race, as you did a downward transit, they lowered the water.

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And so basically the Kioko state in there. And so you just water there. So here I am, sitting in the middle of the locks in an Indian dugout called the Chiyoko, watching the water go down and I'm watching the walls fall behind me as the did death.

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The gates now open and you move to the second chamber of the last chamber before the final sprint of five miles out the Pacific Ocean. So I'm sitting in the middle of this thing and once again watching the water go down as it came down. And that point comes for the gates are about ready to open.

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That race was pretty tight, and theoretically we were all supposed to line up in a single line and when the gates opened completely, we were supposed to se start and goal. However, comma Eddie, my buddy in the front who set the pace, said something about Let's go and we took off.

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The gates were literally about this part on and there's a current current I could have touched the gates is we shot through and we were. Of course, there's no one catching us then from then on out and we just sprinted all the way to to Bow Boy Yacht Club, where the race ended out of the yacht club.

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So going through that last one is one of my key memories. I'm going to regress and give you a second memory. That's a totally different story. I was returned to the Canal Zone, a second as a first lieutenant and the eighth Special Forces stationed on the Atlantic Side for Gulick.

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My last paratroop jump was made in Panama in the Canal Zone, and the drop zone was on the West Bank. Have got tune locks right below the dam out over a pasture. And so because it was my last jump, the jump master said, Okay, towns and Lieutenant will let you be the window me, which means that I went out by myself to say how the wind currents were and said going so as the plane came around.

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And this is a very, very old C 47 which goes probably about 80 knots, is very slow. The pilot came around and you circle back over. Gateau in Lake, which bought a lot of nostalgia to make, came back over the top of the locks. And I was standing in the door watching all this scenery underneath me go by.

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I felt the jump master hit my butt and say, Go out towns and I stepped out and I stood there by myself in a parachute came down and I could look out all the way to Colon Harbor and the Bomb Bay and the breakwater all through, gamble out through gateau own as I sailed down and it lasted about maybe 10 15 seconds.

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And then I hit the ground. It was over my last jump, but obviously my most memorable several words that come to mind tremendous pride, tremendous trust and tremendous confidence. The system that was put together to transition the canal over 20 years from the American engineering and control to the Panamanian control was very well, and it's a tribute to the Panamanian engineers and the American engineers that made that transition so smoothly.

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I have total confidence, and I was justly rewarded. The Canalys function magnificently since 1999 or 2000, when the Americans left. It's doing very well. And so the transition and as a civil engineer to see that all happened. The way that the has been able to keep politics out of running the canal is a tribute to them.

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The canal functions well, so again, pride in the American accomplishment. Pride in the American people that set up the transition pride in the Panamanians that made it happen and tremendous confidence that the legacy of my two grandfathers is in good hands. Well, obviously, the thing is to go visit the country.

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I mean, see the country. If you could take a cruise and go through one of the locks, take a sip of it, read the book path between the seas, just take a taste of it, and realized that what a tremendous accomplishment and feed it was. It was the moon shot of the turn of the century at that point in time.

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And so basically it's a heritage and something usually, and I'm very, very happy that the museum exist and that this 100 center centennial has he received so much attention throughout the whole world wide and move throughout the United States. I mean, it's a great tribute, and I'm sure that both of my grandfathers would be very, very proud of this moment as I am.