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My name is Leroy Allene. I was born in Gardner s hospital in Ankh on Canal Zone on, and I went to school in Gun Boy on and, uh, went to high school in Paris. Oh, any kind of his own. And half of that I went thio the Canal Zone Junior College E.

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I graduated from high school in 1959 and canals on college in 1961. Got married, had my daughter lived in Panama for the next six. Siri's left Panama in 1967 and resided in Brooklyn, New York, While in Brooklyn, I was trained as a cardiac profusion ist and basically what that is that we operated on a heart lung machine during open heart surgery.

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I did that for 36 years and retired in 2003 Okay, so I worked in two hospitals. The first hospital was Kings County in Brooklyn and Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. And from there I left and went to work in ST Francis Hospital, where I worked for 30 years before I retired.

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Well, I think one of the things is that it created a situation where there was way were influenced by a lot off culture, not only the U. S culture, and so where American culture. But the Caribbean, while my grandparents were from the Caribbean, that's one thing.

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But there were a lot of Europeans in Panama, so we had that that kind of ah culture mix. And because of that, I think I'm kind of well grounded wherever I go, you know? But it also created a curiosity in me in that because of that, I've traveled a little bit.

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And like I said it, uh, my experience in Panama caused me to be comfortable pretty much wherever I go in the whole scheme of things and looking at the world as it is, it is a wonder that it it was built. And I have the utmost respect for all the laborers that helped the building, kind of including my grand parents and my father, who worked in in the canal.

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You know, I think my father was, you know, it was very, uh, good person, hardworking. And by the way, I'm 107 Okay, so, you know, I need instilled in us. Ah, lot of what I am today and what my brother is and what my sisters, I I have three brothers and three sisters.

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My three sisters are all teachers. My brother is her craftsmen. You know I have my youngest brother is an electrician's have a duty Electrician's one of my brother is a plumber. On Carlos is our marine pipefitter, which is a, uh, plumber for shapes. Gun boy, where we grew up or is a village and everybody contributed to to that to the families and the the young people that grew up there in a lot of ways, most of the teachers lived in the community and therefore there was communication between the parents and the teachers and so forth.

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So as Children, we do get ourselves into trouble. But you can bet that my parents wouldn't know about it. It's civilized home, you know. Ah, lot of these structures are gone, but I can relate to it. Uh, with my friends and I have friends and I have some of my friends I went toe kindergarten with, and we still are in contact with each other and so forth.

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So the memories air there, you know, and that's ah, a means of support. Say, for instance, some of my friends off even helped my kids. You know, if I asked him for a favor for for instance. You know, in some way toe have my son or my daughter, and that was that's a help.

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Not only that, there's three other side. That is that my son and my daughter also can plug into what we went through in a part of my Kanada and have, uh, I have the respect for it, but I think it's my work ethics, You know, that, uh, here again is where the community came into being, that my parents knew the teachers and and so forth.

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I guess I was a sort of the nerve one of the guys with a nerd club, you know, then that we prepared. We used to study a and do well in school and that kind of stuff. So, you know, I think that za thing on the job that I had in the United States was one that you had to work kind of ours and so forth, and you learned to contribute, and basically, that's the type of job ahead had to contribute toe a larger community.

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Well, to be honest with you, with with the friends that I and I know on the people that I knew growing up and so forth. I think that in the scheme of things and even in comparison to some of the friends that have made in the United States, I think we were very fortunate as a group to have the experience in in in that small tone in the Koran ozone, because I compared Thio some of the people that I have met and some of the people I've worked with and they are all surprised, and you know that I am the way I am on the product that I became from such a small place.

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One of the things I was saying, I always thought that the Panamanians could run upon bacchanal I always because of the literacy rate in Panama, the little separated Panama is, I think is one of the highest in Latin America, so I think they were qualified to do it.

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It's a fantastic place to to have grown up. It's a place that I visit almost every year. I still have a brother and a sister living in in Panama. Haven't uncle have uncles living in Panama, so I go back and visit Even my wife enjoys going to Panama.

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And she's a New York City born and bred lady. My home life. Like I said, my grand parents who were from the Caribbean and therefore they spoke English. Damn all you know who I I say to my wife all the time.