00:00:00.040 - 00:00:19.050

thistles. Candace Alice with Marguerite Zim. Borrow on July 8. Zumbado on July 8, 2011, at the Panama Canal ER Union in Orlando. Talking about life in the zone. Eso We begin at the very beginning with how you came to be at this owner, how your family did.

00:00:19.060 - 00:00:50.360

My grandparent's both arrived, I think 1920 on both sides of my family, my mother's maternal and paternal. My grandfather, my paternal, my maternal grandfather was at sea. He was a chief engineer on one of the ships that went through that would wasn't going through. It was just out in the ocean, and somebody killed the the ship's cook.

00:00:50.740 - 00:01:14.360

So they had to look for the nearest American jurisdiction to try him, which was Panama. When they got to Panama, he decided that for some reason we don't know why. He just decided to go to work for the Tugs division right there in the canal as and he became the chief engineer for the tugs ATTN.

00:01:14.370 - 00:01:36.000

That time that was in 1920 He then, a few months later, he brings his family down to join him, and at that time they had on Lee four Children. The last one, the last two, were born there in the canal zone. When they first got there, they lived in.

00:01:36.010 - 00:01:56.650

I think it was Pedro Miguel on. Then they moved to Gamboa. And in Gamboa. A train would come in once a week with groceries and my grandmother would go down to the train station and all of the people that that's where they bought their groceries. They just go there, get them.

00:01:56.650 - 00:02:21.870

And yeah, that you can stop this every now. Oh, yeah, If you need to pause anyway, Uh, So then they finally moved, and I'm not sure when over Thio to Cristobal. Two new crystal ball. And that's kind of that. I think they stayed there for a long as I could remember.

00:02:21.870 - 00:02:47.380

That's where they lived. They lived in the same house as far as I could remember, and when my parents were divorced, I went to live with them for like, four years in that house. The with my other grandfather. He came down, he was working in Costa Rica and he's He worked with the railroad, so he's working there, and he decides that maybe he could get a job in Ecuador.

00:02:47.390 - 00:03:04.480

that he heard of some openings in Ecuador. So he hops. A ship gets on a ship going through the canal. He's talking to the gentleman below who are putting the ship through. And they say, Hey, the man who imagined the man who works, who was the dispatcher just died last night.

00:03:04.490 - 00:03:35.800

So he jumps ship and he's able to get that job. And then he remained there. Both of my grandparent's worked there anywhere from 25 to 30 years now. My maternal grandfather, when he if he had he had five Children and only his last one was born in the canals on all the others were born in the States my father included and and and my mother, also on my on my on my maternal grand parents side.

00:03:35.810 - 00:03:56.430

She was born in the United States in Maine. Both all of them were born in Maine and both sides. Yeah, my maternal grand parents. When they came down, they stayed for three years, and then they went back for their vacation. They spent a couple of months in the States, which was which everybody usually got.

00:03:56.430 - 00:04:16.580

Every every couple of years, you get a free paid vacation back to the United States. So they went back there. And when they returned, my grandparent's never ever left the canal zone until he retired. And when he retired, he retired to the state of Washington all the way across the country from different right?

00:04:16.590 - 00:04:49.570

Exactly right. Nobody in the family knows why he decided to do that. As far as we know, everybody got along and when when I was living with my grandfather, the housing there, the one of the questions is about the housing. They had most of the homes that I lived in in the beginning, where the old French style homes that were built up on stilts and they had large overhangs from the roof and just screen windows.

00:04:50.240 - 00:05:16.000

They all had transoms. They were trying on all the outside. There was like above the windows there and below the windows. They had an opening with screen also so that the air would circulate, and even sometimes between rooms, there would be transoms. So wasn't really what you call private, you know, and that I think that's what caused the very good cross ventilation.

00:05:16.000 - 00:05:43.850

So you really didn't The French really had a good plan. It wasn't too hard, even in noisy. No, it was really It was very comfortable because the air circulated so well. So it made it. It made it comfortable. Theo, When early When I first got there, we all had iceboxes and we get our The ice truck would come around, they would deliver the ice and and we all the kids would run out in the street.

00:05:43.860 - 00:06:09.670

There's always some leftover chunks and they had always give us a few pieces. So, you know, we enjoyed that. Underneath the houses, they always had an area that when those houses that were built high on stills always had like a concrete base, and they very often had an extra room, which was considered to be a maids room and a bathroom and laundry tubs for doing the laundry.

00:06:10.140 - 00:06:26.760

In those days, most people didn't have. I know my grandmother eventually, before I left there before she got herself one of these old washing machines that you have, You wash in it and then you, uh, used the tubs to. It wasn't like the wash is that we have today.

00:06:27.940 - 00:06:45.840

But they those underneath those houses there was always lots of room for playing like when it was raining or for hanging clothes or forgiving parties, or for, uh, when I was young. We used to give a lot of plays. We'd make up plays and have plays.

00:06:45.840 - 00:07:05.940

Or sometimes if you give a dance recital or whatever. And that was and then you go out and sell tickets, of course, all your neighbors friends who would feel obligated to come and tow by them right with my since I lived there from when I was probably four until I was seven.

00:07:05.950 - 00:07:24.150

Andi, that's the Atlantic side anyway, my grandmother and I, Every time we went to the grocery store, we would walk through Colon, which was really a was a nice walk. Go to the grocery store, pick up the carom Eto, which is a horse drawn buggy to come home.

00:07:24.600 - 00:07:27.750

Editor's Note. This concludes the interview