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This is Candace Ellis on December 14th, 2010 with Shirley Saul. We're going to be speaking about growing up in the Panama Canal Zone. Um, I guess we'll just start kind of from the beginning. If you could just tell me kind of about how you came to be in the zone or how your family did.

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Well, my name is Shirley Salt shirli dot was my maiden name, and I was born and raised in a former canal Zone E was actually born in San Fernando Clinic, which is is in the city itself. Bond. How I was so fortunate to be his own Ian Waas.

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My mother was born and raised in Panama, the country and her family and her sisters and her brother all live there grew up there. They lived in a very small town in the country called Lapin Zadeh. When I say a small town, it forces and probably still a lot of horses there and the streets are paved, and it's just a very small town off the beaten path.

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About three hours from the city. Well, three hours from the city back when I was growing up, but now, with superhighways that they have built since then. It's about a two hour ride. Anyway, She, uh, went on to Medical School University in Panama and became a pediatrician.

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And my father, it is from Maryland, And he actually joined the Navy when he turned 18 years old and he was stationed in Panama in the canal zone. I'm not sure what naval base he was stationed at now, but in any event, that's where he met my mother.

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I got some evening reception in the city, and as he always says, she was wearing a yellow dress and she just captured his eye. So that's how I came to be Azzoni in. And in a nutshell. That's my story. Okay, And what year were you born, If you don't mind me asking.

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I was born in 1962. Andi, I went thio Love three of elementary school. I was born in, um, and Fernando. As I mentioned, we moved to a town called Balboa on when we lived there. We just lived in a little apartment on the second story, across from the clubhouse on the old bowling alley in the old grocery store, which, if you ask any former zona and everybody will know where that is.

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Because it was all in a very central area. Way moved to pours out on my address was 65 49 a hospital road, and just something you always remember because it was such a close knit community way lived in the same house the whole time I was there.

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I left in 19. 70. I'm sorry. 1980 which is when I graduated from Balboa High School who attend Florida State University. And when I left, my parents actually moved next door because, uh, the neighbors had a larger patio and they wanted thio enjoy the patio. So they moved next door.

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Okay. And what did your parents dio during the time that you were growing up? My mother was a pediatrician in the San Fernando Hospital, and she also worked with one of the most well known pediatricians in the country. His name was ESC Evil Dr Esquivel. He recently passed away on Dshea, worked in his clinic Ah, couple of nights a week.

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Thio earn some extra money, but her primary role wasa pediatrician at the state, a state run media hospital. Okay. And your father remained affiliated with the U. S. Military. He was in the Navy. Yeah. Subsequently found a job. A civilian in, um dia below. I believe it was, which is just another small town in the canal zone itself.

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We were on the Pacific side. There's two sides Atlantic Side of the Pacific side. And we lived on the Pacific side. There's a town called Diavolo. And he worked at the post office in Diavolo in the mail room, and he worked his way up into different positions.

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And his last position was in workers compensation, where he worked on injury claims involving the shipping accidents in the canal. Okay, um, let's see you mentioned, um, lost Rios Elementary School. Decatur. Speak a little bit about kind of your experiences in elementary school. And later in middle and high school, we use Thio.

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Ride the bus to school when we were younger and, you know, knew everybody on the bus. You pretty much knew everybody, um, in the elementary school because most of the kids he went to kindergarten with you actually went all the way through sixth grade with we had to classrooms and every grade.

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So you either had one teacher or the other every year. It was really exciting to find out who was gonna be your teacher here and who was going to be in your class, because again, have the kids would be in your class. The other half would be in the other class and from Lotharios.

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When we were a little older, we would ride our bicycles, Thio school. Everybody wrote their bike or walk because we were in a very close radius school. The town was Los Rios. And then there was cores. Al and I believe those were the only two towns that went to that particular elementary school.

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There were several other elementary schools in the Canal Zone. Diavolo, Balboa, Gamboa born. I can't think there was an an con Elementary two. And then from there all of us went to Karen Do Junior High School, which is on one of the bases. And from there we all went to Bell.

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The life some of the kids that we grew up with in horizontal in Los Rios and the other towns is well did go to private school. Um, it was called ST Mary's, and those were really the only two elementary or formative formative years formative schools that I can think of at that age group.

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But beyond that, we went to London. When we went to Balboa were our only choices. But they were great ones, and parents felt secure. Letting their Children kind of ride their bikes or walk to school was a safe area. It was very safe. We didn't hear much about you know, any Children being in any kind of situation where strangers approach them.

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And really not A lot of people were strangers. You knew the kids. You knew their parents. And if you didn't know them, one of your friends did. So it was pretty much everybody look out for everybody else's little brother and sister and their friends, right? Right.

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That's kind of the impression I've got speaking with people who grew up in the zone. Um, and did you did you say you tended Balboa High School White? We all went to Balboa High School. That was 10th, 11th and 12th grade. Back when we went to school.

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It was first through sixth, was elementary and then 789 was junior high and 10, 11 and 12 with high school. When we did go to high school. Way did integrate with the military, even in junior high as well, with a lot of the military kids who are going to their own elementary schools on their base.

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Clayton Howard, Air Force Base and all Brooke Air Force Base. Brayton was the Army base, but those were the bases on the Pacific side. I may have missed a few, but those are the ones that come quickly to mind. One of the things I do recall about growing up there Waas I think Off Way had a football team that was called the Balboa Rams, and then we played a couple of other teams.

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But because it was such a small area, we really didn't have that many teams to play. Um, this was in the Junior League, and when we went on to junior high school, the kids from the Korean do junior high school team E think was called the Karen Do.

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Cougars had to play against the high school and the college because again, we just way didn't have that many other schools to play. So in that division, there was just Karen Do. Junior high school Cougars, the Balboa, Uh, wasn't the Rams, because now we're talking about high school.

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It was the valve, the Bulldogs and the big Red Machine because they had to divide up the high school into two teams. And they did it by your last name, which was very interesting approach. A through l was the Red Machine and M through Z, if I recall correctly, was the bauble of Bulldogs.

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They were the Bulldogs, okay? And then there was the college team, and I don't remember what they were called. I just remember that their uniforms colors were green. Thea other only other team that they played was the other side is we call the folks that live on the Atlantic side, and they were the crystal ball tigers.

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So that was just a way for the communities to get together on Fridays and Saturdays. And all the families would be out there and again, you know, pretty much knew everyone that was out there. And if you didn't, you knew somebody who knew them. Mhm. Um, you mentioned you went to school with some of the kids who were affiliated with the navy in the area.

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Did you ever notice any tension between, um, people who were there toe work with the Navy or people who are there to build the canal. Was there a divide between them or even people who were more, I guess, native to the area. Not in my world, but probably as an adult.

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There were some divisions per se. For example. The military folks have certain privileges that we didn't have. They had B X base exchange cards and P X. Um oh, gosh. I forgot what he stood for. I d cards, where they would go into these base grocery stores and, um, just post exchange stores and they could buy things.

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And I just remember that they would get things from the States that were really cool, that we really didn't have access Thio thirteen's or purses or records or things like that sooner than we would right, but nothing kid. But as an adult, I'm sure there were divisions, You know, that feeling that we don't get to participate in some of the fits at the base folks are getting, but they got their fair share to the Panama Canal.

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Commission employees had a lot of benefits. For example, the government I believe picked up there Electricity cab. I think they paid for their housing. Now I'm speaking out of turn because I don't know that for sure. But I seem to recall my father mentioning that before and that that was a reason why that was the reason that division was kind of held back to which was a good thing, because people lived and relatively the same type of housing.

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Most folks lived in apartments, but the majority of people lived in three bedroom homes, and a lot of them were very similar in structure. Right. Um what? What kind of how did how did your family react at least and kind of What was the feeling you got when uh, the U.

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S turned his own back? Thio Panama. Yeah, well, my own reaction was I was very upset because growing up, I always thought that I would go on to university and possibly have the opportunity to come back and work and live in the canal zone. That opportunity was taken away when that happened because it just simply wasn't gonna be jobs available in the pay if you stayed.

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Wasn't going to be what you were accustomed to and you're gonna be available in the city itself. So that was my reaction. Um, I think folks that were probably older may be welcomed in an opportunity to come back home and come to the states. Probably a 50 50 tight lid on that.

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Some folks, many folks were very upset because that was all they knew were born in Panama. They lived in Panama their whole life, and they had apple mated to the two different cultures and embraced it. And it was a It was a wonderful childhood. It really waas e guess if we could take a step back now and kind of focused a little bit on, say, how how did you all celebrate?

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You know, different holidays and stuff. I kind of get the feeling that it's a very communal area. Was there? Is there anything distinct about that about celebrating, say, Christmas or Thanksgiving that's different here in the States. Then how it was giving was traditionally the same, with least for my family.

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It waas. We could invite my mother's Hispanic family over, um, to partake with us, which they don't really celebrate that holiday. But they did for us. It was pretty much reserved for family, and we didn't. We had something American family that was there, but they were there only for a short while because they were military.

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And a lot of times you would only be there for three years. A couple years. If you were military, you moved. Your parents would be moved to another base or at a I'm sorry they'd be moved out of the country. So for us, Thanksgiving was pretty traditional Christmas.

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I do remember that we would hold a bomb fire e know that a lot of the other communities did as well. And we had the bonfire over by the flooding. Pooling core is out and, uh, roasted marshmallows and, you know, just a traditional bonfire for the holidays.

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And that was always a lot of fun. Bring your trees down, drag your tree down, and we burn our Christmas trees and the bomb fire. Which brings me to something that was one of my fondest memories was a low three of swimming pool in the summers, um, the elementary schools would remain open and there was no fee for going there.

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I don't call my parents ever having to pay a fee on they had all kinds of organized activities, and when school was out the first couple of weeks after school would end, you'd get forms and you would sign up for what you wanted to do. Arts and crafts or tumbling or dodgeball or whatever it waas and you go up to the school for those certain times.

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While most of us would come home for lunch because it was within by deer walking distance eat lunch, a lot of us would have are made there, and I don't mean that in a derogatory term. But we're very fortunate to have help and are maids. Were there a lot of them left over and were there 24 7, not 24 7?

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They maybe get a day off of the week, but they became like family and you would come home and they would serve you your lunch and and we sometimes go to the swimming pool or we'd go back to school. It was fun about the military of swimming pool was that all the kids would be there from the neighborhood pretty much know everybody.

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A swimming pool two. And on Tuesday night they would have Tuesday night. Uh, pool was open. I forget what time it closed. Maybe 8. 15 or something like that. It was always a big deal to get together and go to the swimming pool on Tuesday night.

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You know you're going to pull tonight. Are you going to the pool tonight? E remember the boys used to play? Gosh, I don't know the name of that game where you got the mayhem. A very heavy ball underwater that you have thio like soccer underwater. I am, for lack of a better way to explain it.

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E Remember them playing that all the time? Clinton called. Alright, that sounds like a lot of fun. Um, I'm interested, Um, in kind of learning about how people came to employ the maids was there. Do you remember kind of a central location where you kind of, you know, kind of like, um, you know, I wanna made and, like, I guess, a kind of ah, job provider.

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Do you know what I'm saying? Or was it just Did you hire local people? No, I don't know of any central. There wasn't an organized way or a systematic way that I knew of it was mostly word of mouth and referrals. Uh, my my made that I loved and adored.

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Her name was Gladys, and she came from a small town called on phone, which was in a couple hours from the city. And she was with me from the eight from I don't know. I'm gonna say four or five until I left for college. Okay. Came back and she wasn't working with my parents anymore.

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It was quite I was quite distraught. It was very sad to lose, Gladys. Matter of fact, when I go back to Panama on have been back to Panama. Ah, lot of times during the summers, I'm always looking for her and trying to figure out how I could find her.

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And she was there wasn't really a central way to locate them. It was maybe a family was moving, which didn't happen often, But then they would give up their made or somebody's somebody's made sister cousin and the maids came from the poor, smaller towns and communities in the city or outside of the city s Oh, you're made was a native Panamanian.

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She hadn't come from the islands, the Caribbean or anything like that. Most of the maids that I knew of when I was younger. Word native Panamanian. Okay, that's interesting. And, um, let's see. Do you remember having a lot of friends who kind of came and went because I know, um, often times if you weren't employed, you had to leave.

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So did you have a lot of people kind of coming and going? I don't recall any of that. Most of the people that I remember being there were there and stayed there because it was such a good thing. Right? Are you talking about maids? Are you talking about?

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Oh, just a civilian. Yeah. Civilians, family, friends. No. No. I don't know. Maybe some some divorce is not a lot back then and people moving back to the states. But I don't remember that making an impression on me or feeling like that happened often. Um, are your parents down there?

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Have they relocated to the states, retired after, uh, the canal formally turned himself over the Panamanian government and moved here to the states. So they were very fortunate to go to retire at that age because they were in there, um, early to mid fifties when they retired.

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But my dad was very lucky tohave the pension plan that he had with the federal government. And my mother has a very small retirement that she had from other country of Panama. Right. Um how much do you remember stateside politics affecting life in the zone? Not at all.

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Not. It was kind of in its own bubble because I know you mentioned you were born in 1962. So the civil rights movement, I guess you would have been a little young to remember, but just like stuff in that vein. A The only time that political movement affected was when Jimmy Carter became president and there was off began.

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Thio return the canal to countries animals. Outside of that, I don't really recall any. E was younger, so I really wasn't paying attention, right? World? Yeah. What about different racial tensions between, say, native Panamanians? Um, and kind of the white US Sony ins. Did you detect any of that?

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Yeah, I didn't affect me, but obviously there was some folks that it did, but again, it was it wasn't on a major scale and I was a kid, so I was probably blind to it. But looking back, you know, we had our different classes and castes.

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Like like any other country did I think it was more acceptable to have a different background and ethnicities there. And it is here what was here when I first got here? It's really didn't pay attention to that. Or at least I didn't write. Probably, I guess.

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Especially because I have a lot of mixed blends of cousins. E was used to that. Yeah, I guess. Just with the kind of mixing pot down there. And there's already so much diversity that it wasn't quite a za much like the North American mainland. Yeah, I was expected.

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Right. Um, I'm trying to think, Let's see, what was high school like besides football? Um, I know you mentioned that swimming swimming, I guess, was a big thing in middle school. But I guess social interaction kind of had to change by high school. What? What kind of stuff that high school kids do for fun?

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Well, there wasn't a lot of rules Panama on If we're rules, we probably didn't follow many of them. So way were socializing, I would say on a scale of college kids when we were in high school, a Zafar as having latitude to be out at night, traveling away from home.

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Um, some of us would even take Busses into the city and explore the city. And it was it was just that way. It was safe. And you could do that. Or maybe our parents didn't even tell we were doing that. We were just fucking Yeah. Was there a curfew now?

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Alright. And many Many of the parents didn't enforce their own curfews. I'm sure they did. I'm sure they had curfews, but midnight back then was pretty pretty late. I don't know how it very young, but you had to be home at 12 o'clock or one o'clock.

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That was a pretty long time that you were able to be out. So on a typical Friday night as a high schooler, you may be taking a bus into the city at a friend's house. Did you go to the movies often, Uh, in high school, when you're in your a lot of us set cars.

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Well, not a lot of us, but some of us had cars, bond. We'd take our cars to the Spinning Club in Dia Blow or to the midnight chicken coop or to the Balboa Yacht Club or Elks Club? A certain rendezvous points that we knew people would be at.

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What was the midnight chicken chicken? Same kind of things. Typical things teenagers probably do today. Yeah, on. Do you speak Spanish fluently? E o. Okay. Did, um, did a lot of the, um I guess the people who kind of came from America down from the States did they learn it?

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My father learned how to speak Spanish and a lot of the kids that I grew up with Danny Coffee comes to mind just because he really worked at it. And I'm so proud of him for learning it. But hey, picked it up from his made. A lot of the kids learned it from there from the made.

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Her maid didn't speak English of some of them. Didn't speak Spanish. Now, remember, my situation is a little different than I would say the majority, because my dad's American, but my mother from Panama, a lot of the zone Ian's or the true zone Ian's, both of their parents are American, and those kids probably have a little different um, take or not.

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Take it a little different opportunities to really immerse myself in the Panamanian culture that they had to. But I think maybe my level was just a little different than theirs. Alright, because you had Panamanian family. I'm sure that you were visiting quite often. Exactly. Go to We actually had a beach house in Coronado Bond.

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We'd be there every weekend until we got a little older and didn't want to go because we wanted to hang out in city and he was our friends. But when my parents retired, they did sell that beach house was just really killed me because it's just grown, and it's so a resort place to be in a love spending weekends there when I go back down.

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One of the things you did remind me of is which I thought was really cool when I was a kid. Was every other summer the government would pay for the employees, family employees and their family to go back to their home place. Eso, for example. My father was from Maryland eso every other summer we would come to Maryland to visit my grand parents, and we would stay with them for 4 to 6 weeks.

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My dad wouldn't take vacation one year so that the following year he would have that much more time where he could be in the States with his family. It was really neat because what you would do is real. Early in the morning, you go over Thio, the Department of Transportation, which was over in Karen do They would have all these card tables, chairs lined up Were you that was like the waiting area and they would bring in the school bus is a big huge, not like the ones we have here today, but even bigger than that.

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Almost like the city Busses. But they were school Busses. Hey, did you know the yellow color? And they would transport us Thio Human Airport, where everybody would fly into Miami together. So again, you knew most of the people on the plane to and their parents and then from Miami, everybody would go on to wherever it is.

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Their destination was some people were from Alabama from people were from state right there in Florida. Others went on thio other states in the country, and that was a free trip for the family every other year so that you could stay connected. The homeland. Mhm on.

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And what was it like leaving Panama, Did you think? Oh, wow. I'm so lucky to live here. Going to a cold place like Maryland. Well, when we went, we traveled in the summer. It was always warm, so I once was able to come to the States at Christmas time.

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Andi, I loved it. I mean, it was beautiful, but I had never been in the cold weather before, right? There was times that I thought it would be me to have lived in the stage or growing up in the States with my dad's family. But e don't think I'd ever change a thing, that's for sure.

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What was it like going toe doing the transition from Panama to Tallahassee when you enrolled at F. S. U. Was that difficult to move to the States? It wasn't for me. I I remember landing in Tallahassee, thinking of myself. I'm gonna love this on I did, but I didn't know of a lot of kids that had trouble letting go of what we had in Panama on finding something new.

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But I was very lucky to have met a lot of great people early on and and that just set the stage for my college years, right? I still go back to Panama, although I'm very lucky that I have my mom's family there. E travel the last have traveled the last maybe 56 years every summer with my kids for 10 to 12 days.

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Oh, wow. And you, do you go back to the Pacific side where where is your family located? Get Pacific Side. We always I've not been to the Atlantic side that many times except train over for the couple of football games that we played them in. Outside of that might experience on the Atlantic side is very limited.

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Okay, what were the biggest differences between the Atlantic and Pacific side? Just demographically And maybe, um, socially and economically was there one side that was more built up than others? I would say the Pacific was, but it pretty much mirrored about claim. It was the same the opportunity for jobs.

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So they had the same department of the government that we had. So again, my exposure over there wasn't great, but I would believe that it mirrored it. I think their population was a little less than ours. Yeah, on the Atlantic, maybe from that point of view, they didn't have the opportunity toe to have as many opportunities as we did on the Pacific side.

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But I don't think it was all that much different. Did you have, Ah, part time job as a high school student? Well, I did, Interestingly enough, I did. But I worked in the city in Panama on it really wasn't a part time job. I would work Christmases at a jewelry store called that Mendez, which there was owned by a very prominent wealthy family in Panama, just happened to walk in one day and asked him if I could work over the holidays and they let me.

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I came back and did that a few times, but overall, there really wasn't a lot of opportunity for more part time work for us because labor was so cheap there. Why would they want to hire Way? Probably wouldn't have worked for that type of wage. We did, though, in the summers I mean, we were pretty baby.

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Now that I look back on, cater to that's for sure way would have a job in the summer. Most of us, in fact, anybody that probably wanted one could have When I stay up finding the kids of the Zone Ian's or the people working for the Panama Canal and you would work in a different department meteorological and hydrographic branch personnel claims the Fire Department, wherever it is that there would be opening.

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And that was your summer job. You worked there the whole summer that you were home, and I don't remember exactly what summer it was. But I do know that at one point I was making $2.15 an hour. So it was just money to kind of save up and come back home, come back to college with kind of a way to keep us out of trouble and get us out of bed early.

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So you would return to home to Panama during the summers when you were at F. S. U. Most of the kids would return during, uh, we would go back Christmas and summer. The other holidays. Uh, some folks probably did, but it was quite a trip in and quite expensive.

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Back in those days, it was 4. $500 round trip, you know, to go to and from Panama these days. If you're lucky, you could find a round trip ticket for 2. 40 maybe even less. That's not bad at all. Now it's only a 2.5 hour flights.

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So not far. Yeah, especially if you're flying out of Miami. That'd be easy. Um, when did your parents move out of the zone? I'm gonna guess it Waas maybe, like 90. Okay. 19. And where did they relocate to? They live right here in sunrise. Okay, Not just where I live.

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Where they live over by, Uh, I guess it would be considered West Fort Lauderdale. Alright. That's nicer clothes. Yes, very it was. That was a very difficult transition for my mother. She lived in Panama her entire life. It's your culture. It's for people. It's her sisters, her parents.

00:30:34.140 - 00:30:47.720

Her father had already passed away. But her mother was still alive. And she did come here. And I do remember her, you know, crying and being very upset. The first couple of months she was here, but she says for gotten all that she's She's very happy here.

00:30:47.730 - 00:31:14.030

Yeah, What part of her family is still in Panama, her entire the entire set of her family. She's got three sisters and a brother there who all have kids that now have kids, too. So in addition to that, when you're in Panama, your cousins and their kids and their cousins, kids and everybody's cousins is your cousin and we're still so connected close knit does she ever come toe Fort Lauderdale to visit you?

00:31:14.040 - 00:31:42.990

You guys. Oh, my relatives? Yeah. Do they ever come up all the time? Okay, that's nice. That's it. Sounds like you guys have stayed pretty close. Even despite the distance. And again, it's really not that far. It's like a plane trip. Thio Boston. Yeah, close. Just It's just a mental thing because it's overseas that it seems like it's not as accessible is going somewhere else.

00:31:43.000 - 00:32:19.210

Right? Right. Okay, um, let's see. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Any final thought? Anything. I'm sure you re union. He had your mother mentioned that you had been to one? Yeah, I went to the this past one in Orlando. Right? So it's just always great to go to the reunions because you get to reminisce and talk about old memories and you can make new memories and these air bonds that you have with people that transcend time and anything else.

00:32:19.210 - 00:32:38.840

And let me give you a good example. This New Year's I'm actually gonna be spending new years with a a guy that I grew up within lotharios with. His name is Kevin Bars. Nous Bond. He's coming down with his wife and her son, and then they're gonna be staying at my house for a couple of days and one of the keys.

00:32:38.850 - 00:33:03.300

Now, I haven't seen Kevin and gosh, probably 20 years. Way ran into each other at the reunion two years ago, and since then he emailed me and he's like, We're coming down, you know? It just it just seems like yesterday and and the relationship that you've built with these people or just that strong Yeah, that's great.

00:33:03.300 - 00:33:15.680

That's kind of the feeling that I got at the re union. It was a lot of fun, even even though I was, you know, they're not kind of, I guess, just there with the university we had. We had a good time there. Everybody was getting rowdy.

00:33:16.640 - 00:33:33.680

Yeah, your mom told me you were there and I was very sorry I wasn't able to make it. But it's on the during the Fourth of July, and sometimes it's hard because we'd like to go to the keys for the fourth at a lot of friends that we've made and people that are down there and friends that come in from Pennsylvania.

00:33:33.690 - 00:33:52.240

So every now and then I got to make that decision not to go to the to the reunion. Yeah, I'm not sure we'll probably be going again. Um, this, uh, this year this next time around because I think we're working kind of alongside the museum. The university is taking over the museum's holdings, So I think we're we.

00:33:52.240 - 00:34:13.220

And at the oral History program, we're all pretty close to some of the people who work with the reunion. So hopefully we'll be able to go back. I was thinking, too, about you were talking about traditions and holidays of Fourth of July was always a big deal because we have a really great parade coming down the main avenue.

00:34:13.230 - 00:34:36.880

Balboa and the Shriners would always be there on their little Honda 50 motorcycles. I remember that. So that's certainly worth mentioning. Fourth of July and the other things that we did when we were growing up. We used to pull a lot at the Balboa bowling Alley, and I think Clayton had a bowling alley to, um, a typical things kids would do.

00:34:36.880 - 00:34:54.480

And I guess not so typical when you talk about today's kids because a lot of their time to spend indoors doing video games, E I think, but that we were just outside living that playing ring Olivio and War and get ball and all those kinds of things outside.

00:34:55.940 - 00:35:15.570

No, it sounds like it was. It would have been a really interesting experience, just based off everybody who I've talked to about it. And hopefully I'll be able to follow up and speak with Betty if she gives me a call back. And if you know anybody else, I'd be happy to take their numbers and emails even and contact them a swell.

00:35:16.140 - 00:35:38.870

Okay, I can pretty much put you in touch with 15 20 people on. I'm sure they love to share their story because we're very passionate about those days. Yeah, that'd be great. I think 2014 were working on the Smithsonian exhibit because I'm pretty sure that's the end of the 100 year anniversary of the canal.

00:35:38.870 - 00:35:55.550

Yeah, because it was finished in 1914 so that some of the oral histories were hoping to incorporate and the exhibit at the Smithsonian. So anybody willing to talk to us would be great. We've got about 20 interviews so far, so I don't know if you can maybe email me some contacts.

00:35:55.550 - 00:36:13.690

I'll be home in a week so I can do these, um, you know, face to face to I will definitely get you some names. Um, when people come to mind, I think, you know, Betty is gonna be a great person to talk Thio. And there's a lot of families that were entrenched in the zone.

00:36:13.700 - 00:36:28.170

Uh, second generation zone Ian's that I think hearing their side of the story would really be moving. Especially for your exhibit. Yeah, definitely. I'd even love to talk to your parents is Well, if you think they'd be willing, um, anybody willing to talk would be great.

00:36:29.240 - 00:36:42.470

Okay. Yeah. So I don't know if you wanna I can email you about it or let's see, maybe even once I talked to Betty to. She'll have some. Oh, gosh. I'm sure Betty will be off to the races with the whole thing. She'll be expected.