on the Atlantic side

This post is a bit of a nostalgic indulgence from my regular posts about our family life. I just got an email that reminded me of my time in the Canal Zone during high school. Our class has maintained a good website for CHS, Class of 73, and next year will be the 40th reunion at the annual Canal Zone Reunion in Florida. There is even a link to all the yearbooks at the web site. My brother and Sandra have attended one or two, but I haven't been and I'm afraid I haven't been in much contact with my fellow Canal Zone brats, most of whom scattered all over after graduation.

Sadly, the Canal Zone is gone in some important sense and Cristobal now warehouses shipping containers.

This video, which I think is brilliant, captures where I lived in high school and the people I knew. I can't tell if the people who made it or who are pictured in it came just before or just after my time there, but otherwise it feels contemporaneous with my time there. Every time I watch it, I feel the tug for Panama and, especially, for the Atlantic side. It stirs my memories and invokes wonderful feelings about where I came from.

I once found this image of my home there. My home is nestled on the hill in the foreground, overlooking Gatun Lake, where we had a dock. The picture comes from a few years ago, long after we lived there.

The images and the words of the song in the video could hardly be more perfect. One of the things I recall was how we knew so many people there. It was never confined to our class in school. That was hardly ever recognized as much of a distinction. That may explain why the reunion in Florida is an annual event and attracts everyone who ever lived there.