The Way It Was…

Many of you will agree no doubt that growing up on the Canal Zone were the best days of our lives. I still remember waking up on the first day of summer, well… “Dry Season”, looked though the back window only to see “the cutta cutta man” cutting the grass. Then somebody, I won’t call no names, decided well, hey, it’s dry season. Nothing to do, so I will just drop a match on all that bush and watch it burn! Then this unamed person will run and hide when the firemen came out only to find out that instead of putting the fire out, they just went ahead and finish the job. Ratidiks! If I knew that I would have burned it too!

It was very hard to get into trouble with the law back home. We were really never bad kids. We considered bad, the so-called maleantes that lived in our neighborhood. But those guys were not really bad. You could count the times that anything really bad ever happened in Paraiso. I only remember one drug bust which made it to the courts but I do not even recall if this was for selling any major drugs. We just lived happily ever after most of our lives, fishing, playing all sort of games, hunting, bringing home delicious mangoes, and even swimming in the canal at times with no major threats to our lives. I guess that’s why my town was called Paradise?

When the weather cooled down it was either off to the movies, swimming in the pool or just hanging out with friends playing lata, wacho, jacks (yes jacks!) chipon, gorilla bate, penitencia, raya, prince of peace and the list goes on.

My favourite pool was Gamboa pool on Thursday night. What great times those nights used to be. Diving off the high board into 12 feet of water. But Gamboa pool was kinda dangerous because you had to be careful not to hit the cement directly in front of you when diving off the high board. And did that board have a spring or what? Coming from Paraiso pool, I thought that it would be very easy to dive off that high board and touch bottom. Well, I had to learn how to do that. The water was two feet deeper than Paraiso pool.

And who could forget boomers! In Paraiso pool you had to be very careful coming out of that dressing room going into the pool because once you hit the entrance guess what? The boomers will get you! My favourite dive was one and a half. I got really good at it. One of my brothers did gainers. Think that was the name of it. It’s that funny dive where you had to twist your body about 360 degrees then dive into to the water head first. To this day I have no idea how people did that. Butterfly, backstroke, side stroke, none of those were my style. I just love to swim. That’s it!

There was always something to do in Paraiso. When you got tired of swimming, you could go to the Youth Center. Play that old jukebox, pinball machine, pool etc. And since the clubhouse was nearby I just had to go buy “butta brickle” ice cream. Another favourite of mine was bread pudding. I can taste it right now! If I was working as a kid back home, I will go bankrupt just buying bread pudding alone! And who can forget the canal zone patty? You wiggle that vending machine door sideways till you get it between two compartments and pull out two patties! Come on, you know you used to do it too.

Then there was the old commissary with the pesquiza Bustamante or Bushell at the entrance trying to stop people from shopping twice. He just knew you were contrabanding for your panamanian relatives. They never bothered us too much though. What they going do? Send us to jail? They can’t call our parents because they are the ones that sent us in the first place! Send them to jail! Hahahaa!

There used to be this man named People with his PT-109 (my version) taxi using the iron skate for wheels he probably stole from one of the kids in the neighborhood after Christmus.

Packing bags at the commissary for customers was a hustle back home. Especially during the Christmas season. Imagine me and Nini fighting for customers. Then all you got was a nickel! And still had to say thank you ma’am.

Then when you got tired of hustling at the commissary you could go to the Elementary School Gym and play basketball. I use to love the excercise. It was my favourite sport for the excercise to the point I had to install my own rim in the back of my house. Best fun I’ve had all my life!

One time “Missa West” left the Elementary School gym in his Studebaker long before I left and I walked home and still got there before him! What about Parijee with his “Yellow Submarine? You could always tell when Parijee car was hitting that Ghost Town curve because your tv reception will mash up! Well, that’s how I use to say it back home.

So now it’s night time but the fun never ends on The Canal Zone. You get together to play dominoes, chess, touching iron, chevy chase (is that the name?), and a lot of other games.

When we just wanted to mellow out, we will hang out on the steps around the corner or on the Grand Stand and listen to “X” La Panamena, Radio Mia, Radio Mil. Man! I will NEVER forget the baladas. I just LOVE me some baladas! Camilo Cesto “Quiere Ser Mi Amante?” Angeles Negro “Y Volvere” Nelson Ned “Happy Birthday To You”, Roberto Ledesma, Jose Jose, Juan Carlos and many others. To this day I still play and collect baladas anywhere I can find them.

Now who can forget the basilon songs? Love In The Cemitry. Talk about run! “Chombo Pa La Tienda”, Boom Boom Boom (NO! Not Black Eyes Peas!) Boom boom boom, who’s knocking at the door! Pura pifia man! Well, I was always a music lover. Love all dem oldies. I only remember going to one concert in Panama. The Jackson 5. I remember meeting Mr. Michael Jackson on J street before the concert. He was of course very young back then. What an experience it was. He was walking on the streets alone, then I looked at him, he looked at me and we kept doing that for a while. He thinking I knew who he was, but I KNOW that he recognized me! Yeah right. So me and German “Mario Cousin” met MJ and some of the family members shopping there in a jewel store. I think Jackie and Jermaine were the only two absent at the time. I love Michael but my favourite Jackson 5 was Jermaine. He was my man! Love his songs. Anybody remember a song called Corner of The Sky? I didn’t think so. Well that song was sung by The Jackson 5 with MJ as the lead singer. One of my favourite songs on that album in my J5 collection. It really described MJ and how he just wanted to find his place in the world. Interesting.

I guess those days inspired me to play the guitar. A hobby I took up after leaving the old Alma Mater. But my favourite hobby was painting. Unmatched by anything I’ve ever done on this planet. I love music, electronics and art amongst other things. Also love writing poems especially of my home town. Something I did while back there growing up.

What about the bonx? Si, pachiangando men. The Youth Center, Parish Hall, Club 50, St Vincent Hall in The City, Toldo (Chucu Chucu Music) in Cosita Buena, Gran China, Atica, Pana China, El Espejos, even The Elementary School Gym. Hey Chilibre too! I still remember Club 50 parties though. They were off-the-country! Bumpin to Ginger Baker, Manu Dibango War, Cisco Kid, Sould Makoosa, Let’s Start. Pifiando with the maxi heel shoes, big fro, afro pick in your back pocket and a pen and paper in your front pocket in case you pick up a phone number. Hahahaha! Hey, the Dairy Queen right across from the bus terminal was the spot. Hanging out drinking milk shake and looking out for the girls coming out of school.

The swing swang was cool though. Well ok the swing! LOL! But you had to be careful with it. We used to try and do a 360 on dem swings man! That was crazy! I would never forget the time we would lay a board across 2 or three swings and one time I went so high I fell out the swing. And I do mean airplane high. So young it really felt that high. And I hit the gutter head first! Lost my memory! Dang! Thank God though I recovered the next day. Lots of pain but recovered nonetheless. We also had a merry-go-round for when you wanted to get dizzy! Well.. we didn’t drink! LOL!

You know, my 6th grade teacher Mr. Phillips always told us and right after that bell rang, “You are not going to live on the Canal Zone for the rest of your life!”. I said, what? Him mad! I na gwain no wier! Wier I gwain go? How comes Mi mada neva tell mi dis? Maybe him having a rough life and just hate zonians! Well it wasn’t till years later that my father done went and did it. He retired man! Wanted to smack him upside his head. So I lived in Panama for about a year, and then came to the US. Panama and The Canal Zone was now only a memoria… It was good while it lasted. Oh well…

If you like this blog, I will write some more. I will write them anyway what the heck. Just bore you to death!

Hahahaha!

If you want to write an article like this about Riso, Gambax, Pedro, Arco Iris, The Canal Zone, Panama, or even you kids reading this might have something of your own. Let me know. We can add it to the blog page. If not, oh well….

It’s been fun.

Laaata
Dave