November 2005

I was just trying to catch up on many of the pictures that I had missed in your Photo Of The Week, and I realized that I had not accessed your site for quite some time. In so doing, I came across the picture of March 21, 2004 and saw that you could not recognize the building on the left side behind the bank. This was the American Legion Hall. In 1942 my father was transferred from Cristobal to Balboa and we lived across the street from the bank, behind the Post Office, at 750 Balboa Road. The American Legion Hall was right across the street, and my father started a comic book exchange there on the ground floor for the kids.......for every 2 old comic books you bring in you can take 1 home. As you can imagine with the 2 for 1 swap, the number of comic books available grew exponentially.

BTW I remember the day that they changed over from driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right side . I was not sure of the date, so I appreciate your commentary under the picture that it was April 15, 1943. That date helped my remember our move, since on Dec. 7th, 1941 we lived in New Cristobal in the same block as the Boyntons (George, Myrna, Niza, Rena) and Jay Troupe.

CZJC '52

Mike“Willie”Williams El Paso, Texas

I lived on Albrook for three fantastic years and went to Curundu J.H. the first year it opened. Many great memories. Played baseball for the base dependents team and played basketball for Curundu on the first team ever. I can’t remember the coaches name, but we beat the BHS’s J.V.. Anybody remember? I would love to hear from anyone who was around in those days and remembers the fun, especially the baseball, basketball or the Albrook boxing team, all of which I was a part of. Boxing coach Hankin at Albrook? The Powell sisters? Thought it would be fun to relive some memories.

I wanted to let you know that in my travels, while researching a blog entry about my great grandparents, I found your site (The Canal Zone Cyber Museum). I wanted to tell you that although I have not explore everything within the site, I was very impressed about the work and love that went into creating it. It is fabulous! It will be a link on a small list of reasons I think folks should experience Panama.

I AM TRYING TO LOCATE INFORMATION ON HARRY O. PEARSON, A GOV'T WORKER DURING THE YEARS 1929-1939. HE WORKED IN THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING AT BALBOA HEIGHTS. IF YOU HAVE ANY RECORDS IN YOUR MUSEUM CONCERNING MR. PEARSON I WOULD BE MORE THAN GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD MAKE CONTACT .

Dear Bill McLaughlin:

Thanks for the enjoyment that I have gotten from taking a trip down memory lane. I had left the Canal Zone back in 1970 after living there for the first 23 years of my life. My parents had both spent many years in the zone prior to their retirement in the mid-60s. My father, James O. Catron (Jim or Otis) came to the zone as a soldier in the mid 1930s and was stationed in Clayton Serving as a Blacksmith in the 2^nd F.A. to “shoe” the mule and officer’s horses. He also was on their Tug-of-War team in the Field and Track meets they had. He later became a member of the Canal Zone Police Department serving in Cocoli, Madden Dam and later in Gamboa running the Bloodhounds and their chain gang.

I have enclosed a couple of pictures that you might add to the collection.

Yours truly;

Bill Catron

Hello My named is Nathan Weade.... You Probably know my parents. Mike Weade and Jan Weade. Anyways a Friend of mine just died. His named was Garrett Hall. He like all of us grew up in Panama and was also a Zonian. I was wondering if you could put something about him on your site. He was a young kid. Could not have been more then 22 years of age.

I’m an Ecuadorian born American Citizen living in

USA

. I lived in Panama from 1971 to 1976… it was a great time