In Rainbow City, because the population was small and seemingly permanent(nobody moved, unless the father retired or died), children of the same age often grew up together and felt a sort of kinship. This strong bond at times would exclude all those who were not in their age group.

Ana was not part of our age group so we often tried to make her know that. A very talkative and bossy little girl, Ana was not easily intimidated by our indifference.She would show up with her jump rope, beg us , and sometimes even command us to play with her. She also knew all the little ditties we had made up that were part of our daily games.Actually most children in Rainbow City knew the same children songs. Some of our ditties were in Spanish, others were in English.

One day while Maritza, Xiomara, Melba and myself(we were all born during the same year)stood around talking, up came little Ana singing: “Paseo, paseo, ping -ping paseo”, while jumping and walking at the same time towards us with her jump rope, leaving us with little chance to dash away from her.
Ana was as bright as a morning star, she was not even in kindergarten and had already started counting, subtracting and multiplying. She was both fluent in Spanish and English, and she loved to talk .She also could converse like a big girl and was familiar with big words.
Ana, immediately understood that we were trying to dodge her so she was not going to go for it like that. She rushed over to us quickly and told us that if we did not play with her,she was going to tell her father and that he would force us to play with her.
We looked at each, blinked our eyes at the same time , and decided that we were not going to accept her baby game ;but as we turned around to leave, Ana started screaming.
While standing in the open garage on the side of my house which was two houses away from Ana’s, we stopped in our tracks as her screaming became louder by the second.
I do not know why we turned around and accepted being blackmailed by little Ana;but that evening we stayed put, and did not move from that spot.

That evening, my friends and I jumped rope and sang :” Paseo, paseo, ping -ping paseo” with little Ana until she walked away tired and sleepy with her jump rope.

The scene you have just conjured up is what I have always believed Panama to be, a child’s Paradise. We enjoyed your reminiscence very much because these small things only accentuate the fact that we, as Westindians, have a deep cultural heritage in the Panama Canal Zone and in Panama as a country.

Something you said one time about the conversation of the adults around you revolving around the knowledge that the Silver townships were “temporary” and that one day they would exist no longer once their usefulness had been reached. Well, we all understand now that there was nothing temporary about the cultural roots that have been embedded in us by our Silver People and that we continue to link back to them.

The way you write is a vivid example of what we see as our Panamanian Westindian Literature., unique and beautiful to say the least.

I first walked past the pool , and the Elementary school. I opted not to walk the long way along the shed over the creek stretching along the High School,Junior High and Elemetary School, on up to Mr. Broom’s barber shop, the clinic, theater and post office, right up to the clubhouse.

I had decided to walk along the Heights. For no reason at all, I then stopped to look at our lovely Catholic Church (St. Vincent de Paul). My eyes roamed all over the outside of the recent built church.My church was beautiful I felt . That particular day the church was locked and no one was inside. I saw it standing there very silent and lonely in the middle of heavy shrubs.

I walked away from my church and my eyes went over the bushes .I had goose bumps. The shrubs always gave me the creeps whenever I sat in church and looked oustside.
As I walked away from the church,I knew I was going to approach Mount Hope Cemetery soon. I geared myself not to look into the direction of the cemetery. Not looking in the direction of the cemetery was not enough, so I decided to run fast until it was out of sight.
Soon, I was at the entrance of Camp Coiner, my friend lived much further in an area called “the Circle”. As I reached the direction, I gently knocked at Elvia’s door, carefully not to do it too loud.
Her sister opened the door and the family greeted me very warmly. I met all of Elvia’s parents and siblings. They were very happy to meet me.
We conversed,played games and ate. The day went by very quickly. It was a very lovely day. I felt like a big girl. I believe Elvia too felt like a grown up.
Later in the evening,I called my mom and told her I was about to leave.
I then bid Elvia and her family goodby and told them that I had a nice time.
I walked away from Camp Coiner merrily skipping feeling like a big girl and in the blink of an eye, the sky became darkened, the way only Panamanian skies can.
I decided to walk quickly aware that I had to pass the cemetery.
As rain began to come down slowly,I decided to accelerate my speed. As I ran quickly, the rain came down more. The Panamanian skies opened up and warm rain poured down. The tropical breeze and the heavy rain both made such a powerful sound that I disregarded what my mom always told me, to wait until the rain stopped and not to run through the rain.

I looked back at Mt. Hope cemetery as I ran.I passed my church,the elemetary school, and the pool.I was drenched and soaked all over. Water ran down my head all over my face and I could hardly see. I ran fast, and I ran straight without stopping until I was right in front of my house at 5547-B, Montego street in Camp Bierd section.

My mother opened the door and asked me “Anita, why didn’t you wait for the rain to stop?” I did not answer.
Mother put a large towel over me and dried me tenderly.She told me she had called Elvia’s house when she saw the downpour but they told her that I had already left.

As I cuddled under the large towel, I wanted to tell my mom how much I loved when it rained and that I enjoyed the sound of rain and the smell of the earth after it rains.

I think my running through the rain would be one of many scary and horrible moments my mother would have to put up with during my childhood years growing up in Rainbow City Canal Zone.

We here at the Silver People Heritage site ate more than pleased to have serve the purpose we have set out to fulfil. Thank you for your comment which affirms all our years of research. We continue to insist that the Panama of the Canal construction and Canal Zone eras was the Ellis Island south of the border that has not received its due recognition.
We are still working at making it easier for us the descendants of the “Silver People” of Panama to trace our ancestry. We are very proud of our Canal Zone cultural heritage and hope to see more comments like yours.

Thank you again,

Note* we’ve removed your e-mail address from public viewing to safeguard your privacy from spammers.

C. Roberto Reid

Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

I’m sure that many people will remember those good old days you describe in your recent entry.

I immediately had flashbacks of when we were little children playing lata in Rainbow City. Lata is the Colon version of hide and seek.I don’t know when it became a bilingual game, but I guess it did because the people on the Atlantic coast were always fluent in both English and Spanish.

This game is played with a small empty can(the Spanish definition is lata). The first person caught usually has to find everyone. I don’t remember how we used to pick the first person to start the game. But the child who sets out to find everyone carries the lata in his/her hand. And as soon as he/she finds each child, he/she had to find a cement ground and hit the pavement three times and say, “one, two, three”, then say the person’s name.

If one of the children who was in hiding take away the can from the child who is searching for them, that child has to knock the pavement three times and then say”everybody save”. The game is then repeated and that child has to find everyone all over again.

Whenever we played this fun game, things did not always run smoothly. Often we would have some serious mishaps. Sometimes we would have to stop playing entirely when we noticed that there is a big difference between hiding and missing. We would then all have to go off together and search for some of the boys, who would really go into hiding.

Once Ernesto was found sleeping in a mango tree. My brother José decided once to hide in the gymnasium, then he stayed to watch the older boys played basketball. We once had to call the Canal Zone police to search for Ricardo because he never showed up and his parents were worried. He was found behind the back road sleeping. Ricardo claimed he got bored, didn’t want to play anymore, went fishing and then he fell asleep.

After awhile, we (the little girls) were convinced that this was not a game for boys.

I am glad to see that the little children of Colon still play some of the games we enjoyed.

In regards to the DDT, whether the Zone authorities knew of its toxicity to humans or not, I guess their greater concern was for keeping the conditions for the propagation of diseases such as Malaria and Yellow Fever, once so mortal on the Isthmus, that they made fumigation a priority.

C. Roberto A. Reid

We would run right up to the spraying tube of the truck and receive a full dose of the smoke-like gas substance that came right out of it.

Children often would call other kids to run along together, playing and getting lost in the heavy fumes from the truck. Rainbow children loved it so much that some of them ran with the DDT truck all through many of the streets.

We lived on Montego Street, the next street on the main was Trinidad and then Barbuda, etc.. Most of the streets in Rainbow City were named after the islands in the Caribbean. There was even a street named Bimini.

Mosquitos have always been a problem in Panama from the days of the construction of the canal. I imagine Zone authorities used DDT as a way of controlling the mosquitos.

Little children running carelessly behind a truck carrying pesticide that was later proven controversial and possibly dangerous to the human population is something I still ponder about. Yes, one day, the DDT truck stopped coming into Rainbow City. I don’t remember when it stopped coming, if we even missed it.

But I have a few question now:

How long did Zone authorities know that DDT could be hazardous to humans? Did the DDT cause any damage to the many people who inhaled its fumes throughout the Canal Zone?

Saludos,
Anita Cumberbatch