Canal Zone Brats Forever: Kathleen Cox Richardson
Thank-you, Kathleen Cox Richardson for bringing this book to print. For sure, it is an enjoyable read. Canal Zone Brats Forever is a memoir about Kathleen’s family’s life in the Panama Canal Zone during the 1940’s and ‘50’s. The Cox family primarily lived on the Atlantic side, Cristobal
Kathleen’s parents met in 1934 at a cocktail party in Panama where her father worked for the Panama Canal Company and her mother “just happened to stop there on a cruise.” Kathleen’s father had been sent by the U.S. Army to Panama in 1923, where he later received his discharge and began working for the Panama Canal Company. He enjoyed spending his Saturday nights at the Stranger Club, a popular dance hall housed in a concrete building that jutted out over Limón Bay. Her mother had been a school teacher on Long Island, New York and shared an apartment with Jenny, her college roommate and fellow teacher. Jenny suggested they take a cruise to South America and stop in Panama where Jenny’s aunt and uncle lived. While they were there, Jenny’s aunt hosted a dinner party, and that is where Kathleen’s parents met.
Kathleen engages her readers in fun anecdotes and stories about her family as well as typical daily life in the (former) Canal Zone. Some of her narrative references bits and pieces of world history to provide a fuller context of the time period. For example, she reminiscences her family’s experiences of Christmas during the war years of 1941-45. Kathleen reminaces:
From 1942 to 1945 because commercial shipping consisted only of necessities, Christmas trees were scarce. However, being creative people, Mom and Dad stripped an old umbrella of its fabric and created a “tree” by winding crepe paper around the spokes upon which we hung ornaments. If an ornament broke, they salvaged it by rolling the pieces between brown paper until they resembled glitter, cut star shapes out of KLIM can lids and glued the “glitter” to the metal. It was finished off with a hole made in one of the points and fastened to the tree with an ornament hook.
She also writes about a little-known treaty that U.S. President Eisenhower signed with Panama’s President Remón in 1955. Under this agreement, the U.S. handed over jurisdiction of New Cristobal, including homes, schools, and churches. The Zonians that lived there had to relocate on a very short notice to other housing in the Canal Zone. That was twenty-two years before the 1977 Carter/Torrijos treaty.
Kathleen’s book is light-hearted and charming. For Zonians, Canal Zone Brats Forever will let you momentarily escape to an incredible fun time in your life. For other readers, Canal Zone Brats Forever will give you a glimpse of Canal Zone life during the 1940-50 generation. I enjoyed reading her book.
