Happy Holidays from the PCMC!
‘Tis the season for sending and receiving holiday cards! Please enjoy these cards from the Atlantic Lock Employees Association.
What do you remember most about the holiday season in the Canal Zone?
Panama Canal Museum Collection
A digital connection to your Canal Zone heritage at the University of Florida
One Comment
Bob
The Gavalin area was a section of Balboa that had an upward slope by a hill. One the streets on this slope was called “Santa Claus Lane” when Christmas arrived. All of the neighbors along the street decorated their homes and lawns extensively with Christmas lights and also strung lines of lights across the street. There would be a traffic jam of cars as apparently everyone in town would drive slowly up and down the street, admiring the lights.
As young children we were puzzled how Santa Claus could enter our homes to leave presents since there were no fire places or chimneys for him to go down. We also puzzled about what were “rain” deer.
The big activity after Christmas was to ride our bicycles around the neighborhoods, looking for Christmas trees. People put their now dry Christmas trees outside by the curb to be picked up. Groups of us would gather perhaps up to 40 trees and store them for a big bonfire. The fire department would schedule the day and time for a bonfire, having a fire truck available if needed. The trees would burn quickly, making a column of flames in the night sky. Families then cooked hotdogs and hamburgers on the resulting embers.