Think Different

“Here’s to the crazy ones.  The misfits.  The rebels.  The troublemakers.  The round pegs in the square holes.  The ones who see things differently.  They’re not fond of rules.  And they have no respect for the status quo.  You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.  About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.  Because they change things.  They push the human race forward.  And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.  Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”—Apple’s Think Different brand image campaign by BTWA\Chiat\Day

Snapshot of a lovely red candle, together with my Kindle Fire, displaying a picture of Steve Jobs from Walter Isaacson’s book, “Steve Jobs.” And of course, the symbolic red apple. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

A tribute to a visionary who left us too soon; there was so much more he could have done.  We miss you Steve!  Good Bye!

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A Red Caboose

Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Hubbard were English teachers working for the Farm #8 School in Changuinola, when I was starting my student’s life.  I was six years old when I started my English education.  The school was operated by the then United Fruit Company a.k.a The Chiriqui Land Company, and directed by an extremely efficient school director, called Florence McLaughlin from Boston.  I you have been a regular reader of Lingua Franca, you probably know that I grew up in a banana plantation in Changuinola in the Province of Bocas del Toro.

I recall we studied English language with books of different colors—very bright colors indeed.  The colors were blue, green, and red.  The subjects of those books were:   a father, a mother, three children (Dick, Sally and Jane), a dog named Spot, and a teddy bear named Tim.  All of these characters were included in those three brightly colored books.  They were so familiar to us, that I considered them to be part of my own family.  Spot was my favorite.

I remember very distinctly the very first time I heard the word “caboose”.  It was a gorgeous red coach at the end of a train.  Mrs. Hubbard, who had a marvelous English pronunciation, said the name of the coach was a caboose, pronounced ku’boose.  “A caboose”, she said, “is a car on a freight train for use of the train crew, usually the last car on the train.  Sometimes it’s called a cabin car or a cookhouse.”

The word got stuck deep inside my brain, and never forgot it till this day.  It’s been stored somewhere in my neurons for more than 58 years.  Amazing!

After all these years, I have never encountered this English word in all my readings or English conversations.  Nor have I actually seen a real caboose.  I know for a fact, that a metro or subway is being built, even as we speak, but obviously,  it will not have a caboose.  Yikes!

During one of my sojourns to El Dorado Mall, I encountered a small children’s electrical train with a red caboose exactly like the one stored in my head.  It closely resembled the caboose that Mrs. Hubbard had mentioned almost six decades ago.  It was so nice to walk memory lane once more.  Remembering in a sense, is like re-living past experiences.  This was one of them. A great one, I might add.  Thank you Mrs. Hubbard, wherever you are.

Below is the picture of the red caboose mentioned earlier.  Here we go.

Snapshot of a small children's electric train with a red caboose, found at El Dorado Mall in Panama City, Panama. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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A Pleasant Aroma of Strong Hot Coffee

November is a special month for Panamanians.  It’s called the Month of the Country—Mes de la Patria—because many days of this month are dedicated to commemorating the independence of Panama as a sovereign nation.  The remembrance starts on November 2 which is a special day to reminisce our loved ones who have departed before us.  The day is called “Dia de los Difuntos”, (Day of the Dead).  It sounds better in Spanish than in English, at least to my ears and senses.

Other festivity days of November are:

• November 3:  Separation of Panama from Colombia in 1903.
• November 4:  Day of the Flag.
• November 5:  Day of Colon City.
• November 10:  Day of the “Shout of Independence”—Grito de Independencia.
• November 28:  Day of Independence from Spain in 1821.

El Día de los Difuntos is a day where relatives and friends buy flowers to take to the cemeteries where their loved ones rest.  It’s a special day of remembrance, love, and meditation.  In my heydays, radios stations only broadcasted classical or semi-classical music.  That is no longer true nowadays.  Times have changed.  I feel nostalgic for those days of deep remembrance for those who have departed before us.  At the end of the day, all of us will travel through that road towards infinity.  The obvious question is not if, but when we will set forth.

While my wife Aura was purchasing flowers for her deceased parents, I waited in a dark coffee shop at the entrance of a local supermarket known as El Rey—The King.  It was a small, but very cozy place flooded with a most pleasant aroma of hot coffee.  Above hang an exquisite example of a Tiffany style lamp.  The walls were decorated with steaming cups of coffee.  It was a wonderful place to be at.  Ahh…it feels so good to be alive.

Below is a picture of where I was while my wife was buying flowers for her loved ones.  Here we go.

Snapshot of an enticing Tiffany style lamp hanging above a small coffee shop in Panama City, Panama. Notice the hot cup of cofee towards your right. I can still smell the aroma of strong coffee while I type these lines. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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A Venerable Barber’s Chair

When I was a highschool student at IPA (Instituto Pan Americano),  every month I visited my barber at Avenida Central.  His name was (or maybe still is) Víctor.  He was the best barber I’ve ever known.  The barber shop was owned by his father and two other brothers.  The cost of a haircut was half a dollar and was performed with great skill and dedication.  I still remember the smell of the lotions Victor used.

Below is a picture of an old barber’s chair which I recently discovered at Mi Pueblito during a photo walk.  It is an exact replica of Victor’s venerable barber’s chair.  It’s so nice to walk through memory lane again.

Snapshot of an old barber's chair located at Mi Pueblito in Panama City, Panama. Take notice at the three hanging hats on the background of the picture. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

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Walking Down Memory Lane

Do you remember a time when…

* Decisions were made by going ‘eeny-meeny-miney-moe’?
* Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, ‘Do Over!’?
* ‘Race issue’ meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
* Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?
* It wasn’t odd to have two or three ‘Best Friends’?
* The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was ‘cooties’?
* Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
* Saturday morning cartoons weren’t 30-minute commercials for action figures?
* ‘Oly-oly-oxen-free’ made perfect sense?
* Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?
* The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?
* War was a card game?
* Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
* Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
* Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

Yep, those were the good ole days when just about everything was possible; even flying like Superman wearing a Superman’s pajamas.  Good Day! 

Source:Bits & Pieces

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Thinking Back…

How many of these do you remember?

* Candy cigarettes
* Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.
* Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles.
* Coffee shops with Table Side Jukeboxes.
* Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum.
* Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.
* Newsreels before the movie.
* P.F. Fliers.
* Telephone numbers with a word prefix…(Raymond 4-601).
* Party lines.
* Peashooters.
* Howdy Dowdy.
* Hi-Fi’s & 45 RPM records.
* 78 RPM records!
* Green Stamps.
* Mimeograph paper.
* The Fort Apache Play Set.
* Nancy Drew
* The Hardy Boys
* Laurel and Hardy
* Howdy Doody
* The Peanut Gallery
* The Lone Ranger
* The Shadow Knows
* Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk

I’ll betcha many of them will ring a bell.  Good Day.

Source:  Bits & Pieces

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Memories of Days Gone By

Do you remember when….?

* All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?
* It took five minutes for the TV to warm up?
* Nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?
* Nobody owned a purebred dog?
* When a quarter was a decent allowance?
* You’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
* Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
* All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?
* You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn’t pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?
* Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
* It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?
* They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. And they did it!
* When a 57 Chevy was everyone’s dream car…to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?
* No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?
* Lying on your back in the grass with your friends? … and saying things like, ‘That cloud looks like a… ‘?
* Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?
* Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?
* And with all our progress, don’t you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today.
* When being sent to the Principals office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home.
* Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn’t because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat… as well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.

Didn’t that feel good, just to go back and say, ‘Yeah, I remember that’?

Source:  Bits & Pieces

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Yeah, I Remember That!

Do you remember when…

* All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?
* It took five minutes for the TV to warm up?
* Nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?
* Nobody owned a purebred dog?
* When a quarter was a decent allowance?
* You’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
* Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
* All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?
* You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn’t pay for air? And, you   got trading stamps to boot?
* Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
* It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?
* They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. And they did it!
* When a 57 Chevy was everyone’s dream car…to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?
* No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?
* Lying on your back in the grass with your friends? …. and saying things like, ‘That cloud looks like a… ‘?
* Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?
* Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?
* And with all our progress, don’t you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?
* When being sent to the principals office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home.
* Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn’t because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.. .as well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.

Didn’t that feel good, just to go back and say, ‘Yeah, I remember that’!

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Memories

Memory is the name of a popular song recorded by Barbra Streisand in 1981. It has also been recorded by  famous artists  such as Barry Manilow, Petula Clark, José Carreras, Sarah Brightman and others.

Originally, Memory is a show tune from the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats sung by the character Grizabella, a one-time glamour cat who is now a shell of her former self. The song is a nostalgic remembrance of her glorious past and a declaration of her wishes to start a new life. Sung briefly in the first act and in full near the end of the show, “Memory” is the climax of the musical, and by far its most popular and well-known song.

Songs are able to bring back memories of our past bringing back a suitcase of emotions felt during those previous years.  The same is true with images embedded in photographs.  Both visual and audio stimulus are powerful agents of remembrance.  This is why the music and photography industries are so strong.

Photographs of weddings, baptisms, first communions, engagements, graduations, children’s births and other important social events in our lives, are very dear to us.  We take great pride in displaying them in our living rooms or offices.  We cherish photographs because they bring back memories.  They help us return to the past and feel emotions which have long been forgotten with the passing of time.

I feel goose bumps all over my body every time I see a photograph of my father.  He meant so much to me.  The  emotions I feel while viewing his photographs are extremely difficult to describe.  I suppose it happens to many of you with your loved ones.

My wife has a little table in our living room with several photographs of people she feels strongly for.  The table also hold objects related to people which constitutes her personal inner circle.  This depository of images and objects is what makes her tick.  This small table evokes warm memories with its corresponding positive emotions.

I decided to take a picture of this sentimental table that is cherished so much by my wife to share with you today.  I’m sure you have something very similar in your living rooms as well.  Here we go.

Picture of a small table in our living room showing several photographs and objects related to persons we love. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

A closer view of the living room table loaded with memories of people we care for. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

A close up of the table depicting photographs of persons we reach out to. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

Another view of the table which shows Christmas cards, baby's shoes, and small religious objects of people who mean a lot to us. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

The great value of photographs is capturing precious moments of time for later enjoyment.  Photographs freeze time, and in the process, makes us remember and feel.  Photographs are memories.  Good Day.

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The Balboa Clubhouse

“In one direction of the Prado, was the Clubhouse,
a fine place to eat…
Or swim at the pool, buy a comic,
or go to the movies for a treat.”

Snow W. Frost
07-01-2000

In the immediate background of Steven’s Circle, sits the Balboa Clubhouse, long a landmark and gathering place for Panama Canal Zone inhabitants who lived in the large apartment complexes between it and the “Admin Building,” as locals sometimes referred to it.

Every town in the former Panama Canal Zone had a clubhouse. There was Balboa, Gamboa, Cocoli, Ancon, Pedro Miguel, Margarita, and Diablo.

While at Balboa High School, many students did lunch at the Balboa Clubhouse in the back, near the doors that led to the swimming pool. The Clubhouse was also the site for some heavy-duty studying or cramming for semester final exams.  In some clubhouses, like the one at Cocoli, the old folks played Bingo.

The Clubhouses served the Canal Zone inhabitants well.  They were community centers, study halls, home away from home, and a place where everybody knew each others names like the theme from Cheers.

The Clubhouse was part of the human fabric interwoven so closely that made the Panama Canal Zone the place to live for most Zonians.  It was the perfect water hole in the area. When you evoke the Balboa Clubhouse, your eyes get moist and it’s not because of a sudden gust of wind, mind you.  Absolutely no doubts about it, the Balboa Clubhouse was the place to be.

In an effort to capture the current situation of this historic Balboa landmark, I took a couple of pictures of it last Sunday, March 22, 2009.  This is what I saw.  Here we go.

Photograph of the Balboa Clubhouse the way it looked on March 22, 2009. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

Picture of the Balboa Clubhouse located at Balboa former Panama Canal Zone. Notice that a roof has been added to the original structure. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

If you want to find out how the Balboa Clubhouse looked way back in the fifties, kindly click here for an aerial photo of the building taken on December 27, 1950.  Happy memories and Good Day.

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