Images: top CZimages.com; bottom: La Prensa
The act of joining the colorful marching bands of that year of 1952 gave a kid like me access to the needed elements to shine in my world of darkness. This would forever remain “my moment” regardless of whatever else happened in my life. Continue reading
El Cruce Building just before it was demolished in June 2009; in my youth it was all one-room rentals for Westindian families
San Ramon Building at the entrance of "M" Street.
The parade route had not left the Calidonia/Wachipali district as fast as we all anticipated, as the marching pace slowed down to a halt. As we stood there marking time we noticed how official functionaries were suddenly ahead of us. It seemed as though it had been planned that way, so that the large contingent of the National Police and Firemen or “red shirts” we all called the Bomberos, was now at rest in the midst of us school children on precisely this point on the parade route. Continue reading
I eagerly rushed forward and took the drum from the boy and hooked it onto the belt at my side. Immediately, I was playing the drum as if I had been born with it and soon we were nearing the Encanto Theater near “P” Street, and… there she was. My grandmother stood stoically, not showing any emotion as I proudly, almost arrogantly showed off beating on that snare drum. Continue reading
Posted in Instituto Nacional de Panamá
Tagged fanny, Teatro Capitolio, teatro encanto, Toppin family
Image is property of our friends at LatinOL forums. Lucky Strike Building in Panama circa 1949.
The parade started in the street in front of the National Treasury winding up two blocks on what is Avenida Peru today. A left turn and we were on the familiar Avenida Central marching down the section known as Perejil. Before I knew it we were marching by my old primary school of Pedro J. Sosa in the neighborhood that had become so familiar to me, San Miguel, with Magnolia Building at its center. This is the neighborhood where I had started my adolescent life in the renowned National Institute. Continue reading
This is an old shot of the Teatro Capitolio. Image thanks to our friends at LatinOL.com.
That early morning light caught me at a time when I was the sole representative from the Magnolia and War Zone Buildings neighborhood. I stood there like a soldier at rest, a proud member of the National Institute Marching Band drum section. Continue reading
This is the Monument at the entrance to Parque Porras. Statue of Belisario Porras is in the center.
As I walked to school I had started to experience for the second time in my life something I felt every kid I was seeing that morning felt deeply in the pit of his stomach. I walked briskly noticing the early morning crowd of kids dressed mostly in white uniforms as I had done the year before, some of them members of the various schools in the area. We were all to gather at our respective schools to organize ourselves in readiness for the big parade. Continue reading
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