That well-known palindrome is about as short a story as you can get of what is considered to be one of the greatest engineering feats ever accomplished by mankind. small wonder that such a mammoth project was undertaken.  just imagine this: shipping companies could shave almost 8000 yes 8000 nautical miles off their trip from New York to San Francisco! over 10,000 miles off from Frisco to Gibraltar and 5 1/2 thousand miles from Liverpool to San Francisco.

Let’s take a look at geography and history and examine some special people who made this project possible. We go back as far as 1502 1503 to get our start and guess who is parked in ships right at the entrance of the modern-day Panama?

Christopher Columbus – yes the Christopher Columbus – spent Christmas and New Year’s day right at the entrance of the Chagres River. Why didn’t he go up that river and have the added glory of being the discoverer of the Pacific ocean? Were his ships too badly battered by storms? Were he and his men too tired? Whatever the reason The door to history was left open and 10 years later Balboa marched across the Isthmus of Panama and discovered what he called the great South Sea. The Pacific ocean!

Imagine just forty short miles from one major ocean to another and a shortcut that made men drool! France was the first country to rush in where angels fear to tread and it was no surprise that they put their hopes in Ferdinand De Lesseps who had already completed the Suez Canal in 1869. Because the Atlantic and Pacific are at the same level (except for tides) he suggested a sea level canal with no locks. He started in 1881 and felt he would finish it in 12 years. Things went terribly wrong! Mosquitoes put them out of business. Some say 16,000 died of malaria and yellow fever.

By 1889 he was in disgrace and a lot of French machinery was rotting in the jungle.

In 1898 during the Spanish-American war it took three months for an American warship to get from the Pacific to the Atlantic, so in 1902 they bought the project from the French for $40 million! Now, as Teddy Roosevelt said “make the dirt fly.” They started in 1904 and because of impossible conditions, John Wallace, the first engineer quit after one year! Enter John Stevens who lasted until 1907. He is noted for two innovations that made sure the canal would be completed eventually. #1 He rebuilt the old railroad system and procured lots of rolling stock and steam shovels. #2 He convinced everyone that only a canal with locks was possible. A level canal entailed too much digging.

When Stevens resigned in 1907 Roosevelt turned the job over to the Army Corps of Engineers, along with them came Gen. George Washington Goethals who stayed with it until completion. While the engineers removed dirt from the cut, another famous man was busy cleaning up dirt from around their living quarters! Many feel that without Dr. William Crawford Gergas the canal might never have been completed. He had already conquered yellow fever in Cuba and he used his tried and true methods in Panama. These included muslin cloth for mosquito netting, isolation of the infected, installing sanitary sewers, and fumigating buildings. In 1905 he looked down at the body of a yellow fever victim and said this was the last case they would see! He was right and his name belongs with those who moved literal mountains to complete that project! Finally on May 20, 1913 two steam shovels met from opposite ends of the Gaillard cut and the job was basically over. Just think, over $366 million spent and over 240,000,000 yd.³ of earth moved. Even with that amount of overburden removed ships still travel about 90 feet above sea level! They are raised and lowered that 19 feet by 3 locks at either end of the canal. The Pacific end is actually 27 miles east of the Atlantic and due to the way the isthmus twists at this point. A rather startling statistic when you realize that you are traveling from east to west!

I remember soon after the “new” family began, that Roberta and I took on the ominous task of sewing matching outfits for all the girls (Roberta and I included) for the summer convention. A bolt of fabric was bought (a small floral print in azure blue and white) and a whack of white buttons and thread.

Much to the younger girls’ dismay, we were on a very tight time schedule so we found a simple pattern that was a cute little wrap around style with three armholes. They didn’t think it was fair that Roberta and I got to wear “normal dresses” and they had to wear “three armhole dresses”.

Nevertheless, come assembly morning, we all donned our new apparel. We all wore white shoes as well. Because we were in the parade, we never got to see the visual impact we must have made, but we have certainly never had so many comments made – before or since – on our new assembly outfits!

Needless to say, with the famous “hand-me-down” policy of large families, it took many years before we saw the end of that memorable bolt of fabric.

I was housecleaning at my client’s home, which was undergoing renovations by her brother-in-law. We had gotten to know each other, as we were in the house together, both doing our own thing on 4-5 different occasions. Anyhoo, the brother-in-law said he had plans to head out to their Hunt Camp… the location for the Annual Effing Family Reunion

I naively asked, “Effing.  What nationality is that name?” He looked up at me, to check my facial expression. Since I looked inquisitively at him, awaiting his reply, he sheepishly answered me, “That’s a real bad word that we don’t like to say in full around the womenfolk.” I had to laugh, but I felt like a fool. I think I also made him feel bad for even saying it.

Some people might consider it traumatic to be left behind at a meeting while the rest of the family goes ahead home.  Not so with the Bryant kids!  We learned not to panic; eventually Dad and Roberta would notice our absence and come back to collect us.  To prevent this recurring problem, a family roll call was instituted.  We would all pile into the van and it would begin: Ray – Here! Juanita – Present! Derek – Hee-yah! and so on down the line.  Only later, when the number of children at home had dwindled to a mere 5 or 6 was the roll call no longer deemed necessary.

Being from a large family with thirteen children, we were not what most people would consider rich. Truthfully we were probably not even what most people would consider “comfortable”. We didn’t eat out much and we all had our chores ever since we were little. The nine girls of the family were taught to cook from an early age. This made for a very interesting diet. If one of the girls burned everything she cooked, the next youngest under-cooked everything in her paranoia of burning the food.

When we cooked or baked it was quite often that we did not have all the ingredients or baking utensils the recipe called for, especially the expensive ones, and no one was willing to go and buy them for a learning cook. This led us to regularly improvise or invent our own recipes using what we did have in the house at the time. As could be imagined these meals or desserts were not always pleasant dining experiences. Even though the food didn’t taste very good it did get eaten since none of us were picky eaters and we wanted the same consideration the next time we cooked.

One day my younger sister Gabrielle, who at the time was about five years old, decided she was going to bake something. No one realized that she was in the kitchen unsupervised at the time. She had seen us cook so many times she thought she knew just how to do it. She got a big mixing bowl and started randomly dumping in ingredients. She was making muffins and she put in milk, flour, margarine, raisins and sugar. Of course the measurements were way off since it was a five-year-old deciding how much sugar or raisins would taste good in a recipe. She had made such a big batch that no one wanted to throw it out and waste all that food, so one of my older sisters started dumping more unmeasured ingredients into the bowl. She kept adding things until she felt it was the right consistency and then we poured them into muffin tins and baked them.

When the muffins came out of the oven they were rock hard little pucks that had not risen at all. Since all of us kids were curious to see how a five-year-old child’s invented recipe of muffins tasted, we tried them. They weren’t very good and we didn’t want to eat them all so we went around to all of our neighbour friends and asked them if they wanted to try the muffins that Gabrielle made. They were surprised and said yes and eventually they all ended up being eaten. My little sister then thought she was a great cook since all of her muffins disappeared so quickly. Since none of the ingredients went to waste and everyone enjoyed a fresh batch of “muffins” our parents didn’t get upset with anyone.

Since that experience a new rule has been instituted in the Bryant home that the younger children need to ask permission and find a recipe to follow before they are allowed to attempt cooking. This has led to a much better quality of food.

Most people take it for granted that their car will start in the morning. They turn the key and the engine runs, the windows work, there is fixed seating, it is equipped with factory parts installed at a licensed garage and it has heat.

 

Not in my family.

 

True we have been known to own a vehicle fitting this description, but not for long. Dad just couldn’t stand the stability of it all. He enjoyed the challenge he faced every morning of starting “The untamed wild beast” as we affectionately named one of his horrid contraptions.

 

The typical family outing would begin with a call that it was time to go. Ten kids would file through the kitchen each grabbing a kitchen chair as they passed by. We would all jump into the van and line the sides with our chairs. Then we’d all hold our breath as dad turned the key. It started!

 

In the summer, the lack of heat didn’t bother us, we just wanted some fresh air. To open the driver’s side window you would hold your hand on the glass, remove the screwdriver, let the glass drop the desired amount and then jam the screwdriver back in place. The passenger side window was “the Bryant luxury model,” you turned a pair of vice-grips (which were attached to where the handle used to be).

 

At some point during the outing we would find ourselves in the middle of a famous side-of-the-road repair job where dad saw it as a test of his ingenuity to be able to fix the van without the proper tools. He would use only things he could find in the van at the time.

 

Since I left home, one of the sweetest pleasures in life is starting my car each morning.

 

As we chattered and laughed our way out to the field, we ran into a former employer who looked at me and my room mate and said with a grin, “I see you’ve come with two old crows.” Taken aback and speechless, I smiled weakly and the moment was gone. For the remainder of that stifling hot morning, I simmered and stewed inside that I had not spoken up in defense of our close friends.

After arriving home I just had to sit down and put my feelings on paper. I wrote a letter to our former employer explaining that although aging folks (“old crows”) may appear to be past their prime, my close companions, Cecile and Laura, were simply young, vibrant women in old skins.