A friend of mine sent me his family history here in Panama and it made me reflect on my Place Of Birth in the Panama Canal Zone.  While the hospital is no longer there and Panama converted it’s use to a government facility, I was able to locate the home where my parents raised me for my first years as a child.

Fort Kobbe was located in the former Howard Air Force Base that is now called Panama Pacifico, an expansive housing district, business park and airport.

It was a wild place back then where the jungle came alive at night and you did not leave your dog outside on the leash or you might only find the leash in the morning.

In 2006, I came to Howard to find my former first home.  London and Regional had just won the concession to develop Panama Pacifico and many of the building were still there from the early days of the armed forces.  The little subdivision known as Kobbe Hills was still there and through a process of elimination, I was able to find our old house number 124 shown in this picture.

I was in luck to have had this old picture of my Mom standing in front of the home 124. Yes, she was a beautiful young woman and my Father was a lucky man in that she followed him after WWII  through the rest of his military career from Texas to Okinawa, Guam, the Philippines, Japan and then to Panama.   His latter business in the military was to do the survey work for missile silos during the cold war and yes, there were some here in  Panama years ago.

My Father was also the striking figure of a man and he loved to act the part!  Ah yes, life in Panama was good!

So as I post this little bit of trivia, the memories come rushing back and remind me of my place here on this earth – Panama!!