My Central American Ties

Visiting my mother this past weekend gave me a chance to look at old photo albums with pictures of my mothers parents and from her childhood. My grandparents, as I have mentioned before, were quite adventurous for the times in which they were young and I wish that they had lived longer so that I could have known them better as an adult. I am trying to encourage my mother to write down her recollections from when she lived in Central America - it was an time and existence long gone and in some ways like something out of a movie. So far she has not done so, but this March 2, 2000 Virginian Pilot article gives a sense of it all:

TRANSFER OF PANAMA CANAL CONTROL HOLDS SPECIAL MEANING FOR WOMAN BAYLAKE PINES COUPLE MAINTAIN TIES TO AREA WITH INVESTMENTS

With the dawn of the new millennium, most in the United States were focused on celebrating or on the infamous Y2K bug happenings. Little fanfare was paid to an historic event that took place at noon Dec. 31. But George and Marion Hamar of Baylake Pines were watching as the United States officially transferred control of the Panama Canal to the Republic of Panama.

It was a special moment for Marion Hamar, because she spent her early childhood in Panama, where her father practiced medicine. “The land divided, the world united'' reads the backside of a medal earned by Bruce M. Phelps, Hamar's father. He earned the medal while working on the canal from 1910-13. At the time, he was 24 and one of 44,000, including 5,000 Americans, who worked on the 50-mile project.

So began a family's ties to a small tropical country. After working construction on the canal, Phelps returned to the United States in 1913 to attend medical school at Vanderbilt University. After graduating in 1917, he was drafted in the Army and was sent to Ancon Hospital in the Canal Zone, in Panama for a year-long surgical internship. Afterward, he was stationed at a military hospital in Hampton.

When Phelps left the Army, he got a job with United Fruit Company, a corporation that produced and distributed fruit. Hamar's mother, Azelie Hibben, a registered nurse and World War I veteran, did the same. The couple met in Panama. They married and had three daughters, Mary Alice, born in Panama, and Ann and Marion, both born in Honduras. The family lived in Central America, mostly Panama, until moving to New York in 1939.

``In those days the fruit companies created entire towns at the ports including schools, roads, waterworks, a golf course, swimming pools and the hospital. They also built railroads to bring the bananas from the country to the port,'' Hamar said. The fruit company owned everything, we could go anywhere, do anything. The company took care of the employees, providing them with housing and medical care,'' Hamar said. Phelps was the superintendent of the hospital, which the fruit company owned. He also served as the chief surgeon. Therefore, the Phelps family received special benefits. “My father had the only car in town, and mom had a nurse and a cook,'' Hamar said. It was a great place to live, typical plantation living. We had all sorts of fruit: tangerines, oranges, papayas, and of course bananas, even the horses ate bananas,'' Hamar said.

The Hamars decided to invest money in Central America because of the connection. “Past and current investments are part sentimental, part economics. We had an original investment from Marion's dad, held on to it, and added to it,'' George Hamar said. They're pleased Panama took control of the canal. George, a retired stock broker, and Marion, a retired cytotechnologist, have lived in Virginia Beach since 1973. They have five children and 10 grandchildren.

My mother continues to own banking stock in Panama and brewery stock in Honduras. I have never been to either Panama or Honduras, but sincerely hope to visit there some day. Panama City, Panama is pictured above.