Latin America 1950s

In 1956, Commercial Cable Company agreed to provide up to a dozen young ACPO’s, fully familiar with both Morse and 5Unit tape, to travel to Latin America where they would pass on their knowledge to All America Cables and Radio personnel at the Stations on the Companies main line route from Lima, Peru to Balboa, Canal Zone.

The man given the task of training the aspirants was Nobby Clark, and experienced ACPO himself, with many years working with CCC. Nobby’s wife was from Belgium and his patience, good humor  and teaching abilities were surely due in part to him having to learn Flemish to court his bride. In November of 1958, a notice appeared on the main office information board which stated in part that the company was seeking young men to be trained to handle the transition from Morse to 5Unit in South America. Applications were called for forthwith. The first three selected were Patrick Cleary, Maurice Hale and myself. Training commenced early January 1959. It was explained to the students that they would have to work their regular turns as well as spend four hours daily inn the third floor training room with Nobby Clark.

The first thing was to teach two of the students to read Morse. I had learned it during my training days at Great Northern Telegraph Co. and this was a distinct advantage. GNT required graduated students to make no more than one error per 1,000 words and not more than one erasure in 100 words, high standards indeed!. The 5Unit was something we were all familiar with and was no problem. We learned how to pass Morse tape from hand to hand, scanning first letters, and as we became more accustomed to them, whole words. After a few months it became second instinct and we were all soon very efficient. During the training period the class was regularly visited by the Superintendent, Mr. Walsh and once the students were given a talk by Joe Cheek who had served in the Azores and who had some knowledge of overseas service. In July Nobby told us to get our passports and we all made the necessary arrangements. We were told that Cleary would go to Salinas in Ecuador, a cable head where the Lima/Balboa cable landed and Hale and myself to Balboa Canal Zone. We were given a great send-off by Ron Baxter, Brian Stamp and others one evening at a small pub in Bishopsgate Churchyard. On Saturday August 15^th 1959 we met at Cromwell Road and took the coach to London Airport. None of us had flown before and this was a great adventure. We caught a flight to Amsterdam and there we found out just what traveling in luxury meant. We were booked first class to Panama City and then Cleary would travel on to Quito Ecuador and go  by bus to Salinas.  We boarded a KLM Super Constellation, the twin-boom long distance aircraft which had been the B in WWII.

I remember the flight well. There were only seven first class passengers, ourselves, a famous surgeon on his was to perform an operation in Ecuador and Maria Bueno, who had won Wimbledon a month earlier at 17. She was stunning and we gaped open mouthed at her for hours while trying to talk to her in English and her replying in Portuguese. There was also another elderly couple but we learned little or nothing of them. We went from Amsterdam to Zurich, on to Paris, down to Madrid and then to Lisbon. Over to Azores, down to the Netherlands Antilles at Curacao and landed at Tocumen in Panama some 36 hours later. During the trip there were numerous prizes for the first class passengers. Guess the exact time the wheels touched the runway on landing, guess the exact time the aircraft crossed a coastline etc. At every stop we disembarked and were provided with meal tickets at terminal restaurants. In those days there were not a lot of travelers and we were free to talk round in the duty free areas, not that any of us had money to spend!

I recall disembarking down the steps of  the Super Conny (there were no jet-ways in those days) and feeling the 98 degree heat and 100% humidity. We were met by Kelly DiBella who we learned was a AAC and R Supervisor in Balboa. We put our suitcases into the trunk of the Chevrolet and rolled through Panama City to Balboa. DiBella was not a talkative man but the journey was a wonder for us as we had never seen anything like this tropical wonder. We had all read about the Canal Zone and it looked nothing like what we were seeing! Half naked children played on the sidewalks, garbage had accumulated in huge heaps. There were bar’s everywhere and the people were laughing and smiling as they enjoyed their weekend (this was a Sunday)  Then, in one block, we went from squalor to luxury as we crossed into the Canal Zone. Manicured lawns, clean buildings (many of wood) no garbage in the streets and well dressed citizens driving new cars.

We arrived at the Cable Office on Gavilan Road in Balboa around 3pm and were shown our rooms on the second floor of the building. It was very hot and humid and there was no air-conditioning and no fans in the rooms. There were about eight rooms on the second floor plus a communal bathroom and lavatory. We met Ida Omphroy who we learned was the maid and to whom we would pay $10.00 each month to do our laundry. Later we learned that anything that was lost usually ended up in Ida’s private room. I recall Peter Stevens and myself breaking into this room on night and finding a virtual treasure trove of comforts and goods that Ida hoarded, never distributing the table tennis rackets or balls and letting us have the other games that had obviously been purchased for the bachelors at one time of the other. We also found she left out crumbs for the cockroaches which abounded in the quarters.    

We settled in gradually, finding that the nearest “Commissary” or eating place in the Canal Zone was about a mile down the road and a meal cost about $1.00 the bus cost 5 cents each way. Our salary was $200.00 monthly so it’s easy to work out that food and transport plus laundry each month was over $100.00. We had to buy our own bedclothes, as well as any soft drinks or other comforts. Stamps and writing paper to stay in touch with home and suitable clothing for the climate. Looking back I don’t know how I managed to save enough to purchase a car (a 1952 Pontiac) buy gasoline and go out once a month into Panama for a few drinks and a meal. All of us were usually broke a week before the end of the month and finished up eating green mango’s from the large tree in the back yard of the office. Those and the occasional loaf of bread with peanut butter were staples for the bachelors. The senior staff were mostly Canadian ex-pats and the juniors were ourselves and boys from Panama. There were also half a dozen messengers, who, for ten cents or so, could find cheap meals (shark meat, tripe, and the famous ‘Limits 50 cent’er’ purchased down the road where the Canal Zone met Panama and consisting of some unidentified (but tender) meat, rice, potatoes and salad. We would also splash out 25 cents for an 18inch long roll costing 5 cents, butter 5 cents and 15 cents worth of ham. A huge sandwich which could last a boy all day!

So this was the Canal Zone. It had seemed so exotic when we were in London but it soon because second nature to see the strange sights that were everywhere. A giant Sloth in the Mango tree along with hideous Iguana’s. The occasional snake and bats in the storehouse at the rear of the office.

After a few months the second group of boys arrived. Malcolm Wollaston, Ted Bass and Dennis Sheehy and then another groups with Mat McMahon, John Haywood and Peter Stevens. All were absorbed into the Canal Zone culture and worked their shifts (there were three, eight to four, three to eleven and ten PM to six AM. After you worked your shift you were free to do whatever you pleased, but because of lack of funds, there really wasn’t that much that could be done. The Canal Zone was very restricted for the Cable Office staff. We were not “Zonians” and were only “tolerated” at the Club House for food and allowed to purchase no more than $100 monthly total at the other stores (grocery, furnishings, liquor etc) Everywhere we went were asked for I.D. and had to show our useless “Commissary Cards” which had no photo on them and which were in fact useless!

We made do though and found our own ways of amusement. I made friends with boys from Balboa and then with the Panamanian operators. Now, forty five years later I go back to Panama (from Miami) every three months and always have dinner with Ricaurte (Negro) Franco, an ACPO who I worked with in those early days and who was the first person to invite me to his home in Panama. Along with Malcolm Wollaston, this is my oldest friendship. Peter Stevens was released by AAC and R in 1964 and started his own Shipping Agency in Panama which thrives today. His daughter worked for me for a while in the late 80’s. Wollaston was released but went on to rise to the top at 3M as Chief of Communications, an extremely important post. Maurice Hale lives in Scotland and has a business restoring vintage motor cycles. I lost track of John Haywood, Dennis Sheehy,  Ted Bass, Mat McMahon and Pat Cleary. I know that McMahon married a girl in Balboa and was sent home. Bass married a girl from Panama and I believe was transferred to either Lima or Salinas but I have no further knowledge of these people.

I went back to CCC in September of 1962 and had lunch at the Ship with Nobby Clark but I don’t recall seeing anyone else who I knew at the office. Then at the end of the month I returned to Balboa for another three years. During this period I studied and was promoted to the staff of ITT Standard Electric in Panama as Assistant Manager. I stayed there until early 1970 when the ITT Division Chief, General McNitt, embarrassed that I had invited him down to Panama for the 1969 Presidential Elections (My father in law was Dr. Arnulfo Arias’s chief of staff and Minister of the Presidency)  arranged my release. Dr. Arias had been overthrown in a military coup only 11 days after taking office and it was known that I had been responsible for spiriting him and four of his cabinet members, along with a car full of arms, out of the Republic and into the Canal Zone and safety.

I became General Manager for Central America for Western Union International in Panama and in 1975 was transferred to Puerto Rico to run the WUI/Cable and Wireless operation there. I returned to Panama in 1982 and had my own business until 1987 when I was made Vice President for Telerate Systems (Later Dow Jones Markets) for Latin America. There I stayed, traveling extensively from Chile to Bermuda and all points in between, until 1995 when I left them. I then wrote TV scripts for a financial program and produced a widely read monthly Financial Report. These days I run the International Relations department of a Miami Telephone Company and get to travel occasionally. I’m married (43 years next year) and have two sons and two grand children. My wife and myself travel throughout the state of Florida for recreation and this, along with caring for the grandchildren, keeps us pretty busy. I managed to write a novel in 2002 and this was published under the name “The Golden Altar”. Going to Google and putting in Michael James Merry will bring up the details.

It’s a long haul from CCC and Wormwood St. From Ron Baxter, Maisie, Joan and Rowena. From Ernie Herbert (who rarely worked, preferring to pay Norman to do his shift and having plenty of money from a pools win to do so) To the ham rolls in the canteen (Mr. Daly) when on night shift. The Rifle Club with Tom Hood and the amazement of Guy Shorter’s magnificent suits. Aubrey Wollaston, the overtime king, having every prank in the world pulled on him and taking them all with a wonderful good nature. I recall his moped being attached to the dustbins in the back yard and him driving out pulling them all over. He would also sit at the end of the belt near the adrena when doing overtime on night duty and the ACPO’s waking him up by sending burning carbon paper down to him. I remember the “flimsy’s” getting stuck in the shute leading to the Telephone Department and helping out down there calling messages to clients on Christmas Day. The thrill of going out at lunchtime and having a couple of drinks on those holidays and the general friendliness of the people I met. It’s been a long time but those memories will always stay with me.

Mike Merry 2005