 | Killed my father’s pet parrot in its cage with a broom handle in our
house on stilts in the La Salina lakeside camp. Seems I was about 3 years
old. |
| Walking to kindergarten in the new La Salina staff school by crossing
the main highway between Hollywood and Las Cupolas. There was a stairway
over some pipelines at the fence between the camp and the road. |
| Piñatas at the birthday parties. |
| Watching the “octopus” pumping unit lines going back and forth at the La
Salina golf course club house.Eating a great breakfast consisting of fried
eggs, platanos and goat’s cheese chased down with a cold glass of Klim milk. |
| Using my Mother’s strainer to dip minnows out of the roadside ditches in
the Hollywood camp after a heavy downpour. |
| Having squirter fights. |
| Placing “poppers” under the lip of our dog and watching him shake his
head when they Popped. |
| Placing lemon juice in my dog’s mouth and watching him stick out his
tongue and shake his head. |
| Getting a spanking at least once a day. |
| Playing Cowboy and Indians all over the camp. |
| Having a real cap-gun as opposed to using your fingers or a stick and no
longer having to make those gun noises ie: Keeechhhh, Keeechhh. |
| Making my first bomb by screwing a roll of caps between two bolts and
dropping them onto the road. |
| Eating half-ripe mangos. |
| Eating anything the birds ate – plus. |
| Getting a case of runs at least once a month. |
| Walking on the blistering asphalt barefooted during noontime on a dare. |
| Frying an egg on your dads black company car hood at noontime. |
| Getting burrs stuck in your feet – especially right behind your toes and
in your hands as you pulled them out. |
| Getting nails stuck in your bare feet and then tetanus shots with dull
needles. |
| Running around the camp late at night in your underwear when no one was
out. |
| Killing everything that moved or attempted to. |
| Stealing your Dad’s booze. |
| Buying your Dad’s booze at the club at age 11. |
| Swimming at the club at night in the nude. |
| Slingshot fights with the native boys. |
| Watching the packs of stray dogs in heat. A regular event and large
component of early childhood sex education. |
| Watching the mother’s try to run off the stray dogs in heat out on their
front yards so their youngsters would not get any strange ideas. |
| Dry season and the heat, death of cattle, buzzards, smells. |
| Rainy season, heat, humidity, death of cattle, buzzards, smells – good
and bad. |
| The black tornado of buzzards over the Maracaibo stock yard. |
| Buzzards all the time. |
| Orchids of all kinds |
| Dwarf bananas hanging in the carport. |
| Snakes of all kinds and most deadly. |
| “Bushing” the girls when they came out of their showers in the
ground-level homes. |
| Going home when the street lights came on. |
| Playing kick-ball in the first through 6th grades. |
| Playing “Death” dodge ball. |
| Playing kick-the-can at night. |
| Not playing because of fear of Polio. |
| Great swimming pools. |
| Swatting enormous termites and ants when they swarmed after the rains. |
| Running over frogs by the thousands when they came out onto the warm
back roads after the rains – it made a neat popping sound. |
| Going fishing out on the lake using the work-boats and always catching
great fish of all kinds. |
| Making and throwing Molotoff Cocktails. |
| Listening the music from the “native” camps late at night. |
| Crossing the lake on the Ferries. |
| Stopping to be searched at the alcabalas. |
| Spending great early years growing up with a bunch of great kids. |
| Outdoor movies in all weather conditions. |
| Flit guns and DDT – stops all insects dead plus. |
| Making out with your childhood girl friends. |
| Always having a dog as a pet and it’s ticks, burrs and oil. Taught to
hunt lizards and iguana – where else? |
| Having a much younger sister. |
| Getting vaccinated for everything. |
| Getting shots for everything. |
| Extremely poor natives living off the jungle yet generous and having
great pride. |
| Extremely poorer, dirty Andian Indian children standing at the roadsides
with their hands out asking for a locha. |
| The Guardia Nacional with Mausers slung over their shoulders with their
hands out asking for a “gift”. |
| Listening to the “Hit Parade” on the Voice of America. |
| Listening to popular music from a radio station from Miami while sitting
up on the dike in Tia Juana. |
| Watching the Catatumbo Lights across the lake late at night from the Tia
Juana dike. |
| Drinking Cuba Libres as often as possible. |
| Drinking any kind of rum, but if you had class, then it was Cacique. |
| Drinking cervezas any time – Polar was my favorite. |
| Never smoking Venezuelan cigarettes – they were awful. |
| Air-conditioning – at last!! |
| Dance parties under the houses on stilts. |
| Baked Red Snapper with scalloped potatoes and stewed tomatoes. |
| Meatloaf almost all the time. |
| Tenderizing steaks using fresh crushed Papaya. |
| No cold water ever for taking a shower or washing. |
| No tubs to bathe in until you went to the States on vacation—then cold
tap water and long tub baths. |
| Real hamburgers and Fountain Cokes in the States. |
| TV in the States and Flash Gordon |
| The first TV in Tia Juana at Franca Vettor’s home in Tia Juana – Sammy
Davis in Caracas – lots of “snow”. |
| Legitimately going to a “No Apta” movie for the first time. |
| Dating for the first time – your childhood friends? Strange because you
grew up with them and they were like family. |
| Waterspouts |
| Blowouts and oil droplets falling into the camp. |
| Death of a father of a childhood friend from a work accident – too
often. |
| Revolutions |
| Communists |
| Democracy – maybe. |
| Watching Japanese sugar-ants climb the wall by the bed during siesta
time. |
| Finding grooved ant trails cut in the asphalt roads by army ants on old
Shell exploratory roads behind Lagunillas. |
| Cattle covered with lumps containing tick colonies. |
| Cattle guards at the entrances and exits to the camp to keep the stray
cattle out of the camps. |
| Dead cattle beside the roads during the long dry seasons. |
| The headlights of the jeep reflecting millions of emerald green
glistening eyes of “Trap-Door” spiders in the front yard after the rains
came. |
| The flashing blue, green and red feathers of parrots as they flew
overhead in large flocks behind Lagunillas. |
| Piloting the work launches on Sundays on the way to distant oil rigs to
fish all day. |
| Santa Clause arriving by helicopter. |
| Trinidad Steel Drum bands walking the camp streets and playing during
Christmas. |
| The smell of the coming rains of rainy season. |
Previous
Page