Smokin' and Drinkin' . . . the "best of" the Message Center

From: Paul Dolan
Date: 3/1/2001
Time: 11:52:13 PM
I'm not about to tell how drunk and stoned we got back then, but I will tell where we got it. As the rest of you Causeway heads will remember (you know who you are and don't try and excuse yourselves with any of this "I've since found religion" stuff either, you guilty dogs!), the Bodega America was located one block down from where Gran Morrisons and the Ancon Inn use to be on 4th of July Ave (I only passed BY the Ancon Inn never in it I swear, Father Kennedy!) Friends and I would start our Friday night with (1) A trip to the Chinese Garden to buy a few yards of banana paper (to wrap gifts for friends celebrating their Holy First Communion, Bar mitzvah or something.) (2)"Borrowing" cokes from mom and dad's bar. (3) Hitting the Quarry Heights Officers Club where we'd tippy toe to the back and "borrow" a few pounds of ice from the ice machine. (4) Bodega America. What then? The Causeway, Corozal cemetery, the Police Lodge, anywhere. Interesting to look back and see how such child play was considered fun.

From: Mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 3/2/2001
Time: 7:42:56 PM
Oh don't get me started about about the bodega where if you were old enough to put money on the counter you were old enough to buy.Dave/Paul were you guys with me on that run in the red cruiser when we almost hit a guardia when we ran up on the curb taking the corner in front of the Ancon inn?- note- true "zonian" quizz-What color were the doors on the ancon inn?Yes I did go up the wooden stairs there but took the door to the LEFT into the slot machine room only!!!!

From: dave jones
Date: 3/2/2001
Time: 10:29:50 PM
were a hideous red color. So do I win the prize?

From: mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 3/3/2001
Time: 11:48:54 AM
Yep but you have to buy youre own plane ticket.You can hang out at the top of the stairs and see which door the prettiest one enters.Don't forget to bribe the guardia there or you may come home with a shaved head! remember if you got busted by them they would shave your head so everyone would know.

From: George Waller
Date: 3/4/2001
Time: 12:33:31 AM
Ahhh, but the head shaving always took place at the "Carcel Modelo", which, as I understand it, it no more since "just cause". I remember laughing at some guy in one of my classes who showed up wearing a silly baseball cap to hide his newly bald head!

FYI there is great article in Feb National Geographic "Adventure" magazine called "Back in The Zone" by a former Zonian, ( not from our class though). Am I the only one who read it?

From: Mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 3/5/2001
Time: 12:07:18 AM
Hey george welcome aboard! Yep it's all gone and from what I hear is all apartments now. I used to score down there and one brave night with Tomas Foster walked right in front of carcel modelo with a dime in my *%#@. Any one remember old Joseph who would fix your flat tire for a sixpack of american budwieser?First right after crossing 4th of July ave. A lot of heads got shaved after the big bust at Freedom Park across from napoli's- Narcs came down the hill-Guardia and deni across the street. Me I escaped getting busted by jumping and hanging on the window guards of a Chiva all the way to Quarry hts gate then the long way around to Balboa.

From: Tom White
Date: 3/2/2001
Time: 4:42:57 PM
Yup, got my first bottle of rum there at age 12

From: Joe
Date: 3/3/2001
Time: 5:15:07 PM
Tom, What did that bottle of rum cost you, two dollars? Do any of you wild men remember the bar called "El Bufulo"? That was going to be my 17th birthday gift, but I chickened out! Speaking of which, is anybody able to get ahold of some Seco, that would bring back some fond memories, I think! :)

From: Mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 3/3/2001
Time: 7:59:01 PM
Joe- Last I heard they changed the recipe for seco herrerano, Not as potent as we remember. It was a ritual on beach trips to stop in at the San Carlos cantina for cold Panama grande with ice in the neck, then do shots of seco with iced milk chasers. Then the guardias would escort me across the street and play dominoes til dawn. At dawn we would go to the bakery for pan dulce,back to the bar for ice and more cervezas and to the beach. After nights like that no wonder I felt no pain after a good wipeout surfing!!! Seco era dos venti cinco la botella.

From: Dave Jones
Date: 3/2/2001
Time: 10:41:42 AM
I remember going down there the first time around 17 and being nervous as to whether they would sell to me our not. As I pretended to look at the selection and decide what I wanted, a little kid who couldn't see over the bar walked up and ordered a Panama "Para mi papa'". With new confidence,I followed him with "Dos mas grande para mi papa' tambien." Gee, do you think they named it Bodega America for all the business they got from us american kids down there? :) P.S. I hear there is a place in Savannah where you can pick up Panamas.

From: Mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 4/16/2001
Time: 12:18:39 AM
There was a time when we could/would cross the street and sit in a circle to smoke a doobie before class. We had home room to try and sober up. Then came the installation of cameras at the fire station and elementary school so we then would stand up under the bushes around Goethals monument so we would not be seen actually smoking. Was I the only one to get the whipping after the CZP called my Dad in to watch the tape. Why did I wear baggies and jap slaps to school!!! BUSTED Any one know what happened to Mark Lawrence and his girlfriend Debbie?

From: Joe Barkowitz
Date: 4/18/2001
Time: 10:44:51 PM
Wow, on tape and everything! Paul, remind me to share a couple of stories with you at the reunion! I also wonder what happened to the Lawerences? Remember Greg, he and I were good pals in elementary school. When I first read this title, I thought you were relating an old bible story! :) Boy, that WAS good stuff!!!

From: Mouse (Paul Fiori)
Date: 4/19/2001
Time: 11:13:22 AM
Remember the Chame flats? That long straight away after coming out of the twisty hills and lined with coconut trees. Really could go fast maybe even a whole sixty mph. Well me, Gary Day and Josh Nelson were zooming to the beach and blew the doors off a Guardia colonel and his family. he radioed ahead and the Guardia pulled us over and escorted us back to Arraijan Cuartel where they took my red beach cruiser apart looking for pot. They confiscated the playboy/penthouse magazines beer and stuff. We kept looking at the jungle a few yards away planning a quick dash if they found the pot. just as we were about to be let go the capitan came out and wanted to look under the hood. yikes busted maybe? no he just wanted to talk engines with me. they finally let us go with a ticket come to find out the captain went to school at LaSalle with my dad. We smiled all the way to Tits Point laughing all the way since they never opened the air cleaner and discovered the 1/4 pound of red we had stashed there! ha Another one for my memoirs!!! Do you know why PanaGringos talk so fast? You try talking like a parakeet when you are a kid.