Aruba Book 5 Final.Pub

business so we never delivered to the bachelor quarters. We earned something like 16 guilders a week, plus tips. Some of those papers, like the Washington Post, were too heavy to throw. We used to meet at the Sunday school area to pick up our papers. I have forgotten the name of the man who delivered the papers to us in the back end of his car. Billy MacNutt was another of the paperboys. BOYS’ STATE During 1960 I was selected one year by the American Legion to go to Boys’ State while Gary Schlageter was my alternate. Boys’ State, a school held in the Panama Canal Zone, taught local, state and federal government. Representatives came from all over, including the States. We stayed in some barracks there. The American Legion expected and got a report of what happened when I returned. CUB SCOUT DAYS Marchant Davidson was one of the Cub Scout leaders. Usually the fathers went on campouts with their boys. I remember helping load our equipment on a large flatbed truck when we went camping. My dad was a veteran of many of these campouts. COLLEGE When I was ready for college I had a time deciding between Texas Tech and Texas A & M. A cousin on my mother's side graduated from A & M, so I decided to go there. In those years, you were drafted into the service after attending R.O.T.C. for four years, but my second year they made the last two years optional. While in R.O.T.C., I was in the marching band and I played the trumpet. Originally in mechanical engineering, I switched to industrial technology my second year. 456 The Lotje McReynolds Story I wish Mac was here to help me remember "the long ago;" it was surely the most meaningful period of my life. My name is Johanna Charlotte McReynolds and Mac's was Leonard Stevens McReynolds. His father was a Major in the U. S. Marines and he was killed in the 1920's in Nicaragua. He is buried in the Arlington Cemetery. My sister and I were born on the Dutch island of Saint Martin (up near the Virgin Islands). My brother was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My father was born and educated in Holland and was sent out to St. Martin to manage a Salt Development and Export Company, the island's chief source of income. There he met and married my lovely mother, descendent of a titled French family who escaped from France, and the guillotine, during the revolutions there in the 1700's. Some settled in England and others in the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe (where my mother was born). SCHOOL My earliest memories of school started at the age of five years in Canada, continued in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, and later in New York. In my early teens we returned to the warm blue Caribbean and I attended Dutch and English schools in Saint Martin, St. Christopher and Barbados. My sister went to Miss Branch's School for Girls in Antigua. I earned my Oxford/Cambridge High School diploma and, after another year's study a Business School Certificate. In those days English girls did not flock to colleges unless they planned a business career. I joined the Barbados branch of the Royal Bank of Canada as a secretary. EARLY YEARS Those were such glamorous and exciting years in the Islands! The social life was delightful with picnics and dancing and sailing and swimming, but it wasn't considered proper to have "dates," as we do today. A goodly supply of chaperons was always on hand. ARUBA ENTERED OUR LIVES When we were in St. Martin, there was a Government doctor and his young French wife who were friends of my family, a Dr. Nunez and Lizette. They were transferred to Aruba at the time we lived in Barbados, and Mrs. Nunez wrote to Sylvia, my sister, inviting her to come for a visit. We knew nothing of Aruba or the Lago Company then. 457 However, just at that time Captain and Mrs. Rodger, Mr. Farquharson, Ralph Watson, Bert Oxley and three or four Englishmen whose names I have forgotten, were in Oranjestad starting up the Shipping Department of Lago. Except for a Miss Carrie Croes, there did not seem to be any available secretaries, and my sister was asked to help out in Captain Rodger's office, which she did, until she and Bert Oxley were married a couple of years later. MY FIRST JOB IN ARUBA A Pan-American accounting office was started at the other end of the small building where Captain Rodger had the Shipping Office, and I received a letter from the company, offering me three times the monthly salary I was being paid by the bank of Barbados. Also, I was asked would I be able to persuade an equally qualified secretary to accompany me. So that is how my friend, Peggy Edwards, and I came to Aruba. The accountant from the New York Office was Mr. John Alden, who descended from the John Alden. I became Mr. Alden's secretary. Peggy joined the Shipping Department and a few years later married Bert Martel, an accountant from the U. S. and a fine gentleman. OUR HOUSING AND SOCIAL LIFE IN THE EARLY DAYS I went to Aruba in my 20's and am now in my 70's. We traveled by steamer, first to Trinidad as I recall, to Curacao and then to Oranjestad, Aruba. I do remember how warmly we were received; everyone seemed so grateful to us for coming. They had prepared temporary quarters for us until we and the others could move to the five new bungalows being finished out at Lago. We were taken to the upstairs floor of a private home. I seem to remember we only had breakfast there, and then drove over to Lago and back again after 5:00 p.m. I think our small office by the cliff became the Post Office later. We were across from the old "White House" where we had lunch and supper. Mr. Farquharson, second in command in the Shipping Department, was very kind and helpful. In the Oranjestad house, he would help us whenever things got stuck, such as the stove, or a window, etc. He was from Scotland and became our dear friend (as they all did). Later, when the colony at Lago was pretty well along, his fiancée (Hilda) came out from England and they were married. Pretty soon, five bungalows and a sheep shed were completed and we all moved over to Lago. Captain and Mrs. Rodger and their daughters lived in the stone house which later became the main office. The five bungalows were in a row east of the Rodger’s home and in them lived the Aldens, the Pennys, two other 458 British couples (I have forgotten their names), and us three girls. Soon after, a nurse came down and stayed with us, and the small hospital was built. We were often entertained at the Rodger’s home at Saturday evening parties. Mrs. Rodger very kindly wrote reassuring letters about us to our mother, who was never too clear in her mind about Aruba. My sister and Bert Oxley were married at the Rodger’s home. There was a big reception and everyone was invited, all the captains and officers from the ships. The Lake Tankers in the harbor strung up their flags. Peggy and I were bridesmaids. I remember how helpful Mrs. Rodger was in having our dresses made. Her youngest daughter was the flower girl. Later, one of the ships' officers was married to an American nurse and another big reception and party was held at the Rodger’s home. THE COLONY GROWS It was fantastic how fast the place was growing. Contractors arrived to build the refinery, and new bungalows and office buildings were going up all the time. "Bird Cage Row" was built, overlooking the sea. These were for families of the officers on the Lake Tankers. Harbor docks were being built, and an entrance had to be opened in the reef and dredged deep enough to permit ocean tankers to enter. There was usually a strong current flowing west just outside the harbor entrance and it was believed that was what kept the flaming oil outside, after the submarine attack in 1942. Finally in November of 1928 the San Nicholas harbor was opened for shipping. The big ocean oil tanker Cerro Azul was the first ocean tanker to come inside and we had quite a celebration. There was a small dock on the beach above the camps, and afternoons and weekends we went swimming. The ball parks and tennis courts came later. We wondered how the reef looked close up, so one day my sister and I swam across to find out. The sheep sheds were filling up with refinery workers, and new bachelor quarters and bungalows were being built. The Rodgers and other officials moved up to "The Hill" overlooking the upper lagoon where we sailed and swam. The Lloyd Smith family lived higher up (further east) in "Casa Grande" and had groups of us to parties occasionally. "Essie" Esselstijn and Winnie Smith became engaged. The "stone house," the Rodger’s former home, became Mr. Bartel's office, with the Engineering building on one side and the Accounting on the other. The Aldens left and T. C. Brown arrived as an "efficiency expert" to run the Accounting Office. Later he became the Controller.

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