Canal Zone Brats Forever

In 1904, the United States government rented a strip of land, 10 miles wide by 50 miles long, from the Republic of Panama and created one of the world's greatest engineering feats, the Panama Canal. In the areas on either side of the Canal, small towns with all the accoutrements needed for the families of the workers cropped up. Thousands of children called these towns "home" and even today refer to themselves as "Canal Zone Brats." As a memorial of those great days, Kathleen Cox Richardson has written a collection of coming-of-age anecdotes of the first 22 years of her life in the Panama Canal Zone. This is her Canal Zone Brats Forever.