The Knapsack
By Ray Crucet

The subject of WW II Air Raids does conjure up a few childhood memories...

W.W.II bomb shelters were hastily thrown up all over town. The heavy duty ones constructed with sand filled 50 gallon drums staggered in walls four to five deep were located in the jungle some distance out of town, away from the all-important Panama Canal Locks of Pedro Miguel. Most shelters however, were sand bag affairs such as that applied to the 1st floor of the Pedro Miguel Union Church which also served as a USO. Mrs. Christine Crucet, my Mother, entertained the GI's there, on occasion, with a piano concert. One most memorable event in that Church was the impromptu concert she put on for a town in mourning the day President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. I remember her fingers, wet with tears, flying over the keyboard. Her music lifting spirits…

But, I digress...back to the "Air Raids". In Pedro Miguel we (most of the town) had to march a few miles out into the "bush" to reach our shelters. What with sirens screaming, search lights, barrage balloons, and smoke screens all put into play in the middle of the night, it was an exciting time for a kid. Unfortunately, my mother made me a knapsack...

It was made of a blue-red corduroy type patterned material from some cast-off skirt of my Mothers. You know, I took great exception to having that thing on my back, but to no avail. You see Mother's family in Spain had experienced a nasty Civil War, which was a WW II rehearsal sponsored by the "Master Race". Consequently, she was inclined to have me carry "just in case" items such as water, food, extra socks and yes, clean underwear. She even attached an eraser to it with string. The idea being to clench it between teeth during bombings...presumably to protect them from shock. What an embarrassment to wear that Knapsack thing with the eraser and string and all.

It got lost eventually...somehow.

Mother passed away in 1946, shortly after the war. She's buried in Panama at the Corozal cemetery near a small lovely chapel. One day, soon, at least in the not too distant future, I'll visit that beautiful tropical place again and apologize for losing that Knapsack, and I'll thank her for always keeping me and her family safe, and maybe…maybe I'll just...leave a string tied to an eraser on her headstone.