Canal Zone Matriarchal Supervision

Back in the old Canal Zone of Panama, during the American occupied years, families celebrated Christmas with the same youthful vigor, excitement and anticipation as their “stateside” contemporaries. Living in a community which was wholly excavated from the midsts of a rainforest, it gave little opportunity to locally obtain the universal and iconic symbol of the holiday: the Christmas tree. To ensure that the holiday had all the trappings expected from any American family, trees were brought in by the shipload. Said fir becomes commodity.
Once the Christmas holiday was complete, there was one more ritual that the Zonians had adopted to ensure they would gain the most “bang for their buck” out of said commodity. This was the annual Christmas tree burn. It had grown over the years to reach a summit worthy of the honorable title “annual tradition.” In later years, the burn was sponsored, interestingly enough by the CZ Fire Department, and held in the library parking lot. Leading up to the date of the tree burn, roving bands of barefoot Zonian kids would scour the streets of their neighborhoods in search of the curbside, discarded Christmas trees. These would be assembled in giant mounds, guarded by adolescent sentries who were posted day in and day out to thwart theft from comptetitor roving bands of barefoot Zonian kids. Rebecca has fond memories of the hunt for Christmas trees during these weeks following Christmas’ past, the joy of the discovery of the curbside conifer, and even sleeping on the tree mound to prevent the loss of even one bough off the hoarded tree pile.
She has brought that youthful enthusiasm and CZ annual tradition to the unsuspecting “stateside” families of Cocoa Beach. In what has become the 4th annual tree burn, she has established a firm foundation which will guarantee the tradition will be passed to the next generation of CZ kids and their families and community.
As in bygone years, she is out in the weeks following Christmas, cruising the streets of Cocoa Beach in her trusty Honda Odyssey: the Tree Hunter. With her three trusted scouts, they keep an eagle eye to the curbs for any sign of a tree, and awaiting that gleeful announcement, “there’s one!!” It is retrieved, and stacked with the others along the side of our house. Gaining in popularity over the last four years, other scouts have been enlisted, who also scour the streets to hoard the trees, bringing them by car and foot. It can be addictive, and one neighbor found one tree to bring to her tree pile, and by lunch time had covered a neighborhood territory that netted 15 trees.
This year, we assembled two caches of trees, and were assisted by many tree hoarders. Our cumulative total was well over 100 trees, equaling 5 or 6 trailers full.
Leading up to the date of the tree burn, ample preparations were made with the local authorities. Continuous contact was made with the County Fire Marshall, and the fire alert levels were checked, oftentimes several times per day.
The tradition has caught on, and this year we had over 100 attendees from across the state, Yawlies, and Cocoa Beach locals alike, joining to bid farewell to another year of Christmas, and relive a tradition begun many years ago in an American enclave of paradise, deep in Central America.