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| Sadly we lost Harold Bankston in ‘91,but
I will always have the memories of me and him riding motorcycles on top of
the mountains between Anaco and Puerto La Cruz. One of the most memorable
rides was to a little mountain town called "Mundo Nuevo". This town
had a reputation for not liking outsiders and I remember telling Harold "I
don’t think these people really like us". His reply was "Don't worry,
they don't like any body from out of town". That was also the trip
where he talked me into getting on a mule to cross the river so we could
get a soda pop in town. Now this was not your little flatland Burro.
This was a full sized mountain mule. He was at least 6 feet tall and
the beast had more teeth than an alligator. He would also show them
to you on a regular basis. I was only about 12 years old at the time
and I thought I was pretty brave. I would ride motorcycles up and down
the mountains all day long,but I didn’t want anything to do with this animal.
I even told Harold I really didn’t need a soda pop that bad. He finally
talked me into getting on the beast and that was even without my crash helmet
on. Harold decided that if I did fall off halfway across the river
and I had a 20 pound crash helmet on I would probably sink head first in
the river. That would be a little hard to explain to my mother.
I managed to survive the trip across and back but I still remember that day
in 1969 like it was yesterday.
Kindly submitted by Dennis Laging (July 17, 2001), reminiscing about his old friend Harold Bankston. Thanks Dennis! |
| On the road to Puerto La Cruz.... That's how most of us who grew up in San Tome referred to Anaco. To us, Anaco appeared very unexciting.... It was just like any other road-hugging town.... You know, like San Mateo but without the cachapas and queso de mano and without the distinction of disappearing seven times like mirage, as the car sped along the undulating carretera negra.... San Mateo at least had some character..... Yep, Anaco was hardly a blip on our rador screen which was focused on much more important things.... like the first site of La Borracha Island! Why in the world would you stop in Anaco instead of waiting for the Gran Parada in Port..... Well, maybe on the way back to get a little relief.... And how in the world did Anaco rate a Cada, anyways ?? What were the Rockefellers thinking ?? So, it was with immense surprise that I learned that Anaco was something besides MGO's Campo Rojo pipeline station..... As luck would have it, my father retired from MGO in 1960 and went to work for a service company in Anaco. But when I heard the news, while still a highschool sophomore in the states, I groaned, "Anaco?? Good Grief, Why Anaco ?? After getting off the Avensa plane in Anaco that summer, all my misgivings seemed justified. What a crappy looking place.... And that landing.... I think the wheels actually scraped some of those tin roofs !! And the plane almost shot the runway.... Or so it seemed. When we get to our house, I'm informed that we don't have an MGO telephone line.... Now how was I going to call my friends in San Tome..... Not good..... But wait.... a silver lining.... Anaco was actually a bunch of little camps surrounding a town.... and the big kahuna was Socony Vacuum camp way across town.... The folks were forced to give me the keys to the Bellaire.... Happy Days!.... and nights.... Every chance I got, I would sneak off to San Tome.... that wonderful camp on a hill.... Well my brother and I finally decide to go the "red horse" club to play pool.... While there we run into a large group of teenagers decorating for the July 4/5th celebrations.... From that moment on, all I remember is a blur of non-stop parties, movies, Motel Bowling, Country Club, Club Cien, the pool, and more parties. It seems that because the kids lived in many separate camps, their fun time was much more intense when they got together... And you actually had to pick-up your dates and drive them to wherever.... just like the states.... Who would have thought that so much fun was to be had on the other side of the parallel pipelines.... The Anaco kids were cool.... especially the girls.... It wasn't long before my friends from San Tome started visiting and "integration" was finally achieved..... You know, I can't remember going to the beach for the rest of the summer or even the next summer..... The roaring sixties began for me in a truly unlikely place! Contributed by John Servello, June 20, 2000 - Thanks John! |
| Technically it was called 'Club El Molino'; everyone
knew it as Grady's. It was located at kilometer 97 on the Puerto La
Cruz/Anaco/San Tome main road. Situated on the East side of the road,
it was the only place I remember that had yellow florescent lights; therefore,
one never knew whether the butter he was serving was yellow or white.
It served, more or less, as Big Al Finch's office when he was in the area. (Al lived in San Roque, the Phillips camp located beyond San Joaquin.) Richard [Simons] based one of his plays at Grady's - it was called 'Lucha Libre' and told the tale of Pete Fields. The turn-off to the Socony camp was located a kilometer 98. The turn-off to the A-Z camp was 98.1. The name of the club came from the fact he used an Aeromotor Windmill (Broken Arrow, OK.) for lifting water. The land belonged to his wife whose name I believe was Blanca. Some of the initial financial backers were Paul Koester and Allen Pike. 'Chepas' was located near Chucho's garage. Chucho's, as you will recall, was located just beyond the west end of the Anaco International Airport. Contributed by - Tom Simons & Gene Pettit P.S. - Tom - "International" Airport?
Who are you kidding? |
| Does anyone know about a UFO sighting reported by an
"Avensa" pilot in 1953 while he was on approach to the Anaco "International"
Airport? I'm not kidding!
Follow this link to take a look at an
obscure reference to this report - it's the first listing on the page.
Click your "Back" button to come back to this page. In case the link is dead, here's the reference...
"1953--Anaco, Venezuela. Avensa Airlines pilot reported round gray
object paced plane. [X]" John |
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