You Know You're

· You consider yourself bi-lingual because you speak Bajun ('W'happen for you, mon?')

· You still hate to wear shoes.

· You've driven down a road and seen a ship sailing through the Jungle.

· Every time you see a big, grassy hill, you look for a palm frond so you can slide down it.

· You reach the check-out counter at K-mart and reach for your ID card.

· You can convert any unusual event into Lottery numbers.

· You still think a 'halfway house' is a bar on the way to Santa Clara Beach.

· You're appalled that you have to pay actual MONEY for mangos.

· You can't drink water anywhere else in the world and like it.

· You find yourself telling stories of growing up in grass houses to a circle of Statesiders at every party.

· You discover that no one you work with rode a train ocean-to-ocean to attend high school football games.

· You wake up on Sunday morning with a craving for fresh, hot micha bread with real butter.

· You start to worry about the 'Tuli Vieja' while camping out and your idea of camping out is a blanket on the beach, overnight.

· Your dollar bills are wet when you pull them out of your pocket.

· You've raced the rain home.

· You had Bowling in High School.

· You know what a Christmas tree fight is.

· You know that REALLY big roaches can fly (and usually right at you!).

· You can drive a standard shift car, thru 2 ft. of water at an intersection and NOT stall out.

· Your jeans are patched with molas.

· You've never used or owned a lawn mower.

· Your favorite fruit is a Chinese plum.

· You have gone swimming in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on the same day!

· You know what, 'the other side' means.

· You didn't know how to use a washing machine or iron when you left home.

· You've ever had to ask the maid where she's put your favorite shirt/dress.

· You have ever asked your maid to call you in sick when you skipped school.

· You see the sun rise in the west and set in the east.

· You shake your wrist and slap your index middle finger (pressed together).

· You automatically speak Bajun to black people.

· Your favorite salad consists of...one green mango, cut up and 'swimming' in a bowl of red wine vinegar and lots of salt and pepper!

· Your maid taught you how to point at things with your lips.

· Your only garden tool is a machete.

· You refer to woods as 'the jungle'.

· You stand in your driveway in the pouring rain while your mother uses a high pressure hose to remove the mud that you got while playing mud football.

· You asked the maid to hurry up and iron your blouse/shirt pants, you'll be late to school, a date, party.

· You can smell rain from miles and miles away.

· You find yourself searching the world over for a pizza that compares to the ones you ate at the Napoli.

· You find yourself saying what you mean in Spanish instead of English and actually expecting someone to understand.

· You went to Santa Clara on Easter weekend

· Your skin is so sensitive that you kill mosquitoes that land on you before they have a chance to bite you.

· When you hear the words 'Push Button' you begin to snicker.

· You don't know how to iron at age 18 because 'the maid always did it.'

· You think BATTLEBALL and TETHERBALL should be Olympic events!

· Christmas Day is 85 degrees, breezy, and you don't have to wait until spring to ride your new bike.

· You know what a 'stink bomb fight is'.

· If you jumped off the Gamboa Bridge during the 'noon-day sun' and swam in the Chagres river, and 'gator hunted in the same waters that night.

· You consider yucca, ñame, and otoe to be a separate food group.

· You ever got trapped on the little island next to Taboga when the tide came in.

· You always shake your shoes out before putting them on.

· You have a BYC T-shirt, a BHS bumper sticker, a 'Seal of the Canal Zone Isthmus of Panama' windshield decal and a CZ Brats license plate.

· You watched your teacher write 'no borre!' on the blackboard and everybody knew what it meant, but hoped that the janitor didn't.

· A major event in your life was catching the green light at the Gamboa Bridge.

· You stuck your finger to the roof of the car and made a wish while the driver honked as you went under the PRR overpass near the Summit Golf Club.

· You remember to speed up as fast as you can in order to go flying over the bump on Gaillard Highway near the Albrook front gate.