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William E. & Roberta W. Fremgen |
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| My parents were William E. Fremgen and Roberta W. Fremgen, and they arrived in Aruba in August of 1944. Both have now passed away, and I so wish that I had been able to glean more of the details before they were gone. | ||
| Their first bungalow was 212 (before I was born), near the barber shop. Later, they had moved to Bungalow 47 by the time that I was born in February of 1946. We had many Dutch neighbors, and as a toddler I began to speak Dutch much more than I spoke English, which confounded my mother (I must have done that on purpose!). My dad worked in TSD initially, and the old TSD list that Vicky Brown supplied shows all of the hire dates and bungalows from that time. I have a copy of that list if you would like it. | ||
| For some reason, my father left Lago about 1949 and we moved to Brownsville (my brother Eric was born there in Brownsville in Jan 1950), Texas for a petrochemical project, but we returned to Lago in 1950. By now, since we had left, we had no bungalow and had to live in the Colorado Point apartments for a while. When Bungalow 29 became available about 1951 (dates are fuzzy, but it had to be in that time frame), we moved into that house on the lower road. | ||
| Bungalow 29 was ok when we first moved in, but with the renovations that followed, we ended up with a beautiful huge patio and large gardens, all protected with a high privacy wall. That was a tropical haven, and we loved that house. Later on, the company started to tear down all the houses in the median on the lower road, and soon we were the last house remaining. I do not know if pressure was being forced on my dad to move from there, but in 1961 we moved to Bungalow 1578, the last one out on the last row of the "New Houses". My brother Stuart was born in Oct. 1961 when we were in Bungalow 1578. In the interim, dad had moved from TSD and had been manager of the acid plant. (sulfuric acid was used as a catalyst in one step of the refining process) In 1964, dad accepted the position of manager of the Exxon affiliate InterCol, and managed the refinery in Cartagena, Colombia. | ||
| In 1966 we returned to Lago once more, but by this time I had been going away to college for a few years, and later that year I entered the USMC. In 1967 when I visited, the folks were living in Bungalow 1521 (Rosborough's old house as I remember it), and that had a view towards the little lagoon and Venezuela. Pretty gardens and location made that house a nice place. | ||
| My folks left finally in 1968.... I still have my dad's old office name plate.... it says Process Foreman. I know that he was instrumental in replacing 8 of the old style furnaces with the late model ones (no longer there) that Howe-Baker built in the 60s. When dad left Lago, he went to work for Howe-Baker in Tyler Texas and was a project manager for many refinery units that were built internationally. Dad passed away in Tyler in 1989. Mom passed away earlier that same year of cancer. | ||
| It is hard to look back at the wonderful years there at Lago and remember all the friends, and put so few words down which describe that time. Many friends with whom I shared all the memories are still with me frequently in my thoughts. The times out on the reefs that I spent spearfishing and scuba diving are real parts of me, and even enter into my dreams today. | ||
| We all shared life experiences that made us more than friends, we are today part of an extended family with whom we share friendships and memories. I think that is why we feel that need to seek out those who understand our own feelings about that time of our lives at Lago. | ||
| Pasa un bon tardi, | ||
| Steve Fremgen | ||
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