HOW THE LAGO WEB SITE GOT STARTED
My life really began to change when, on January 2, 2004, I married Mary B. (Spitzer) Henderson.  We were both widowed and met at the 2004 Lago Reunion in San Antonio, Texas.  We both had grown up in Lago Colony and knew each other as kids.  After we were married, I retired in February of 2004 and moved from Savannah, GA to Austin, TX.  Late in 2004 I was looking for a project to keep me busy in retirement and decided to learn how to make a web page and set up a web site.  I took a couple of courses in MICROSOFT FRONT PAGE and played around with web pages, but I needed a subject, so I selected Lago Colony, a community on the island of Aruba that had been home to me and some 800 foreign staff employees and where I spent the first 18 years of my live.  My wife, Mary B moved there at the age of nine and lived there for eight years, from age 9 to 17, her early, formative years.   She left to attend the University of Texas at the age of 17, but continued to return to Aruba in the summer time until she married in her Junior year. 
Mary B, unbeknownst to her, also helped me select Lago as a subject for my web site.  This was because one day she was cleaning house and was about to throw away old Pan-O-Ram weekly's, as will as a Lago badge that belonged to her dad and a visitors badge that was used by her first husband when he and she visited her parents in Aruba.  With these items I now had something to put on the web site.
I had seen the web site  www.lago-heights.com and was impressed with this site.  This site was the blueprint for the site I put together.  The use of a map showing  the houses,  then a link from those houses to those persons who lived in the house.  It seemed like a good project and a good place to start.  I took two maps of Lago Colony, one I found in the Lago publication  "YOUR ARUBA HOME"  (page 20)the other map done by Al Leak.  You can see a copy of Al's map by going to the Lago Colony map link.  I then used these two maps as the basis for the map you see at:  MAP OF LAGO COLONY.  This was the beginning of the web site and really just about all there was on the first web page I published just before Christmas 2004.  As soon as the site was published to the web I send an e-mail to Larry Riggs and asked him to put the site address on his LAGO BULLETIN BOARD.  

Larry put the link out in his bulletin and the response has been overwhelming.  On the first published site I had a page asking for photos and stories, it is still there and called the WISH LIST.  Within a very short time of publishing the site being people began sending me "stuff".  There was so much "stuff" I did not even know existed, I had no idea that so much material from the time had been saved by people.  Old Pan-O-Ram Annuals from Stan Norcom, now on CD's so I could post them on the web site.  Great photos from LES CLUTE, REG KENNERTY,  THE BEAUJON FAMILY & BOB SCHLAGETER, to name only a few.   Since that small beginning the site has continued to grow, thanks to the support of persons who have been associated with Lago.  Today this site is huge, if you do not have high-speed cable access I am sure it will take forever to download some of the pages via a telephone connection.  Even with high-speed access, some pages, with a lot of photos, takes awhile to download.  I am sure if you were interested in viewing the entire site it would take you hours to do so.  There is also a lot of STORIES that have been written and are now on the site.  These may best be printed for reading at you leisure rather then trying to read them off the computer screen. 

They say you can't go back and I agree.  However, here on this site you can look back at old pictures of what once was and remember what it was like living in Aruba as a child or young adult.  For those of you who did not live in Aruba, you can still view what was, some of you are the children and grandchildren of former residence, others may just be planning a vacation to the island.  What ever the reason for viewing the site, take a tour, then if you visit the island see if you can find some of the old places shown on the map.  A lot of Lago Colony still remains, for one, the gun foundations are still at the top of Colorado Point, go there, explore, see what you can find and enjoy your visit weather it be to the web site or the island. 
As to the size of the site, believe me, it is beginning to overwhelm me.  I now find myself forgetting where things are and I find myself spending a lot time looking when I have to add more photos to a page dealing with a subject that is already covered on the site.  But I have to say it has been fun, a learning experience, very interesting and best of all, I have made contact with some wonderful new people and a lot of old childhood friends, as well as children and grandchildren of people I knew in Aruba.

When I first published the site it was only a "one page site".  That is to say, you had to return to the opening page when you wanted to go to other pages and each page had it's own heading.  To save space, I made the site a "three page site", in that the heading you see above remains as you go to different pages and the "link bar" you see on the left also stays in that spot as you go to a new page.  In this way when the site is open you are looking at three pages at the same time, the header page, the link page and the body page.  I hope this change makes the site easier to use.  I have also added a SEARCH function so you can search the site for names, places or general information.  As well as the search there are forms that can be filled in pertaining to what Bungalow you lived in, this is the BUNGALOW INFORMATION FORM.  There is the  FAMILY HISTORY FORM  which can be used for stories and information you may want to share about your family coming to Aruba with the others who look at the site.  If you complete these forms and click submit they will come to me and I will add the information to the site.
The development of the site and its up-keep has been fun and it is all because of the wonderful things that have been sent to me to include on the site.  Please keep sending me "stuff" and I will continue to add it to the site.
Also note that I tend to use rather large fonts on the web pages.  This is because I find it difficult to read the small fonts many web sites seem to favor.

 THANK YOU, DAN JENSEN
CLICK HERE TO SEE JUST HOW LARGE THE SITE HAS BECOME