| JIMMY & CELMA
ROSBOROUGH |
| The Journey of Jimmy and
Celma Rosborough to Aruba and the early years. |
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Jimmy and Celma were
newlyweds and were working in Chicago after Jimmy’s graduation from Eureka
College. Jimmy’s brother’s wife’s brother worked for Standard Oil of Indiana and
he heard about a job in Aruba. Jimmy had never heard of Aruba. The pay was
$135 per month plus $100 living allowance. Jimmy interviewed with a Vice
President and was hired as a chemist to inspect the quality and quantity of oil
as a result, of a certain cracking process. Standard Oil of Indiana owned
patents for Hi Temperature and Pressure Cracking of Oil and Jimmy was to keep
track of the yield for royalty payments. After the usual six to seven day
tanker trip from New York City, Jimmy arrived in Aruba, where he lived in a
bungalow with several other bachelor foremen. They knew he was a big shot but
they didn’t know exactly what Jimmy was doing at the refinery. One of the men
living in this first house was Ralph Watson, who later became a very close
family friend along with his wife Beulah. Jimmy was en route to Aruba in
November of 1929 when the Stock Market crashed. He gauged tanks for volume and
did distillation for yield. After one and a half years he transferred to the
refinery owners, Pan American. Standard Oil of Indiana had oil but no markets
and Standard Oil of New Jersey had markets, so they bought the refinery.
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| Jimmy was told that he
would get a house in six months although most people waited two years. Dr.
Humphreys from Indiana came on a visit in January of 1930 and took care of Jimmy
getting priority on a house. Their first house was Bungalow
128. |
| Celma took the train to
New York City. Sheldon, from Personnel in Standard Oil, called the ship and
asked the Captain to wait for her. They put Celma on a barge and she had to
climb up a rope ladder in the dark. She had never even seen a ship, “I had only
been to Kansas!” Celma was so cold that she slept with her clothes on, and she
couldn’t even find the bathroom (didn’t know what the ‘WC’ was). There were six
passengers and all ate with the crew in the back of the ship. She arrived in
Aruba the last day of January in 1930. Long time friend, Ralph Watson, and Jimmy
went out to the ship to meet Celma. Ralph’s wife, Beulah, worked in the
hospital lab. At the time, there were about 1000 men and 50 women in the
Colony. Ralph & Beulah Watson were Celma & Jimmy’s oldest friends in Aruba.
Basketball was a big thing down there in the early days. Jimmy was on the Lab
Team and played forward along with Grady Burnett. Jimmy remembers a six-foot
center named Herman Bechtel. George LeMaire was also on the team. |
| Bungalow
128 was part of
‘Bird Cage Row’, a group of three room bungalows all occupied by young married
couples. Lots of good times were remembered, and lots of Scotch. Pete &
Eleanor Linster and Ellie & Belle Wilkins were part of this gang. A short time
later, Jimmy remembers buying a second hand Model A Roadster with a rumble seat
for $150. One of the things Jimmy wasn’t too popular for was the fact that they
had a telephone (one of the few in the colony). The reason that Jimmy had the
telephone was because he had to get up at all hours of the night to go out and
‘gauge a tank’. The company supplied everything, furniture, linen, etc. |
| Celma’s first specialty
was frying canned chicken. In 1931, Dick was born in the hospital by the
refinery – a small one story building. Ralph & Beulah Watson sat in the
hospital with Celma & Jimmy waiting for the birth. Beulah was a lab technician
at the hospital and was a big help. Dick was the first ‘colony’ male born in
this hospital [Betty Ann Binnion was the first ‘colony’ female born in this
hospital. |
| Mr. Tanner in the Lab
taught Jimmy everything. Mr. Tanner was not liked, but Jimmy worked hard for
him doing something worthwhile. Jimmy got two promotions and moved into the
plant. After he left the lab, O.B. Whitely put Jimmy in charge of 22 chemical
engineers responsible for process control. Jimmy edited their reports. He
started up a refinery lab in Venezuela, which was a feather in his cap. |
| Jimmy's lab accident was
from a 3 liter flask of gasoline that was being distilled. There was not enough
water getting to the condenser to condense the gas. The cork blew out and zap,
it exploded. To get at the gas valve to turn off the burner, Jimmy had to reach
through the fire, burning his right arm. The accident happened in July of 1931
when Dick was a tiny baby. Louise took care of Dick as Celma had to be in the
hospital all the time. Jimmy was constantly calling for morphine. Every
morning the nurses would clean off the scab, leaving it open and spraying it
with tannic acid. Jimmy said that it hurt like fire! The nurses would not
give Jimmy enough morphine because they worried about it being habit forming. He
was hospitalized for two months, and you couldn’t see his arm because of the
scabs. |
| Celma & Jimmy moved to
the five corners area (Brook’s house), then to Bungalow
418 across from the Schoonmaker’s
house, where the air raid shelter was. All of the boys peed all over the inside
of that shelter. During the war, the Dutch Marines came first, then the French,
then the Scottish Highlanders, and then the U.S. Troops. There were a lot of
parties at Ellie’s shack. In 1941, the German U-Boat shot at the colony, 40% of
the women left Aruba and were paid. Celma said that the women that stayed on
the island thought it was unfair since they got nothing. The U-Boat torpedoed
the lake tankers, but their big gun jammed and they only had a small machine
gun. There was a complete black out, and about 2 a.m. Monday morning the family
went to the church to see the activity. Celma said that the boys all had
whooping cough. Some torpedoes were found on Palm Beach. There were also
shells that hit the BOQ and a Lago Heights bedroom. Ten days later, a star
shell from our own troops burned down the clubhouse. A temporary club was built
with four Quonset huts. In 1945, Celma & Jimmy moved to Bungalow
553. In 1950 a new clubhouse was built
on the point. Donald was lucky. He drew lots of special food, and Celma &
Jimmy had him draw for them. Donald also won a Christmas tree. Celma remembers
that cars were up on blocks because there were no tires to purchase and all the
screens on the porch were rusted. |
| Celma remembers that in
1944, she left Aruba because her mother was sick. Celma couldn’t return to
Aruba until after the war was over. Celma and Beulah took a trip to
Venezuela and the Andes Mountains in 1947. They went on native
buses and stayed with Father Sanchez high in the Andes. |
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Jimmy remembers that in the
early days, we all went swimming at ‘BA’ Beach and remembers being caught in a
rip tide. The women went to Little Lagoon every day with the children. Celma
remembers that during the war, she was in charge of seeing that every American
soldier went to a home the first night he arrived. |
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