1932, the world is being griped by the Great Depression, and your military family is posted to far off Panama in the “Canal Zone”  This is not as bad a situation as one might think. Your housing is provided by the U.S. Government who is also trying to make things better for those in these remote bases by providing more of the home town feeling by having organized sports, boy scout groups, sewing circles and more. Also, at the PX was a wonderful assortment of things from back in the US... often discounted to help out the soldiers with expenses. Those US citizens in the Canal Zone were actually a bit insulated from the realities back home.  A faithful reader has sent me this 1932 price list from the PX in the canal zone. Sterling Silver from Schofield could be ordered from the PX. One would assume that this would be mostly officers families that would order the silver from Baltimore.

In the price lists for STIEFF silver is a bill of sale from a shop “in town” that carried Stieff silver in the Canal Zone so Baltimore Silver must have been popular back in the 1930s