Quinta la Torre was GM’s “company house” in the Country Club neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela. We lived there from 1963 until 1968 when we moved back to the States (New York) after 21 years in South America. (OK, to be honest, I only spent 20 of those years in South America. I was born in 1948 in the first year of our South American stint.)

The 3D model of this house is based on a watercolor I painted in the summer of 1964 when I was 15, after my first year at Ridley. The house no longer exists -- as far as I know. So the model is entirely based on my memories of the place.

In this rendered image you see the north (back garden) side of the house. Adjacent to the house were a couple of mango trees. Through the windows is what we called the Skittles Room named after a bar billiards game, made by Sams Bros. in the U.K., called Skittles.

We first learned about Skittles in Bermuda in 1963, when we stayed for two weeks at the (private) Coral Beach Club – a club that Uncle T was a member. The table was located in the bar area of the club but wasn’t off limits to me because of the “off-season”. In fact, we were the only guests at the club. This Bermuda “vacation” was a replacement to a trip to the Far East we had been planning for over a year starting with a President Line ocean liner from San Francisco to Tokyo and Hong Kong. This trip had to be undone because Dad was transferred from Lima, Peru to Caracas by “Generous Motors” in the spring of 1963.

“Quinta” in Spanish means “country estate”. The reason for the name “La Torre” was the circular stair tower visible in this image.

In the progression of moves while we were in South America – from Brasil to Peru and then Venezuela, we followed the Gussenhoven’s and preceded the Pessoa’s. In fact, mom and dad didn’t own any residential property until our move back to the States in 1968.

During our time in Caracas, politically, things got pretty dicey. With the Cuban crisis and progressive infiltration of socialist ideas affecting much of Latin America, the American capitalist “gringos” were often disparaged and sometimes harmed. Ultimately, in the later years of our stay, we had to have round the clock police protection at the house.

The car in the driveway is a “company car”. In this case, a 1961 Chevrolet Impala driven by Francisco, a chauffeur from General Motors.

By this time, mom stopped driving so we were assigned a chauffeur.

During those years in South America, we only owned 2 cars: a 1953 Chevrolet (Mom’s car in Sao Paulo) and a 1960 Corvair (Michael’s car in Lima).

The Skittles room is where we spent most of our time. My brother Michael’s stereo system provided the music. Dad had a pretty large vinyl piano jazz / Brazilian Samba / Bossa Nova collection of 33’s and some 78’s. I had a growing collection of 60’s music: Beatles, Stones, Byrds, etc.

Speaking of Michael, he preceded me at Ridley. He was there from 1957 to 1960. I was there from 1963 to 1967. In early, 1960 he somehow contracted a severe form of Leukemia and ultimately succumbed on June 9, 1961 while we were still in Lima.

Penny and I inherited the Skittles table after college when we lived in an apartment in Flanders, NJ. After that it followed us to Malvern, PA and ultimately to Wyoming, OH in 1979. Today, it rests in retirement with Geoff & Jen.

My watercolor of Quinta La Torre (Summer of 1964)

Close up of the model of the Skittles table.