Most parents would not let their
primary school kids to walk to school these days. This had not been so, however, that time when
I was a school kid—when there was peace and quiet and if I could say it, when people
were in the lookout for their neighbours’ welfare and safety.
I had lived in a neighbourhood which
was heterogeneous—ie consisting of of old rich, new rich, middle class (as I
only heard about the abolition of middle class in high school) or possibly, if
there were poor, mostly upper poor and not mid poor, or poor poor people. In the immediate vicinity of our house, for
example, were Aling Jule and Mang Andrada whose grown-up sons were
educated, one of whom even got posted in America and then there were also Mang Tony, who’s got a Ph D from New
Zealand and his wife Aling Diana who
was an office worker.
Going out of the interior part of
the street where I lived were people who were some kind of rich. Two of them
were Mang Tiago who lived in a big
mansion painted yellowish, if not beige
or off white which was called Villa Nina and the Mendozas who were like
shipping stockholders, if not magnates. I
had never been inside their mansions so I did not really have an idea what it
meant to be rich then. Nimrod knew however, that there was a swimming pool
inside the Menodza’s house whose tall blue gates were always closed.. According
to the adults, however, in the compound where our family and relatives lived, the
Mendozas became bankrupt when they paid compensation to all the families of
every single person who died in an accident in one of their ships. .
At the end of our street lived a
band called Excalibur who had gathered a considerable audience, among whom were my big sisters who even kept a photograph of the band. I bet this was because of the sound of their big drum and bass guitars
or maybe because of the Beatle songs they sang.
Knowing who our neighbours were
and them knowing us, I walked to school as far as I could remember—every single
school day. This walk , I meant to F.G.
Calderon, not the Lerma SDA School I also went to in grades 1 and 3, wasn’t a short
distance walk because my house as I had said in the foregoing, was in interior part
of the street-- more accurately, in the boundary of Manila and Caloocan cities.
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| This is artificial Sampaguita garland and Ilang- ilang corsage perfumed with Sampaguita scent |
When I went out of the gate of
our compound from which hang a sign bearing “Beware of Dogs.”, I could already
smell fragrance coming from Mang Abeng’s
sampaguita
field and see his workers picking the small white flowers that were made,
together with another flower called Ilang ilang, into garlands which were later sold at the entrance in Sta
Cruz or Quiapo churches or else peddled in the street which the Roman Catholics bought to put in the
altars of their homes..
I couldn’t remember being fearful
walking to and from school, because I was not by myself but with my siblings
and cousins who were also going to the same school.. And even if I was by myself, other kids who
were not of school age were outside the houses I passed by playing Philippine games
like teks, sipa or pico, if not just
chattering Similarly, some adults like Aling Diana, Mang Onyong, Mang Roger or Mang
Tony were also out walking to go their respective workplaces. There were also
Aling Felisa, Aling Maria, and Aling Pilar carrying baskets to go to the wet market past the railway
station and far beyond the Lerma SDA
school or the talipapa along my school’s street .
Technically, walking to school was
like walking with all the people in the neighbourhood. Having said this, I think it would be
accurate to say that my parents as well as other kids’ parents in our
neighbourhood were kampante (calm and
comfortable) for all of us children to walk to school. Furthermore, in principle, I could say that everyone
knew everybody and thereby, should be keeper of anybody.
As we kids just walked past cluster
of houses of timber and concrete make or combination of both, this walk expectedly
was not much of fun, adventure or
exploration, not until we reached Aling Nelda’s sari-sari store where I
particularly used to buy my favourite Choconut and white rabbit candies.
After this store, was an alley. At this point was where all the thrill and
adventure happened, particularly if we encountered here Aling Pia. We kids
were scared to death to be cornered by her
as she was always drunk with large doses of See Hoc Tong even at the first hour
of the day. I couldn’t figure out but in few instances when this occurred,
Aling Pia would chase us out of the alley with her hands in strangling gesture.
From hindsight, I think she was
just like in a playful mood and not intending to hurt any kid because she
caught my youngest sister Cyn once and all she did was held Cyn’s neck with her
cold hands like those of a dead person but eventually let her go not causing
any bodily damage. I think she was doing this because other kids were in the
habit of teasing her. Also, I think Aling Pia must have a bigger problem which
she was trying to run away with by drinking or else she might be having bad
times or experiencing pain she wanted to deaden through the spirit of See Hoc
Tong. I never knew because there was no adult in our compound who ever
mentioned her name.
The alley, being so narrow would
only allow two people to walk through in two-way direction. As such, my father cautioned us when we were
much older not to walk alone ever (!) through this alley, particularly in the
dark. He said that even if the people in
the neighbourhood in general were decent and good, we could not eliminate the
chance that we might meet bad people who might harm us. If we were however
cornered by drunkard, he said we needed not really be scared because we could
easily overpower him. All we needed to do was to push him because he would
easily fall over and then run as fast as we could. Otherwise we could apply the
boxing techniques he taught us or karate skills my older brothers learned in
karate school..
The alley opened to a big
quadrangle before we got to the main street. Here there was a basketball court,
a carenderia and a vegetable and chook
small-scale farm owned by Aling Ima and Mang Chiquito. .
Teenage boys played basketball mostly in the afternoon, before which
they hang out in the carenderia to
eat or drink.
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| Internet photo of ice cream cart with 2 kinds of cones. |
On the main street was a line of colourfully-painted and
decorated tricycles which were for hire
to take anyone anywhere. We, my siblings
and cousins and I did not take this ever in going to school because the sound
of the bell of Mamang Sorbetero (the ice cream man) was enough incentive to
save our allowance to buy after school
his ice cream which came in different flavours—ube, mango, or vanilla. This ice
cream is referred to now by most tourists in the country as dirty ice cream. Dirty or not dirty, however, we kids were
crazy for it. What pleased us also were the choices Mamang Sorbetero gave us—ie depending on our choice, he could gave
us the ice cream in unsweetened cone or
matamis
na apa (sweetened cone)and also a bun. From hindsight, I think there was
nowhere in the world that time, except in our neighbourhood, where ice cream was put in a bun like the
hamburgers.
In the street were also other
food vendors who were selling popsicle, coloured crushed ice called scramble which
also came in different flavours; native cakes called bibingka or pichi pichi.
Other vendors also gave us a chance to eat for free if we were prepared to take
the challenge of shooting a coin in a narrow-mouthed bottle filled with water
after we flip the coin. If we were
successful, then we get a steam bun or fresh lumpia for free.
I never took challenge but i got
to eat free lumpia too because my brother Rommel was a sharp shooter that
technically he could have all of us kids in our compound eat for free. But the
vendor couldn’t afford to be bankrupt so after three tryouts, he banned my
brother for further shooting in the coin.
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| Fruit market found in a talipapa |
Along my school's street were also cluster of houses interspersed with small establishments like the drugstore, Dr. Parco’s clinic, beauty salon and also a few
sari-sari store which sell '
sa malamig,' (sago and gulaman drink)! More interesting was the busy and noisy
talipapa. which was not just a fish market. Inside were vendors of fruits and vegetables and dry goods.
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| halo halo dessert |
More interesting and enticing definitely for us kids were a number of
talipapa’s carenderia where we could
buy a range of Filipino desserts famous of which was the cold sweet dessert or
snack called halo halo, not to mention
guinatang halo-halo and various
kakanin. Here, people
were seated while eating, and hence could enjoy not only the food but their
friends. I could not remember having
eaten at talipapa after school. My sisters Ate, Mina, Daisy and Merle must have and so did Cyn.
Funny, but in a later confession, Cyn
told us she spent some thirty pesos which she nicked from our retail store
register to treat her whole class in the
talipapa. Unbelievable! An eight year old kid having that much money! My sister must be a genius in counting money!
Aside from sweet foods which
naturally interested us kids were images of youngsters walking on homemade
stilts or else running around on their homemade wooden scooters and roller
skates.
There should be much more than I
could remember regarding my walk to school during my primary years. I could not remember all. That was like five
decades ago, yet the colourful sights of the tricycles, the ice cream carts; the
scents of sampaguita and Ilang-ilang, the the sounds of the ice cream bell, the noisy
children—all of these are memories I probably would not want to forget ever! Unless, I live to be over 80 and lose more billions of brain cells... this is why I have written this short
account.
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