I Remember When We Were Young...

These thoughts just dawned on me and I said it will be good to write them.

(Photo was borrowed  from www.filipinolifeinpictures.blogspot.com.)

I remember when we were young we used an earthen jar (tapayan) for our drinking water. Refrigerators were just available to the rich then. The tapayan provided us with cold water. If we want it cooler, our father will ask us to buy a block of ice (at 5 centavos only!) from the store which uses it to make their soft drinks cold. Wrapped just in a piece of paper, I would race back to the house because of the discomfort of holding the ice. Buying ice from the store was one errand we dreaded to do!

I remember when we were young, a school day will start with my mother rising up at about five in the morning to prepare breakfast for us, eight children all! She would brew coffee bought from the store which were re-packed it in paper. At times, she would just brew the same coffee for the next day. Fried rice (sinangag) was always a favorite especially when it will go with scrambled egg and/or dried fish. Bread (pandesal) was also available but usually, we had a choice between fried rice or bread. Because we were so many, not everyone can have both rice and bread. Margarine was also available as spread for the bread. For our school snack, we can have two pieces of bread (bought at 5 centavos each!) and we can spread it with margarine. But if we ran out of margarine, we just have to make do with the bare pandesal or if there were fried rice left, we make a fried rice sandwich out of it!

I remember when we were young, specifically in our elementary days, our "baon" was only five centavos! Then, with five centavos, we can buy any of the following; ice cream, ice drop, piece of bread, banana cue, camote cue, slice of turnip, slice of green mango, five pieces of candy, rice cake, and others. As a come on, vendors would allow us to shoot our five centavo coin into a small bottle at the bottom of a big bottle full of water. If our coin lands in that small bottle, we get back our money and get the good for free. 

I remember when we were young, we would walk from the house to the school and back. Our school was about a little more than a kilometer away. We went through a lot of "iskinitas" (side streets). Then, walking to and from school, was a regular activity for all of us. We carry our bags full of books that were mostly hard bound. In my case, whenever I have to catch up with my assignments which I forgot to answer the previous day, I would do my assignment while walking to school! Something like this also happened when I took the board exam for Agricultural Engineering (That story deserves another post.). 

These days, every elementary schooler walks to school. Most are being serviced by tricycles! Wow! In our days, it was very rare. Usually, even the rich were being brought to school with their parents by car. Times had really change. I asked a parent about it and the answer was quite reasonable. They were investing for security reasons. Many children just suddenly disappear and their whereabouts unknown even to these days. They were afraid that their children will be the next victim. Spending for their transportation for security reasons, they believe, was very much worth it. I agree but I am very sad about it. The money spent for "security" would be most useful to these people in another way specially because they are already stretching their budgets to cope with everyday needs. But I guess they do not have much choice. It is hard to risk the safety of their children. In that sense, we were more lucky because we did not have that threat. Well, ces la vie!

These are all for now... more to come ... still when we were young.