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| Baby Pol In Washington St. |
The lots around us are still vacant and so are the lots across the street. You can see our house from a distance. I remember the handyman working on the fence with three layers of hollow blocks, wooden structure and wires all around the perimeter. Later I made a painting of our house in Manuguit including the fence. There is an empty lot in front and later a building was erected. It was initially a school but later divided into individual stores and apartments. Our house stands out among most of the houses in Manuguit. Our house is painted and it is the prettiest house in Manuguit. Later when I was in the US I painted our house from memory. This is shown below. The oil painting hangs over our fireplace.
There was a lot of house construction going on as this is a new subdivision. A ‘talipapa’ (small market) sprouted at the corner of Molave and Hermosa. This is very convenient. But then there was no garbage disposal system of any kind at that time. People just dumped their garbage in the corner of Hermosa and Molave which is close to us. The mounds of filth are sickening and I wonder how people can live like that. There is a fire alarm box by the street light post where the garbage is and I wonder if there is a fire if anybody can walk there and pull the lever.Hermosa street where our house is starts from Avenida and ends at Pilar traversing streets like Bagac, Limay, Molave, and Pilar. It ends at a house which later was demolished and the street lengthened to cross the railroad tracks, Chinese garden and into Tondo proper. Jose Abad Santos Street was also build to run almost parallel to Avenida Rizal. Many houses were demolished to make way for Abad Santos but they are mostly squatters so it’s easy to get rid of them. There is no through traffic then unlike today so we can play in the street unmolested by cars.
The Old Painter and Edison Machines
By the corner of Hermosa and Molave lived an old man. He lived on the lower part of the house probably renting. The side of the house is wide open so the breeze can cool the place. The old man worked there. He was a painter specifically he does portrait. I would stand inside his shop watching him paint. He painstakingly dub the paint on a vertical canvas using a small brush. He was painting one of the eyes. He was almost not moving but I can see the point of the brush move ever so slightly. I left and came back in the afternoon. The old man must be sleeping. The canvas was left there in the same place. And an eye is drawn over the canvas. It was almost like a real eye looking at me. One eye a day he did. I wonder how long it took him to do the whole portrait.
One day I came by his shop. He was not there. On the other side of the house somebody was embalming a dead body. Yes right in the neighborhood with open doors I see this guy drain a gallon of blood. Then I saw the face of the dead person. It was the old painter.
The next I knew there were arcade machines where the old man used to be. You drop five centavos, lights come on and you rotate this handle on the side. A wheel turns. Attached to the wheel are many pictures that are flip as you turn the wheel creating an illusion that the people in the photos were moving. A forerunner of the motion picture? Perhaps I saw the name Edison engraved. I thought these were machines that are absolete in the US and dumped to Manila. It was a novelty but the sequence was too short. And there were no sound. I later found out they are called Zoetrope, a handheld spinning wheel with a series of photographs on the inside visible to the viewer by a small glass opening. Even for 1950’s Manila, these machines are also absolete in Manuguit.
Street Urchins
There were so many kids around the neighborhood. Most are street urchins, children of poor people living around; some are just plain istambay who hang around the street. As most are my age we play whatever kids our age plays. There will be a time in the summer when we play ‘sungpit’ which is a kind of a long narrow tube where we spit mongo beans to hit each other. When the rain comes, the mongo seeds that we used sprouted all over the place. There were games like patintero, tumbang lata, kalahoyo, lines. All these games used ordinary material found on the street or house and does not cost anything. A piece of flat rock, an empty can, some cardboard, charcoal or flat ground are mostly the things needed to play the games. But these games provided hours of leisure and fun for us small kids back then.
As we grow older, the games got sophisticated. Trumpo or top came. This is a game use with a piece of string and a spinning top which is made of wood and nail. Then the bubble gum cards came and with it we started playing lucky nine which is a card game. Some kids collected rubber bands and created hundreds of it braided into a chain.
Manuguit Scooters
There is always some kind of a fad- a game or toy that every neighborhood kid wants to play. Playing with tecs cards was a big fad once; fighting kites; collecting and gambling with rubber bands; fighting with sea shells; trumpo. We even play with riveting iron gates and windows from a neighbor’s metal iron shop.
On two summers, the fad was scooters. This is a homemade contraption made of a flat wood about 3 inches long with a vertical handle and bearings for wheels. Its foot power and every kid in the hood seemed to have one. Except me. About 100 kids on wooden scooters are lined up on Hermosa and on a signal they all start scooting down. Since there are no cars most of the time we have the street to ourselves. My uncle Ser finally made one for me but the season was over and I never got to use it.
Neighborhood Ramble
Once we have an altercation with kids from the next neighborhood. Next neighborhood being about three blocks away. We were going into a fight or a brawl or a rumble so to speak. There were perhaps 100 kids from our neighborhood, maybe more and the same number from the other hood. We were armed with sticks but nothing more serious than perhaps a slingshot. Knives and guns are unheard of. So we were here and the enemy was there. Hundreds of us and hundreds of them. We started moving toward each other. They have a champion in front of them twirling a piece of rope with a stone at the end. I don’t remember what our champion had. And before you know it, we were charging and they were charging. Fisticuffs was the order of the day, a blackeye is the worse you can get. I was maybe 9 so my strategy is to run and hide in a house. Which I did so I did not get beaten up. We all broke up and went home.
More Games
The street urchins have a contraption made of a long pole with a string at the end use to catch birds. Then we go under the quonset hut of Calderon Elementary School and they cook and eat it. I did not have the stomach to taste the bird and knowing what I know now, I did the right thing. Flying kite season also came. There were so many in the sky and they even come from other neighborhoods. Kite fighting was the game of the day. The weapon is the string. As two kites come together, their string will invariably meet and the friction between the string cause one to cut the other. The preparation of the weapon became sophisticated. We would grind a light bulb into a fine powder, mix it with glue and heat it up to melt the mix. A ball of string is drop in the can with the mixture. The string then is slowly pulled from the can and hang between two poles to dry. The fine glass powder with the glue adheres to the string. The string then becomes a sharp weapon ready to cut the enemy’s string. Of course the other side does the same thing. When one of the kites gets cut, its ‘alagwa’ and the kit falls helplessly to earth. And it’s free for all. It’s yours if you get it.
As we grow older, I started separating from the “street urchins”. Later some of them got involved with street gangs and one was found dead. Another was involved in an assassination plot of a provincial governor. He was caught and I don’t know what happen to him.
Ma Nelly Goes to Divisoria
Once a month or so my mother makes this big grocery shopping in Divisoria. It is a whole day affair for her. She comes home in the late afternoon riding a calesa (horse drawn buggy). This is in the ‘50s but after a while the calesas started disappearing. Her calesa will be filled with packages of meat, vegetables and kitchen items, sacks of rice, charcoal, and many more. One day she finished sorting but could not find the package of chicken liver. She concluded she must have left it in the bag and thrown it out into the garbage. Now our ‘garbage’ is the neighborhood garbage. About a block from us at a corner is where the entire neighborhood throw their garbage. It will take days if not weeks for the collector to haul it away. The street is almost block with piles and piles of smelly and rotting garbage. My mother wants to go back into this mess to retrieve the lost chicken liver. My father adamantly told her not to go and forget it. But my mother insisted. She left. And after a while came back triuphantly with the lost bag. This is the only time I ever saw my parents have an argument.
Selling Ice Drops
We called it ice drops that cold concoction at the end of a stick that you lick or chew. Some have sweet beans at the end; most others are colored red, yellow, blue, velvet, etc. I was peddling ice drops on the streets of Manuguit. They gave me a small box and a belt that hang over my shoulder. I go around the streets shouting “ice drooopp”. Not many people buy but sometimes a group would do. I hit upon the idea of waiting for my father on Saturday around 1 or 2pm when he comes home from a half-work. I would rushed to him and implore him to buy some. He always do. We go to the house and I distribute the ice drops to my sisters, the maid, some cousin who are around and to myself. From this I make about 30 centavos. I did not make much money peddling ice drops. So after three tries I retired.
Cub Scout and Boy Scout
I was a cub scout for a long time. I have been for so long they gave me a medal for the longest tenure in cub scouting. In cub scout we have a den chief and we called him Sir Ely. Ours was a son of a rich businessman. He has a large building in Ayala, the business center of Manila, called Sarmiento Building. One day he invited us to his house. We were playing a game similar to Lego. I thrilled in playing that game. Sir Ely noticed this. After a few weeks in one of our den meeting he gave me the toy. It was in its original box. It was a large flat box. The pieces are plastic with items like doors, windows, building blocks, fence, garage door, and others. I believe that toy was a Lego. I still have most of the pieces but lost the original box.
Then I finally became a boy scout. The big difference to me than is the change in uniform. And I get to salute with three fingers instead of two. My brother Fred has been a boy scout for quite a while and he is a patrol leader. My patrol leader was George Gonzales and my co-patrol were Constantino Arellano and Boy Alvarez. We gave George a hard time being mischievous and all. I elected to be the cook when we out camping. Every Sunday afternoon we have a meeting of all the patrol and we do competition games. These are like knot tying, fire building and other games that young boys like us enjoyed. Our scoutmaster was Sir Dolp Gutierrez who is also a teacher at Calderon Elementary School where we went to. I enjoyed boy scouting very much. It was only marred by the fact that when we grew up and compared notes it turned out that Gutierrez was a pedophile. This guy transferred to La Salle and continued his boy scouting there. Imagine how many boys he victimized.
My Barber Is A Teacher
My hair is not only black and coarse but there is a lot of it and it grows fast. I inherited this from both my parents specially my mother. I always go to this barber who is studying to be a public school teacher. I admired and listen to him tell me his struggles and desire to get out of cutting hair. Haircut those days cost 50 centavos, no tip. I never knew but happen to him but I hope he succeeded.
Calderon Elementary School
Grade One, Grade Two
I must be around 6 years old when we moved to Manuguit. The reason is because I started second grade at Calderon Elementary School and I was only five when I started first grade. Calderon is a block away from our house and the school occupies the entire block bounded by Limay, Molave, Hermosa and Morong. At first most of the building is quonset hut. These are leftovers from WWII which were used by the American military. Later they build a second story building on Limay side.
In second grade, we were in a quonset hut with Mrs. Manocdoc. I remember Felipe Garcia, a neighbor kid was a classmate. One day we were lined up before going inside the room. There was a can of melted wax, used to wax the floor, sitting on top of a wooden banister in front of the 3-steps. I was curious and was feeling the bottom of the can when it suddenly fell on my head. It was very hot. I was frozen for a while either from embarrassment or pain. I don’t remember what happen next but I probably went home crying.
Grade Three and Four
Third grade was in another quonset hut on the side of Molave. I remember the hot assignment was memorizing the multiplication table. This table is printed on every student notebook in the back. It was from numbers 1 to 12 in a square grid. My classmate her was Corazon de Jesus, Aida Dalde and Manny Mendoza. In fourth grade our room was in the new building in the south end first floor. Miss Sta. Maria was our teacher then. One day we had a time capsule ceremony. I think I understand what a time capsule is but can not figure out when they determine when this capsule is to be open. Anyway it was filled with stuff from us which I think is a lot of junk.
Grade Five
Fifth grade was in the afternoon with Mrs. Cruz on the second floor of the new building. One day we protested by walking out of the class. The reason is because Mrs. Cruz is mostly absent and if she is in, she spent a lot of time chatting with her teacher’s friend in the other room. She was very mad at us. The instigator was Mario Dalida, a friend who is a bit older than the rest of us. Abraham Angeles has a funny act. When the teacher is lecturing us about our bad behavior, she told Mario to bet out of the room which he did. Abraham stood up then and said something like, “Ma’m if you are going to kick Mario out of here….”. Mrs. Cruz interrupted, “And what are you a going to do?”. Abraham got scared, paused for a second and said, “Nothing!” and he sat down quickly. We all laughed so hard.
At the end of the day we go down the ground in front of the flagpole and lined up for the lowering of the Philippine flag ceremony. We were alphabetically arranged so with my last name beginning with C I was almost in front of the boy’s line. Nicki whose last name is Rosario is almost at the end of the girl’s line. Since the boy’s line is right after the girl’s, Nicki and I were a few rows apart. So this is the first time I saw her. I was in that very first instant of seeing her face captivated by it. I can not explain what it is. As if it is written that this little girl will be destined to be in my life. And it became true.
Many of my classmates became lifelong friends in Grade Five. There was Constantino Arellano and Efren dela Rosa who transferred from Plaridel Elementary School. Annie Solis, Dionisia Rodrgiuez, Abraham Angeles, Mario Dalida, Laura Borromeo among others. Gil Besa has a great voice. We have a skit where I play the king. I have three daughters two were played by Annie Solis and Nicki. In one of the segments they have to kiss me in the cheek. I can not wait for Nicki to kiss my cheek but she always put her hand over my cheek and kiss her hand instead. Oh my.
Sixth Grade
Sixth grade under Mrs. Cabuatan is the last grade before we leave for high school. Our room is on the second floor in the north end of the new building. I was in section one. Section two is with Mrs. Padilla and next is section three whose adviser is my mother, Mrs. Leonila Calimbas. My classmates here was Amor Padilla, Efren dela Rosa, Angeles Figuoroa, Audie Vergara, Manny Mendoza, Abelardo Lazatin. My grades were high and I graduated with highest grade in Section 1. Efren dela Rosa and Constantino Arellano were valedictorian and salutatorian in elementary school. They take the average of grade five and six and also consider the pupil's standing. My grade in grade 5 was not high enough.
Finally I graduated from elementary school. I was not feeling well when this picture was taken. I suppose the graduation rites which was in the morning was just completed. I was dozing when somebody woke me up. I have to put on my attire that I wore that morning for this photo.
Fun in the Streets
In the fifties, people don't have TVs, iPads, cell phones. In fact electronic gadgets were not invented yet. For fun, we do all of the playing in the streets of Manuguit. Sometimes the public health people comes around and spray smoke on the neighborhood to kill mosquitoes. This is a lot of fun. The vehicle will be towing the smoke generator in the back. Travelling at a relatively slow pace, dozens of kids like me tag along to get a whiff of that smoke. If you are in the smoke you are blinded and this add to the fun. Specially when there are girls in there. We sometimes ran ahead of the vehicle and lay on the grass. Then the smoke comes and we start running in all directions grabbing whoever is close by. Then we repeat the process. At the end of the evening my throat hurts from inhaling that smoke.
The public health people also comes around early evening and with the loadspeaker announces that there will be a movie tonight in such and such place. When the time comes, people flocked the empty lot. Some carry chairs and some with bangko or wooden bench seat. The movie is actually a public health movie such as extolling the virtue of brushing teeth, boiling water, etc. But there is some animation so its not that boring.
Big Canal Dug But Flooding Still Happen
This was a big project in the city of Manila. They dug up the street to create a huge canal that will channel rain water from all points in the city to our place. Yes the end of the canal is at the end of Abukay towards a small stream. I can hear the approach of the digging. They hammered dozens of iron support into the ground and pound it deep. These are interlaced to create a tight fit. After hammering the iron, they start digging the soil about 20 feet deep and as wide as the street. When it reached in front of our house, I can see that the soil underneat is almost sand like the one you find on the beach. I went down. I can see seashells everywhere. I collected some. Our street used to be underwater. In fact most of Manila was under the Pacific ocean hundred of years ago. After digging the sand, they created a mold around the iron sheets and pour concrete. This created a rectangular tube to channel the water.
It did not work because it still flood in our streets when a typhoon comes. So much for engineering planning.
Sewage Disaster
We do not have a central sewage like in the US. We have a septic tank in the back of the house where all the raw sewage goes. This is a large hole made of concrete. After several years it will fill up and has to be pumped out. One day a truck came by to pump our sewage tank. It was a lazy hot day and I was looking out the window watching the truck and the driver make preparation. There were some rubber pipes attached to a pump and the other end goes into the back and into the sewage tank. The clanking noise of the pump started. Several children were playing on the street. They took a curious interest on the chug-chug noise of the pump and they around and formed a circle around the back of the truck where the pump is. The children held hands and formed a circle and they were moving sideways dancing to the noise. When all of a sudden the rubber hose closes to the pump completely broke. The pump started going in a circle and black gooey liquid started to pump out of the broken hose. It was gushing with this stuff and going around and started dumping it to the children. Some kids were completely smeared with the stuff that it looked funny when small black figures were running helter skelter in every direction. And the stink was all over the air. It was so bad that stores across the street close. The street was blackened with matured shit. Imagine our shit all over the neighborhood. Ugh.
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