My earliest recollection of childhood is living in Washington St. in Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines. My young world revolved around playing and hanging around nearby houses. There is a big achuete tree in front of our house. On the right a few blocks is an Iglesia Ni Cristo church. On Maria Clara St. which intersects Washington is a public water faucet where people can do “igib” (get water on large cans for home use). In a small street just behind our house is a makeshift walkway elevated over the swampy area for people to get in and out.
Right after the war, my father worked for the Bureau of Public Highways in Manila. We called it Washington but that is the name of the street. We lived on a building between Washington and Maria Clara streets in Manila. It was later renamed Maceda (after Antonio Maceda who was Secretary of Health I think.). The building was owned by Lola Tansing. There are four apartments on two floors. The first floor on the right is rented by a sari-sari store by a Chinese person named Kiko. We lived on the first floor on the left but later moved on the 2nd floor on the right. Tiyong Ser (Sergio Diaz) my mother's brother lived on the 2nd floor too and later Tiyang Celia my mother's younger sister and family moved to where we where.
Celebrating Christmas
My earliest Christmas recollection was in Washington St. My parents erected this Christmas tree inside our place. My very first Christmas gift was a pair of Hopalong Cassidy revolver with a belt. The revolver of course was a toy. Instead of real bullets, it uses a rolled paper impregnated with a small round of powder. The roll is feed inside the gun and the tip is feed in front of the hammer. When you pull the trigger the hammer hits the powder, makes a little pop and advances the roll of paper for the next round. This must be the year before we moved to Hermosa because my second recollection of Christmas was already there in Hermosa. This time I was given a small toy that makes music when you rotate it around. I can still remember the melody from that toy. Later on when I got tired of it I took it apart just to find out how it worked. After that second Christmas we never had a Christmas tree again. I still can not figure out why.
My parents like us to visit close relatives on Christmas holidays. We always go to Lola Emilia’s house in Mandaluyong. She was my father’s mother. I can still remember that her house is the street where a policeman's stand is in the middle of the road. Then we walk down the street to her house. She always give us some snack but no money. I don’t remember if Tiyong Lope (my father’s older brother) live there. I see him here and there but after getting married to Tiyang Ila they moved to their own place. I was never in their place. But Tiyong Lope sometimes visit us in Manuguit. Once I saw him walking on Hermosa. I thought he was my father because they look alike. I ran up to him which I always do when I see my father coming. When I got close I realized he was not my Pa.
We also go to Tiyong Banoy’s house. I remember the house address: it was 7 Kasama St. They have a big iron gate. Tiyong Banoy and Tiyang Santa were nice to us. They always give us hamon or whole leg of ham to take back. This after giving us food. They were always nice to us. I always see Ray and Beth there but I seldom see Carmelita, the oldest and Armando the youngest.
Once they had a party in their house and I was invited with Fred. I don’t remember what party is was but it must be a birthday for Ray or Beth. Fred and I were playing outside. We saw a drum filled with ice and coca-cola bottles. At that time Coke was running some kind of a marketing ad. The cap of some Coke bottles have a painted sign. If you get the right sign you can exchange it for a gift or cash. So Fred and I started to open the Coke bottles , removing the cork inside the cap and looking for that sign that will bring us gifts. We were caught after we opened plenty of Cokes.
Mishaps in Washington
Head Got Hit in the Banister
My early recollections are full of childhood mishaps. One day we were playing a game and running in circles in the living room. I must be playing with Fred and Thelma since Cynthia was not born yet and some neighborhood kids.
We would then stop. When you stop the room starts to spin and we get a thrill out of that. I circled too hard and got quite dizzy. I bumped my right forehead on the wooden banister and gave me a laceration. Blood was oozing out of the wound and my mother got scared. They rushed me to the hospital. I remember lying on the hospital table where a doctor and nurses where working on me. It was so painful because I think they never bother giving me anesthesia. I was shaking my head back and forth, somebody held my head tight and they finally sutured it.
Why I was Called Peklat (Scar)
Another day I was playing under a narrow crawl space. It was quite dark. I stood up and bump my head on a nail that was sticking out. I think nothing of it. After a few days we were playing in an empty lot full of “kusot” (sawdust). We were jumping in there like it was a swimming pool. Why the sawdust? The back of the neighborhood is quite swampy and they dump the sawdust to build up the land. Anyway, the wound on top of my head is not healed yet and got infected. The next day I showed it to my mother who got panicky. I don’t remember if I went to the hospital or not but they dressed the wound. It healed with the rounded scar. They started to call me Peklat because of the scar on top of my head. When the wound finally healed it created a neat rounded scar but hair will not grow. Lola Menay told me to catch as many flies as I can and put it in a small pomade glass jar. Then she mixes the dead flies with coconut oil until she created a paste. She then applied it on top of my head directly on the scar. She said this will allow hair to grow. I did this for weeks on end. The smell of that fly paste is awful and to have it on top of your head everyday is even worse. A tiny bit of hair right at the center of the scar did grow but the scar remained. This is why I became good in catching flies with my bare hand. I would swoop it with an open palm, close my hand to catch it and then slam it on the concrete to kill it. If I swat it with a fly swatter it will be smash so bad all the juices are wasted. Yech.
The Chinese Got Me
At the far end of Maria Clara St. is a deadend. Beyond that is the chinese garden. The Chinese tended this garden with great care. They till the soil and fertilized it. They then grow vegetables which are always luscious and big. The Chinese dug huge holes here and there and fill it with water for irrigation. One day we decided to go swimming in the hole. We were having fun unmindful of the fact that the Chinese enriched the water in the hole with human excrement for fertilizer. I stop in the middle of the pool and stood up. I step on pieces of sharp glass probably broken bottles. The Chinese deliberately filled it with those shards to discourage kids like us from swimming. I had a nasty gash on my foot and walk home limping trailing blood on the street and up the house.
Washington and in Hermosa there are chinese gardens in both places. I wonder if they are owned by the same chinaman? At the end of the street is a deadened and beyond that is where the chinese garden is. The soil is rich and fertilized. They must have labor long and hard to replace the regular barren sandy and stony topsoil.
Childhood Friends
I don’t remember the names of my childhood friends. One I do remember was Rocky who lives to the right of our house. One day Rocky was circumcised and we were looking in his window to see him laying there in pain. I have no idea what circumcision is. We were all curious.
Sheila lives in a small street behind us. She was a classmate in Grade One too. She wears this dainty white dress to class. She was seated in front of me and I sometimes stared at his curly hair.
Ma Nelly Told Me a Bad Joke
My mother told me that in the hospital where I was born that there was a mix-up. That I really belong to another family but they took me home anyway. That she is not my real mother. And her real baby was then taken by this family and she wants the baby to be returned to her. I was mildy shocked and thought about it for a while. Then I went to my mother and in all seriousness I told her that I wanted to go back to my real parents. I was crying. When my father learned about this joke, he was furious.
Got Locked in the Bedroom
Maybe I was three or four but one day I was fooling around with the lock in my parent’s bedroom. This lock is at the bottom of a big front door and the bolt goes down into a little hole to lock the door. I accidentally lock myself inside and couldn’t open the door. I started crying and hollering and people outside noticed it. They were telling me behind the door what to do. “Just lift the little bolt to the left and up and the door will open”. For my young brain this is very complicated. I have no idea what to do. I started crying louder and louder and the people outside must be panicking a bit. Finally Tiyong Ser climbs into the window in front of the building into the room and open the door.
Baby Cynthia and the Snake in the Ceiling
When Cynthia was born, they put up a hammock by the corner of my parents bedroom. My mother was tending the the baby. Suddenly my mother hollered. A snake fell from the ceiling and almost landed into the hammock where baby Cyn was. Luckily it did not fall on the baby. They killed the snake promptly. I don't know if it is poisonous or not.
Once time I was holding baby Cyn and accidently bumped her head into the post. I never got to hold the baby after that.
Another day, there is a commotion. Apparently somebody saw somebody get into our apartment. It must be a thief! Tiyong Ser and Tiyong Pablo (husband of Tiyang Celia) were up in arms ready to catch the thief. But when entered the apartment they did not find anybody.
My Playground Further down the road we were walking with friends and we happen to see a slide. I have never seen nor play on a slide so we ran to it and started playing. Going up and down the smooth wooden plank of the slide was the highlight of the day for us. The slide was all by itself in the middle of the field. As if somebody just plunk it in there. It is not a full fledged playground since it’s the only thing in there. But this is the only playground I have known in childhood, this solitary slide in the middle of a large grass field.
After a few months I went there again by myself. The slide was still there and as before it is all by itself and nobody was playing on it. I started sliding and the wood is rough. A sliver pricks my thigh. The sun baked the wood surface into a rough finish that it was not as much fun as it used to be. I walk back home never to return to it.
Come to think of it my real playground was Washington and Hermosa streets and all the other streets crossing it. I played with my boyhood friends in these streets. We played games that may not be played anymore like patintero, text, kalahoyo, tumbang preso, taguam, sumpit, trumpo, lucky nine and many more. The streets are almost empty and traffic very light. We owned those streets.
Kindergarten
I started attending Kindergarten when I was 4 ½ years old. First grade was at Albert Elementary School about 4 miles away. I would walk to school (we do not have any cars) with our maid (everybody in the Phil. have a maid) together with Fred and after that Be and Cynthia. I remember walking on cool mornings and noticed the bangaw (big flies) hovering on the air on the road to school.
Grade 1 is tough for me. Maybe because I have no idea what’s going on. I was sitted behind this cute girl. One day I don’t know what has gotten into me but when she was standing up to recite something, I place my hand on her seat. When she sat down, she sat on my hand. Very naughty. The teacher gave me a verbal spanking and took me to my mother upstairs as she was teaching older students. I sat at the back but couldn’t sit still. I stood up and look out the window when a yellow jacketed wasp bit me in the eyelids. I was not having a good day.
Perrenial Floods in Washington
Washington street must be one of the low points of the city. At the slightest rainfall it floods as if all the water in the city of Manila drain to our street. One day we have to go to school but the street is flooded. Over a couple of blocks the street is high and not flooded. We have to bring out the iron chairs we have so we can step on it and the maid would keep on moving the last chair to the front so we managed to avoid getting wet. I carry my shoes and notebooks with my hands and walk barefooted. Then I put the shoes on once we get to dry land. Ingenious but what a hassle.
Almost Drown in the Canal (Taguling)
This was around early 1950’s when we were in Washington. There is a deep canal in front of our house running up and down the street. This is supposed to channel water but the water is stagnant and black. I don’t remember any mosquitoes though. Perhaps I am just use to the mosquitoes that I don’t pay attention to them. One afternoon, I was playing with my tricycle and racing down the pavement in front of the building. And I fell into the canal. I can not see anything and everything is black. I was motionless for a few seconds when a hand grabs my shoulder and pull me up together with the tricycle. It was my Tiyong Ser. I wonder if I would have drowned if he was not around.
We don’t have any playground. We just play on the street, on the sidewalk, on neighbor’s house, wherever we can. The house across the street has several trees and we go there sometimes. A few blocks is a small playground. It’s really an empty lot with grass and one solitary slide. But the thrill of climbing up on top of the slide and sliding down to me is so exciting. Even though I would get some wood slivers on my leg from sliding I continue to play there.
My Very First Movie
My very first movie I went to is in Dapitan Theater. Friends took me there one Saturday. We were early but the lobby is still close. I was standing by the iron gate waiting for 11:00am when they open the gate. There was a crowd and it started growing as show time nears. I was at the very front of the gate but I feel like I am being crushed. I paid my 50 centavos and went in. There were two shows. The first is a movie about Tarzan and the main feature is The Day The Earth Stood Still. Not understanding English at the time, I was contented in watching the pictures. In fact I have seen many movies where I did not understand the dialogue. Then one day I noticed that I started to understand what they were saying. Dapitan Theater is walking distance from our house but I never return to that movie house again. Maybe because we move to Manuguit soon after.
Not Much Photos Back Then
There were very little cameras back then in the early fifties. Only the rich can afford it. I have not seen one. That is why I do not have much photos. I do recall one photo I have with Fred my brother. We were squating by the ground. What I remember is we were both without pants. Up until age 4 I do not wear any pants while playing on the streets of Washington. One day Lola Menay forced me to put on a pair. When she turned around I immediately took it off and ran outside.
A Thief in the House
One day there was a commotion. My uncles, Tiyong Ser and Tiyong Pabling (Tiyang Celia's husband) were agitated together with other men in the neighborhood. Somebody saw a guy climb up the window into our place. So they were waiting for him to come out. Some were holding clubs and some with bolos. But the would be thief never came out. They search the house but nobody was there. False alarm but provided some excitement for the day.
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