Your Home Buddy: Reminiscing the Good Ol' Innocent Days

Someone in a Fil-Am forum where I regulary post topics started a thread that brings back happy and funny memories to every Filipino who reads it. The thread is about the experiences of a typical Filipino kid while growing up in the Philippines. It got so many replies from members who shared stories of their innocent years . Almost all of us had the same childhood experiences which mostly were very funny. Reading the posts really gave me a good laugh and somehow made me feel proud of myself.

My childhood life is far from the kind of life that most American children live. It was a lot more simple, but also a lot more fun...or at least that's what I think. I lived in a barrio (small village) and like any other barrio kids, I spent my playtime on the street in the afternoon after school when the sun has set until it got a little dark. Some of the games we'd always play were patintero, Chinese garter,luksong-tinik and step-step (piko in Tagalog). No one owned a car in our barrio back then (and still no one does upto now although many already own new models of motorbikes) and our means of transportation were commercial motorcycles and jeepneys that would take the barrio people to the closest town and other nearby barangays (other name for barrio). There were only 2 jeepneys which would head to the city early in the morning and come back at about 4pm. A motorcycle driver who's usually the owner of the vehicle would only leave the barrio if someone requested to be transported to the town so most of the time the motorcycles just stayed at the owners' house. So kids getting hit by vehicles was never a major concern to parents and I can't remember a time when a kid in our place was ran over by a motorcycle, bike, or jeepney.

patintero

Chinese garter

luksong tinik

step-step

jeepney

I never had my own bicycle in my entire life. When I wanted to ride on one, I had to rent it from someone who owned one. And I rode on it without kneepads or helmet, not even on my first day learning to ride a bike. Did I get cuts? Of course! I skinned my knees and elbows twice or maybe thrice but didn't care because it happened to every other kid. There were even days when the bike didn't have brake.

I didn't have barbie dolls either or even those very cheap dolls. In fact, I didn't have many toys. I liked balloons the most but back then, kids would only get balloons on their birthday, and those were the kids from the well-off families. And needless to say, my family wasn't well-off. So my dad would just make me a "balloon" out of a cellophane bag by blowing it with his mouth and that always made me the happiest little girl in the world.

Everyday I went to school, I didn't bring a lunchbox stuffed with sandwiches, juice, and fruit. I only had P 1.00 (that was probably like $.05 back then) in my hand for the resis (recess,which means snack time.). The money for the resis is what we call baon (pronounced buh-on). With my P 1.00, I could afford to buy a piece of banana cue and a small cup of juice concentrate from one of those people selling home-cooked snacks outside the school for a living. On my dad's payday, my mom would increase my baon to P 1.50 so I could buy one more kind like a slice of maja blanca.

I loved summer more than any other time of the year because in the Philippines it's when school is out, starting on the 3rd week of March and classes don't resume until the 2nd week of June. I got to play almost everyday with other kids although at noon my mom would force me to take a nap. My friends and I would oftentimes play bahay-bahayan (playhouse) at a vacant lot. We built our "house" with coconut leaves as the roof and spread a few sacks on the ground for us to sit and lie down on. Everyone wanted to play as the mom but whoever was the biggest among the group got the role. I also loved the rainy season as long as I was allowed to play in the rain which was very seldom because this always worried my mom that I might get sick the next day. But whenever I was given the permission, I played to my heart's content, and ohhh it was soo much fun.

We had a big river in our barrio and my grandma's house was not very far from it. At least twice a week, my mom would go there to wash the laundry. We had running water in our houses but most found it easier to do the washing in the river. Today, some people in small barrios in the Philippines still do their laundry this way, and yes, the clothes are handwashed...and line dried. But anyways, those days that she did her laundry there always brought excitement to my young mind because it meant that I could go swimming too. She never let me go swimming without her looking out. And when I already got tired from swimming, I would go looking for fresh-water shrimps under the rocks trying to catch them by extending my shirt underwater hoping that the shrimps would swim towards me. But I didn't have any luck with that.

My family moved to town when I was 12 because my dad wanted me to attend highschool there (there's no junior high in the Philippines.) Since then, my family never moved anywhere. The life in town is different than the life in the barrio. It's busier and more civilized.

When I look at the kids here in the US, I see privileged kids. They have nintendo, video games, nice playhouses, pretty clothes and so much more. But when I look back on my childhood, I miss it more than anything else. I didn't have fancy toys and there wasn't a tv set in the house but I had real friends and our games were real games, not electrically powered games. I didn't have barbie dolls but I talked and played with "living dolls". And playing games with other innocent children taught me the value sporstmanship at a tender age. Of course when I already have kids of my won, I woudn't raise them in a barrio just to experience the kind of childhood that I had. But I would bring them up in a similar way that I was, such as letting them play in the yard with other kids instead of letting her get stuck in the house all day with electronic games,or take them to outdoor activities like swimming, camping, and fishing. Some people say "I never had a fun childhood" or "The worst time of my life is my childhood" and they have their own reasons why. But for me, I'm glad my chilhood is a part of my life that I will always look back on and I want the same for my future children because like they say you're a kid only once.

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