They come back in snatches, like a favorite old song that keeps you thinking how you felt while you listen and sing along. They come back, like the gentle patter of raindrops outside your window sans the frightening thunder and lightning that always accompany a thunderstorm. They come back and they make you smile.
Our overhead light got busted and you might think it silly that I am using a LED light attached to my transistor radio to type my way through. I am afraid I would forget these lovely thoughts if I postpone writing them even for an hour. I spent the early evening visiting my favorite writers at Philippine Star. The latter is a favorite national daily too because it was through their invites that I got two articles published a few years ago. I was so happy that I got paid for writing an article about OFW families, which we were back then. I am digressing again. I read the editorial page of the Philippine Star now and then but I never skip the lifestyle section of the paper looking for Second Wind, a byline by Barbara Gonzales and Love Lucy by Lucy Torres. The former is a 70 something retired advertising executive who shares her journey with her readers. She writes, teaches writing, does arts and crafts while Lucy is the Lucy Torres Gomez, a house representative from Ormoc down south. I am inspired by their writing style that I laugh sometimes all by myself while reading their articles. Lucy writes fluidly about her early childhood, her dreams when she reaches 85 (haha), her penchant for arts and crafts, her preference for writing short notes on pretty stationeries and sealed in even prettier envelopes, the midnight snacks she always craves for with hubby Richard. These remind me of the days growing up in the province.
When we were kids, my aunt had a small sari-sari store that sold everything from bubble gums, Vicks candies to Tancho pomade and that green aftershave/cologne that they used in barber shops way back then. My favorite was the Vicks candies in small packets with free plastic rings that my cousins and I used to collect. All my fingers would be adorned with different colors of rings in different designs. Heaven! The treasures of youth. I remember the happy times when my cousins and I would gather dry twigs to use for cooking and during summer, armed with wide baskets and bayong, we would go out in the heat of the sun to gather duhat (black plum) for afternoon snacks. My girl cousins would use fresh annatto seeds growing in the backyard to color our lips, and we would use madre cacao to curl our hair. On moonlit nights, my cousins and I would play patintero or luksong tinik and tumbang preso. They were priceless games that a child of ten would definitely enjoy. The best though were the times when we would drink coconut juice straight from the tree and later eat the buko as soon as they were scraped from the husk. By the way, buko is a young coconut.I had my share of climbing trees too (guava trees) mostly. Those were the days, lovely memories of the past. Some may be a bit hazy but the fun attached to those long-ago days are still fresh in my mind.
They make me smile with that pleasant ache of remembrance. Traipsing down memory lane. What were yours, can you remember?
Dreams And Escapes 
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