I am presently reading a book about bee keeping and beehives. Bees come out of their hives during the warm season and they hibernate during the cold. The only book I read about bees before is Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Lives of Bees.
Back in the province when my brothers and I were in grade school, we would always look for bee hives among trees in our yard. We were afraid though to disturb it. The sting of a bee is painful. One other thing that reminds me of childhood are the insects we locally call salagubang (beetle in English). After the rain, we would carry a long pole of bamboo and look for salagubang in mango trees nearby. You just have to shake the branches of the mango trees then the beetles will fall. We would play with them by tying a piece of string on their legs and let them buzz We would be lucky if we catch the Ilang-ilang or salaginto which is the green beetle, and shiny too.
Those were the days I remember until now. We are four kids in the family and I am the only girl. What I further recall were playing marbles with my brothers. We each had jars of marble in various colors. Our old house when we were young had several bintana (windows) and each was equipped with barandilla (balustrades) where mom used to put potted plants. They were like the steel bars you still see in older houses now. We had three windows in our bedroom and during rainy season, we would occupy each and would make different shapes out of clay and let them dry when the sun comes out. I would always make a cooking pot with a clay stove and flowers while my brothers would make animals of different kinds.
Gosh, remembering the childhood years – no television, no expensive gadgets to speak of but we were happy. Blowing bubbles with our bubblegum loot which Mom would buy for us when she goes to the market and we’ll have five each of bubble gum candies. We would make them last for a week until the next market day.
Dreams And Escapes 