Those Days

This post was inspired by a fellow blogger and online friend Elizabeth in one of her posts.

Back in the early sixties, my parents bought a Sony transistor radio which was battery operated. I guess we were the first family to own one in our baranggay. It had lots of programs, news, variety shows, singing contests, dramas and soap operas. Those radio actors and actresses were really talented in projecting their voices – a child, parents and the voices of grannies and grandpas as the story demanded.

During Sundays, there was this radio program called Operetang Putol-putol and I never missed it. Always, there would be comedy skits and singing. I learned those 60s songs from foreign groups via our transistor radio.

In those days, two of dad’s siblings with their families would come by after sundown and spend the night with us. The old folks would listen to the drama on the radio while us kids would have the perfect opportunity to play outside especially when the moon was bright. Our house back then was quite large. Since dad was working here in Metro Manila, mom and my brothers would sleep in the bedroom, my aunt’s family at the sala and my uncle’s family at the dining room. Each would bring sleeping mats, pillows and their own blankets every night then bring them back home in the morning. They would listen to the night’s programs.

Since we didn’t have electricity yet, we used kerosene lamps at night and it was lit all night. We never used candles but kerosene were stocked in empty wine bottles for future use. The lamps looked like something like this. Ours were made from aluminum with wick and you can hang them to light up the room.

A few years later, we graduated to this. Kerosene was still used but there was a filament inside that lights up bright.

Those were the lovely days until our baranggay or barrio finally had electricity in the early 70’s I think. My older brother and I were already studying in Manila by then and enjoyed the advantage of having electricity.

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