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Posts Tagged ‘remembering the days of old’


I was watering the plants one morning when two teenagers passed by. They were looking at me and one of them removed his face mask and smiled.  I smiled back but I was quite puzzled.  Then one of them said “kami po yung nagpupunta dati dito pag baha”.

I remember now. They were those two kids around nine or ten who came over to volunteer to help us clean when we got flooded  back in 2009. They cleaned our side yard and our small pond and we gave them food and a little cash. How time flies!  “Mga mama na”.  They no longer look like teenagers. I also remember two labandera  who looked for jobs after the flood and they washed our clothes for about a week by hand. We had no electricity for about three weeks that time. We had to buy dozens of clothes hangers for them to use.

Rainy reason is almost here. I am afraid of floods. We had to renovate when we got flooded back then. I  am always wary when rainy season sets in and typhoons are frequent. We get an average of 18 to 20 weather disturbances in a year.  I just like that sort of rain which we call tigatik,  when it falls down gently on your roof and you have  a hot cup of coffee or tea besides you while you are reading a good book.  Heaven 🙂

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I spent my grade school years in our province then transferred later here in Manila to pursue high school studies.

We used to have this subject Home Economics (for girls) when I was in Grade V and Grade VI.  There was a small building separate from the classrooms with a porch, a small sala, dining room, a bedroom, toilet and a kitchen with installed wood stove.  That’s where I learned a lot of the practical tips on maintaining a clean house, table setting, the proper use of different plates and utensils and all the accoutrements  that goes with housekeeping. I  learned to cook rice when I was around seven years old, and I learned further during my grade school years.

We held lectures at the dining room sitting on the table and some chairs while listening to our teacher. she taught us how to do simple embroidery and my first project was a handkerchief, the design was traced on a tracing paper with small holes in it so the blue color of the design would appear at one end of the cloth.  Our teacher also taught us simple pattern for a night-gown and embroider the edges  of the gown once we finished sewing it.  Crocheting is another thing that I learned and we made center table pieces before the school year ended.

What I like best were the times we spent in the kitchen. I learned my first menu there.  You  might laugh, it was an omelette. Next came fruit preserving and simple task like frying meat and fish.

When I was in high school we also had  Home Economics, We were taught how to make bags, decor and other things. I made my first dress during my first year but a part of it was done by mom 🙂 By the way, I bought my first  sewing machine when I got married, a manual Singer but the casing was destroyed by the flood back in 2009 so I gave it to one of my cousins.  I mend clothes nowadays, those shirts  and shorts we use every day that need mending  but it’s by hand.

While I was working at Bank of the Phil. Islands, our big boss taught us how to do cross-stitching. I still have four frames hanging as wall decor and several Aida cloth and finished  unframed cross-stitch projects. I find it hard now to use Aida and thread a needle.  I’ve saved my  first Christmas project but the cloth has turned a bit yellowish.

I miss cross-stitching and doing embroidery and crochet but  I no longer have a 20/20 vision so I just concentrate on our small garden.

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