Reminiscing

Noel and I had a nice chat this morning. We talked of how he will celebrate his 59th birthday but he said he had to go to work but their friends held a party and they were invited.

I visited his wall on Facebook and I saw those pictures he shared when his godparent Mama Julian died early this year. Among the four, mom is the only one left. They were the photos of Dad, Mom, Mama Julian and Nana Mina when they visited us several years ago while Noel’s family were on vacation too.

Mama Julian and his family were in the same compound in Quezon City when us kids were still younger. They were the best of friends. I remember during my grade school years in the province and when our barangay fiesta is celebrated in December, Mama Julia’s family would stay in our house, the night would always be a lovely affair with dancing and programs and the two (Mama Julian and Dad) would act as emcees. They would solicit raffle prizes beforehand and raffle them off to our ka-barangay. It was always a lovely affair. They even had drama skit afterwards. Back then, a 200-peso envelope was a big, big prize. There were gifts from Mama Julian’s officemates in Congress. All of the latter’s family are residing abroad now except for two who came home and the other one was a teacher.

Those were the days when we would all look forward to December 27. Nowadays, it’s run by the barangay captain in our place.

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If You Could Turn Back Time

But you can’t.

You can only remember and reminisce. The memories may sometimes be hazy but there are events in your past that stand out and you smile….remembering.

Last night I had a brief journey listening to some music (instrumental at that) and songs of yesteryears posted by a journalist friend who also grew up in the 60’s. A nice way to spend a few moments listening to the sound of Sergio Mendes, Malo (Latin jazz), the mellow voice of Karen Carpenter, the dancy tunes of Carlos Santana’s music, the singing guitars of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.  Yes, YouTube is the best when it comes to those old, old music.

If you could turn back time –

You’ll probably remember those days when happiness means playing under the heat of the sun or watching the moon on a clear night, no television, no phones and other gadgets to distract you. Those were the days when you get fascinated by dragonflies and butterflies freely hopping from flower to flower, bloom to another bloom. Those were the days when climbing a guava tree and eating those crunchy fruits while you were perched on a swinging branch like a monkey was heaven. Those were the days when having pancit was a celebration of birthdays and special occasions. They are noodles cooked with different vegetables and slices of pork, a bit of shrimp or diced cooked chicken.

Ah, I  remember those days collecting marbles and rubber bands and playing with my brothers, who had the longest braid of rubber bands at the end of the game? And those cards we used to call tex. They were collectibles which we put in shoe boxes.

We called them tex.

Marbles. Locally we call them holen or jolen.

Now the use of rubber bands has evolved. A couple of years ago, I made bracelets out of them.

I’d like to think that growing up, we were the lucky ones not needing expensive gadgets and toys to have fun.

 

 

 

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The Green Thing

Back to the days when life was simple and the environment was healthier than today. Let’s protect our environment, it’s not too late!  May we all learn from this. The cost of digital age.

This article is not mine but I want to share it all with you.

THE GREEN THING by Rob Baldwin

When at a store checkout the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own shopping bags in future because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”
The cashier responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got blunt.

But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every shop and office building. We walked to the shop and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two streets.

But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 2,200 watts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the county of Yorkshire. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not polystyrene or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.
We drank water from a fountain or a tap when we were thirsty instead of demanding a plastic bottle flown in from another country. We accepted that a lot of food was seasonal and didn’t expect to have out of season products flown thousands of air miles around the world. We actually cooked food that didn’t come out of a packet, tin or plastic wrapping and we could even wash our own vegetables and chop our own salad.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.
Back then, people caught a train or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza place.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we oldies were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

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