Back Then

I've been lurking this blog for the past 2 weeks when I stumble a story about a cebuano fotog who got sick with BigC -- i'm hoping that soon he'll be OK and lived a normal life again with his wife. Then I began to read his wife's blog and the stories touched me especially that I'm a mom to a 3-year-old sipat na bata :).

Then read about this entry and yes.. this is so true.. so enjoy and read on.

This was our life - those born in the 1950's, 60's 70's and 80's!! (children take note and read...)

First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, ate isaw, and didn't worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads , sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na)

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 ( minsan straight from the faucet or poso)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contacted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank sofdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren't sick or overweight kasi nga......WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso , habulan at taguan.

No one was able to reach us all day ( di uso ang cellphone , walang beepers ) . And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street , only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (seweage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD's, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Facebook ...... ...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo,,,,ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. we were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns ' gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan. .pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans ( tumbang preso )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay.paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who've had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn't it?!

:: an entry repost from Encounters with Destiny ::

Morning Rides!

Happy New Year!! It's been a while I haven't posted anything here. It's 2011 and its time to blog from time to time. :)

I usually take PUJ every morning from 44E to 12L to 14D/06B/07D that's my usual route. And make it to a point to sit between to ladies to more secured, you know nman it's hard to commute nowadays. By doing so, I came across with lots of things. Some are some kinda gross just like what happened earlier on my way to the office. A girl sat on my left side since someone already seated on my right. She's pretty, long hair, nice eyelash and well groomed BUT when I glanced on her hair -- BANG --- she got LICE.. kalerky.. super minus.. makabuang man ni oi..

heheh..

Go on, I'm moving on

For the past few weeks my life was like a carousel. I can say that this is one hell of a ride, one of my darkest nights. People in my past is making it hard - really, really hard for me to moved on.

I hope you guys are happy doing these things to me. All i know i have not done anything wrong to you but if i did - i'm sincerely sorry for it. But can you tell me what have i done wrong to you? coz until now im super clueless.

Also, I want to move on with another chapter of my life. I'm worried on how to bring food to my son's mouth.

:: dadi ::

few years back, i have this thing in my mind and in my dreams that i'LL be alive until my my 27th year. until my dad passed away dec 18 - and i was 27 y.o. then... right there when that green line thing in the monitor hit me -- im 27 and its not me who died instead it was my father. i could still perfectly recall how he struggled exactly 7.05pm of dec 18 @ cduh. that last breath, that straight green light in the monitor system -- i never thought it would happen to me, us. its almost 2 years has past since my dad passed away.

when i was still a child - im not that close to my dad. he's my number one enemy at home. even if he's (& my mom as well) the kind of parent(s) who hit their child to discipline them yet i still i love them silently. i used to have lots of questions behind me like -- why my dad dont have any job, he's the one taking good care of us (me & my sis), and the like, alot of "why's". but through the years i found out that my dad is a very shy type of guy, aloof and oh he used to be an activist-- he's only confident enough to speak when he gets drunk. i know pretty much that he's intelligent. i also remember when i was 5-7 y.o. where there are lots of strangers coming to our place-- talking to my dad-- i wonder who they were, so i asked my mom and said they were NPA's asking my that to be one of their speaker or something. "sus if nadayon to si dadi -- ipako.ut jud ni nako ang mga hilabtanon og suyaon sa akong palibot"

i remember one time, when i was out playing in our neighborhood, accidentally hit my head with that coco trunk and had a cut, was crying on my way home, when my dad saw me crying to death and saw my head was bleeding -- instead of comforting me -- he hit me with a broomstick coz he was cleaning our garden and told me "mao na cge man og kiat". it was almost dark when he wanted to bring me to the nearby clinic but decided not to instead coz he wants my mom to do it. scared that my mom will find out and get another set of "bunal", i slept early so she wont noticed my cut - yet she woke me up to take a look and hugged me.

too much bout that.

i may not be the kind of person who visit's my dad but i kept him inside my heart and he's always in my thoughts. how i wish he's still around

i've wanted and longed to write this thing about him coz 1 thing is for sure, i miss my father so much.




DANCE with MY FATHER

back when i was a child

before life removed all the innocence

my father would lift me high

and dance with my mother and me and then

spin me around till i fell, feel asleep

then up the stairs he would carry me

and i knew for sure, i was loved.

if i could get another chance

another walk, another dance with him

i'd play a song that would never ever end

how i'd love, love, love to dance with my father again.

when i and my mother would disagree

to get my way i would run from her to him

he'd make me laugh just to comfort me (ooh)

and finally make me do just what my mother said

later that night when i fell asleep

he left a dollar under my sheet

never dreamed that he would be gone from me. (noo)

if i could steal one final glance,

one final step, one final dance with him

i'd play a song that would never ever end

'cause i'd love, love, love to dance with my father again.

Dance with my Father Again by Tamyra Gray