Finding fun.

When we were kids, it was easy to have fun.  Especially during summertime when vacation grande was on, we kids simply lazed about in and out of the house.

Breakfasts were late, lunches even later and dinners and snacks lasted until the following morning.

Our complexion grew darker, our hair grew longer, and shirts and shorts were constantly changed because sweat and grime accumulated into the skin while being under the sun for hours.

Kids playing under the rain.

And when the oppressive heat changed into a heavy downpour, we kids roamed around the neighibourhood shirtless and not a bit worried about catching pneumonia.

We were forever happy just waking up and finding the table full of food we loved to eat. And throughout the day, our mother and aunts supplied us with fresh fruits and juice which kept us even happier.

Favorite summer thirst quenchers, melon juice and watermelon

Because summertime also meant Lenten trips, fiestas and May festivities, our entire household of eight kids and later on, a cousin, migrated to and from two houses and our house in Nueva Ecija.

In Mandaluyong, kids joined fiesta "palosebo," and various parlor games, and in Sta. Ana, there even used to be a kids' boxing match complete with a roped ring.

Palosebo where kids try to climb a greased bamboo pole

When my aunt didn't have a refrigerator yet nor a cool box, my sister Jo and I were tasked with buying ice block from the roving ice truck, and we used to ask for "dry ice," which we played with and this almost daily chore added zest to our vacation fun. "Mababaw ang kaligayahan." Simple joys.

Other neighbourhood kids swam in the Pasig River, relatively clean during our childhood, but we were banned from doing so by our mother. So to cool off, we took longer baths and made our dirty kitchen cum laundry area into a big shower room.

We and our cousins played well into the night such games as taguan pung or hide and seek, tumbang preso and patintero.

In tumbang preso, the object of the game was to hit and down an empty can of milk can placed in the centre of a circle. Players tried this using a "pamato," usually a piece of stone, while an "it" or a guard prevented the players from doing so and immediately put the can back into the circle. The players stayed behind the toe-line while aiming for the "can" and when tagged by the IT as s/he recovered the pamato, s/he became the new IT.

In patintero,  players tried to reach the goal by passing through a series of lines guarded by an "it," and when a player got tagged, s/he was taken out of the game. It is the Philippine version of the American "tag" game.

Into an adulthood peppered with iphone, ipad, and other devices and gadgets, and lured by organized vacation and trips, one finds the menu too daunting and exhausting. The fun simply got too expensive and complex.

A weekend in private resorts are easier and cheaper to organize for big families