Lit and summer likes.

I remember in high school how I hated Literature. For four years we read Shakespeare's works plus those of Carl Sandburg, Keats, Shelley, Browning, and other American and English writers and poets. We disliked Literature because we couldn't understand them, and perhaps because the teachers were un-interesting.

To a teen, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, Silas Marner, Portia and Annabel Lee were distant personas and we were busy liking John, Paul, George and Ringo or the fab four (The Beatles) as they were called then.

Portia and Shylock in William Shakespeare's  Merchant of Venice

Other times we were busy planning for afternoon soirees and eagerly waiting for the appearance of our high school crushes during lunch break and dismissal.

High school algebra was boring because of the teacher but English was interesting and so was Spanish.

The Monkees, like the Beatles, also ruled the airwaves and the Ed Sullivan show was the top ranking US variety show.

Locally, the Sampaguita stars who ruled the late sixties and the seventies' big screen were the Batang Bakasyonistas, Batang Artista and Batang Iskwater - the likes of Rosemarie Sonora, Gina Pareno, Blanca Gomez and Loretta Marquez and the guys, Pepito Rodriguez, Bert Leroy Jr., Dindo Fernando and Edgar Salcedo.

RJ Jacinto and the Moonstrucks were Manila's top bands, and house parties were the craze with neighbourhood bands providing the music. Bye Bye, Jerk and Mash Potatoes were the dances much like today's gangnam fame. 

Boogie woogie was passe, clean cut was out, and bell bottoms, printed shirts, clogs and long hair were the fads.

Formal attire of the mid-70s.  Princess Anne and Capt. Mark Philips' engagement announcement in 1973

At school and at parties, boys took to one side and girls at the other side. Boys went to the girl's house some weekend evenings if he were interested in a girl, and brought gifts, too.

Phone pals and song hits were the buzz words, and local TV dance shows had titles like Dance O' Rama and Night Owl.

Manila's streets were relatively safer as gangs or "tambays," hang out at neighbourhood convenience or sari sari stores, and only victimized girls through their hoots or whistles or pranks.

Street drugs were unknown and local liquor were San Miguel Beer, Tanduay Rhum,  Ginebra San Miguel and the liquor cum tonic called Sioktong.

Sioktong came in bottles and can be bought by glass. (Note: you bring your own glass and the grocer or sari sari store owner poured the Siok Tong)

 

Gabriel "Flash" Elorde was the masses' sports hero and Mang Paeng (Rafael Yabut), and Damian Soto were the radio super newscasters and commentators.

The young Gabriel "Flash" Elorde, world's junior lightweight champion for seven years

Gabi ng Lagim, Lagalag, and Tia Dely were the radio drama and suspense hits, and Botica sa Baryo was Sunday evening's comic relief.

On TV, the Three Stooges and Superman were the the young people's favorites.

Local chocolates had names like Nectar and Nestor, and buns and bread were called pan de buntal, pan de limon, and kababayan.

Mid-morning and mid-afternoon reading materials were Tagalog comic books like Hiwaga Klasiks, Pilipino Komiks, Espesyal and the Liwayway Magazine. They were the Lit of neighbourhood kids.

The Bargain Bins.

Whenever I visit my sister in Ohio, I'd pass at the huge Premium Outlet in Grove City in Pennsylvania, if I'm driving along I-79, and in Steubenville itself, I'd always shop at K-Mart, and the Gabriel Brothers in the neighbouring city of Weirton, West Virginia.

A lot of times, I'd drive from Toronto to Buffalo on a whim,  a one and a half hour drive, to shop at another huge Premium outlet on I-98 at Military Road or at the Niagara Falls' Canada side- Outlet stores.

In Toronto, I'd drive to the neighbouring city of Vaughan for its Factory Outlet stores or to Mississauga for another mall with outlet stores where you can buy factory priced Adidas or New Balance sneakers, Levis jeans, Calvin Klein's, and other branded goods.

The big Premium Outlet stores are a bargain shopper's haven, with brand name stores like Bose for sound systems, and for shoes and clothing, there's Nike, Coach, American Eagle, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Gap and many other brands.

At Gabriel Brothers, it's best to shop at end of season days, and at K-Mart, it's everyday sale prices.

Then there are the franchised Dollar Stores; my favorite is the Dollar Tree, where you can buy a can of Hormel Vienna Sausage for 39 cents, and sometimes, 3 for a dollar.  Ziploc sandwich bags, a roll of aluminum foil and hardware items such as paint roller brush and gloves all cost a dollar each. A big can of Folgers or Maxwell ground coffee costs about $7.

In Manila, there are no Premium outlets nor Dollar stores. The closest things to a Dollar Store are the DIY and Japanese Home Stores where the cheapest items cost about 66 or 88 pesos.

My fave is the DIY where you can find good merchandise such as dog collars and chains, garden hose, electricals and computer accessories at cheaper prices, and hard-to-find items such as wrist bandage or bike tire air pump. At these bargain shops, you walk in to browse and walk out with a 1000- peso worth of purchase. 

Other known bargain areas are the Flea Markets of Greenhills, St. Francis Square near the Megamall in Mandaluyong, and one at the Market, Market at the Global City.

At the Greenhills' Tiange or Flea Market, you'd bump into foreigners haggling for Louis Vuitton bags or Nike shoes.

Of course, even before the word "flea market" came into the vocabulary of Manilenos, there were the Divisoria and Baclaran markets, the original bargain capitals of Manila.

The original baratillo, bargain market of Divisoria

Bargain sales used to be called "baratillo," the Spanish word for second hand or cheap goods. That's why Filipinos call those cheapskates as "barat."

Baclaran Market

Remember the Love Bug?

My first car was a Beetle. Colored orange and then another Beetle, colored aqua blue.  Both were reliable and sturdy compacts which were able to traverse flooded Metro Manila streets of yesteryears.

Then came a Ford Brenda. Later an Isuzu and just recently, a Plymouth Voyager mini-van.

Now, I drive a Montero.

Last Sunday, while on a trip to Cavite, its battery got weak and I had to get a series.  Back in Manila, I found out it had a 21-month warranty while it's just on its eighteenth month with the SUV.

Unlike the two previous Beetles, the Montero is a four-wheel drive and still goes berserk when you hit on its gas.

It is a beauty physically, too, that's why perhaps the household members find it irresistible and make its various parts play various roles.

For instance, its hood gets decorated with flower pots, sometimes with small trash cans, too, candy containers, mosquito swatter, etc.

Its metal bumper becomes a clothesline for little rags.

Inside, the dashboard becomes a little altar with small religious statues and icons. The mid-section compartments are cluttered with combs, paper fans and notebooks. And the driver's drink compartment gets loaded with coins.

Alas, the luggage section is fully mine, so I get to put my car tools in it.

The neat freak in me gets its fangs out when I see the add-ons in full view. I simply see red.

My old love bugs were supposed to be user friendly and they were; they didn't care if they had add ons, or less ons.

Manilenos are clean freaks when it comes to their vehicles. Their cars get washed everyday by the help, never mind if the water is expensive or just a drip.

In U.S. and Canada, where there's no household crew, people go to drive- through car wash and presto in five minutes, get a spotlessly clean car. Or wait for the vehicle to get really dirty, especially during winter, before getting the vehicle hosed down.

In Manila where most car wash services are done manually by car wash boys, car owners wait for at least an hour to get their cars out.

So while here in Manila,  I do most of my car wash, outside and inside clean up, and rely on a regular on-call mechanic. 

Because vehicles are a lot cheaper in North America and car financing much easier to obtain, the car buying public gets to choose from a wide variety of car makes and models. And practical car owners often lease or buy used cars.

For instance, a cousin-in law, an engineer for a big car manufacturer, rarely buys a brand new vehicle. He prefers used, top-of-the line cars.

In Manila, people prefer brand new because the old ones get poor maintenance, like batteries that die within two years. 

The SUV is the ruggedly handsome mode of transport for today.  The Love Bug is the manly car women love to cuddle.

Re-cycles.

The other day I stumbled upon the website of the old office I used to work for and found the same old programs I helped design and delivered and managed myself. 

Canada has been accepting newcomers to its doors like no other country in the world. Filipinos, people from India, from mainland China, Eastern Europe and African nations continue to flock to Ontario and its other provinces.

But are they getting employed? Easily or do they still face barriers like the ones which were encountered by newcomers some twenty or fifteen years ago?

When I looked at the interventions being offered at Skills for Change, I began to realize that the old  barriers could still be there. For if not, why are the same programs and services of twenty years ago still being offered today.

Or do service providers lack vision, creativity and problem solving skills to come up with new, and "bulls-eye" employment and integration schemes and programs?

I remember students and clients complaining then that the job search programs that were offered were like degree courses in resume making, job interview skills and researching companies which could have been compressed into shorter courses, and focused more on hard skills or technical courses.

And suddenly I remember reading a few weeks ago how first world economies of today would lag behind countries like Nigeria, Vietnam, India, Brazil, the Philippines and other such emerging economies. And a vision came into mind.

Thirty years or so from this date, Canadians, British, Americans, Italians, and French may be migrating into Asia, Africa and Latin America for employment and better lives.

Would they integrate easily into the new culture and new language?  Would there be the same biases, and barriers?
 

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

Empty mug at three.

My body clock wakes me up at two-ish in the morning, all the time. Ditto this morning, at exactly two.

So after the washroom break, I headed to the kitchen to prepare a cup of Swiss Miss dark hot cocoa.  The bread at Pan de Manila looked inviting so I got one and simply spread it with butter.

Hot cocoa at two in the morning without TV nor book to read was purely boring and the computer looked sad, so I quickly powered it up.

Thousands of netizens surely commiserate with my situation because as soon as I logged in and posted, someone posted back.

In three minutes, my mug of hot cocoa was empty. Unlike coffee which I love to refill over and over, hot cocoa fills me up quickly and I don't long for seconds.

Which reminds me of brunch at Pancake House; there's no coffee refill and they use small coffee cups, not mugs, which further reminds me of breakfasts at diners in Canada or the U.S.A where you get tons of refills. As soon as you put in your order, the waitress comes in and pours your coffee, and comes back over and over.

Soon,  my mouth ached for a cup of brewed coffee, but my stomach was still bloated with the cocoa beans.

I would have to wait for sunrise. My opened can of coffee now is the Canadian Nabob, which is really robust.

My stack of coffee is down to one big can of ground and two bottles of instant. I grabbed the opportunity at the recent S&R March sale and bought an extra large can of Folger's with almost 150 peso discount.

Falling in Love with the 20's.

Robert Redford as the Great Gatsby

Boys of the 20's

Prohibition years, liquor was banned and dumped

I must have been a baby of the Roaring 20's in my previous life; I just love the sight, sound, and scent of the Glorious Twenties.

Sure, I am connected to the 1920's. My father was born in 1921 and my mother in 1918.

My mother as a child of the 20's

A  dancer of the 20's

I am also connected to the 1920's era because I love the fictional character of Jay Gatsby, who lived in the romantic era of the Roaring 20's.

And I love jazz,  a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in black communities in the Southern United States and evolved into the distinctive style of New Orleans starting in the 1910's, and further evolved and was accepted into mainstream music from the 1920's and into the 70's.

The legendary Greta Garbo of 20's Holywood

We just hosted a Roaring 20's birthday bash and it was splendid.

Roaring 20's themed party held in 2013

Baseball icon Babe Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927)

Twenties' girl's volleyball team

Louis Armstrong, above, came to prominence in the 1920s, influencing countless musicians with both his daring trumpet style and unique vocals.  He recorded several songs throughout his career, including his well known song  "Star Dust."