HOW IT WAS.

Compiled from my previous Facebook posts.

Eating to the last grain of rice. Although my family, back home in the Philippines, don’t fall in the category of impoverished, I grew up on “Don’t waste God’s blessings” faith or “Your dad worked hard for our dinner, eat!” mindset. Today’s “liberal” thought says it is a form of control. Nope. I didn’t/don’t see it that way. It was respect to family values, regardless of religion. And recognition of my parents’ toil. Food conservation is common sense. 🍽🇵🇭🍽

Cooking on a clay oven. Or firewood “stove.” When I was a child, the family lived in a mining town in the Philippines’ northern mountain region. There, houses were built uniformly; and equipped with a clay oven and/or firewood stove. Electricity was conserved or distributed evenly. “Conservation” was culturally voluntary. With my older brother Alberto, we used to gather firewood up in the hills and sawdust (as kindling) in the nearby log-cutting site. 🪵🔥🪵

Television set with a door. Or a TV that is in a cabinet. Usually a Toshiba. TV was locked (with a key) most of the day and only opened or turned on at nighttime. TV watching in my childhood years was 2 hours max on weekends. Besides news at 6 PM, TV was usually turned off on weekdays. So we kids focused on school and homework and our assigned house chores. Never did I imagine that TV or screen time would evolve into what it is right now. 📺📺📺

Long walks with grandpa to the open market when I was a little boy. Grandpa Severino was a frugal old man. Won’t spend a few centavos for a jeepney ride so we’d simply walk the distance. Exercise, he said. That was how I learned how to read. He taught me the ABCs via building billboards, street signs, store IDs, jeepney routes, product names/costs, and newspaper headlines as we pick a copy each time. Do grandpas and grandkids still do this? 🚶🚶‍♂️🚶

Martial Law. Military government or suspension of ordinary law. It was handed down in the Philippines by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. I was 12 years old but I am called a “Martial Law baby,” having grown in that era. Although ML was lifted in 1981, military atrocities carried on. My most active as a journalist. Martial Law or “dictatorship” is not something that is paralleled with/in America, unless we are back to 1765-1783 or 1861-1865. 🇵🇭☮️🇵🇭

In the 1970s, the Philippines experienced a rice crisis due to various factors. Martial Law years. I remember lining up for rice with mom and sisters in those years. Anyhow, the “Green Revolution,” which began in 1973, enabled the country to export rice to other Asian countries after the country achieved self-sufficiency in 1975. So it was baffling why we had a shortage of the staple food. In fact, to date, the Philippines' rice export is still high. 🍚🍚🍚

Dracula and Frankenstein. “Dracula,” from the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker, about Transylvanian nobleman Count Dracula, considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire. “Frankenstein” is based on an 1818 novel by Mary Shelley, which tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Those were the “scary” stuff in books and movies when I was kid. No slasher stuff yet. 🧛‍♂️🎥🧟‍♀️

Cowboy and Indians. Fun games. We were children. Cowboys were heroes, Indians were anti-heroes. Then we grew up and realized George Custer wasn’t how he was portrayed in movies and Geronimo wasn’t a bandit but a rebel. Yet “Cowboys and Indians” were simply harmless child’s play and didn’t figure much in our evolution into adulthood. We guide kids how to formulate stuff as they grow, not to influence how they “should” think. 🐴🤠🐴

Moviehouses. My first ever trip to a moviehouse in Manila. Podmon Theater. My dad brought me and my older brother Alberto to watch the1966 movie “Our Man Flint,” starring James Coburn. I forgot the double-picture companion movie though. I think the first movie that I saw alone at the Grand Theater in Cubao district was a local comedy called “David and Goliath,” starring Chiquito. It was my birthday. Then, movies were special treats! 🎥☎️📽

Kontrabidas. Movie anti-heroes whose evil actions are important to the plot. These guys are Max Alvarado, Eddie Garcia, and Paquito Diaz. Popular movie “kontrabidas” in Filipino movies, especially when I was a boy. Their common denominator: Moustache and devilish laughter. Other bad dudes: Johnny Monteiro, Bino Garcia, Romy Diaz, Rocco Montalban, Vic Diaz, and Rodolfo “Boy” Garcia although he had no moustache but with the most wicked grin. 🎥🇵🇭📽

[Photo credits: Shutterstock. 123RF. WFUV]