A Sentimental Trip

The Panaderos family never had a true ancestral home. If we ever had one, it should have been my great grandmother's old home on P. Campa Street in Sampaloc. Her home was built some time in the early 1900s. As was typical of the homes at the time, it was primarily a wooden structure, had capiz (seashell) windows, and a flight of stairs that led one from the street level up to the living quarters on the second floor.

However, after she died in the early 1970s, one of her sons, a great uncle of mine, inherited the place. Since he lived by himself, it was easier for him to visit the rest of the clan who resided in my hometown. Thus, the Panaderos family home in my hometown became the sort of de facto family ancestral home even though it was much newer.

As for my hometown, under the 1987 Constitution, it formed one of Manila's six congressional districts. Back in the pre-martial law days and under the 1935 Constitution, it was one of Manila's four congressional districts.

To share just a bit of its history, in pre-Spanish times, the district I grew up in was originally part of a rather large Muslim kingdom that covered what are now the cities of Mandaluyong, Makati, and Pasay and the Manila districts of Paco and Pandacan. I guess you could say that the kingdom was a precursor to today's Metro Manila. But when the Spaniards acquired the territory in the late 1570s, control of the area, my district in particular, was handed over to Franciscan missionaries.

In the 1800s, the town became one of the favorite vacation places for some of Manila's affluent families. A number of their vacation homes used to stand by the southeast banks of the Pasig River, at a time when the scent emanating from the Pasig was still described as "sweet". The famed tranvia ("electric streetcar") used to run along one of the town's major roads and the tracks ended practically at the footsteps of our centuries-old Franciscan Church.

The Panaderos clan moved into the district around 1940 from the neighboring town of Makati. Makati, at the time, was still a rural town with rice fields and was one of the towns that made up the province of Rizal. In Makati, the Panaderos family had lived in a house in one of the streets behind the Makati City Hall's current location. In my hometown, the Panaderos family rented a house that was part of three or four blocks of homes that were built and developed by the landlord, the Yutivo Corporation.

Unlike the Ermita and Malate districts, my town was generally spared from the large-scale destruction brought on by the Liberation of Manila. However, it was not without its share of war casualties. A couple of very close family friends lost loved ones during the war. Aling Violet, a next door neighbor and close family friend, had a Polish-American father who served in the USAFFE (US Armed Forces in the Far East). He fought the Japanese in Bataan and ended up losing his life there. Mang Roy, whose family lived next door to us, had an older brother who served in the famed Philippine Scouts. He was picked up by the Kempeitai (Japanese Military Police) one night on suspicion of aiding the guerillas. He was never seen alive again.

The district showed a lot of progress during the 1950s and 1960s thanks to the success and hard work of a lot of its residents. A lot of the old Spanish-style homes were demolished by their owners and replaced by new and modern-looking apartment-style buildings. Quite a number of stylish American cars also became present on its streets.

The 70s were a fun time for me. I became familiar with the places and personalities around the neighborhood. In the process, I made quite a number of friends, a lot of them were the children themselves of my father's friends. I participated in a summer basketball league one year (a topic that would be the subject of a future blog entry), climbed the big acacia trees that were a common sight in a number of the streets back then, helped put up streamers for the town fiesta, participated in games and contests held on the day of the town fiesta, and "helped out" with the Santacruzan processions. I also remember the dance parties my older cousins hosted at home with the lights turned "down low".

We also had some so called neighborhood personalities. The neighborhood pediatrician's last name was Jayme and so we took to calling him "Dr. J", patterned after the NBA star Julius Erving who was quite popular at the time. There was also Dr. G, the older brother of a Sampaguita Pictures matinee idol. To the boys in the neighborhood, he inspired fear for he was known as "The Great Circumciser". Hardly a summer vacation went by without his name being mentioned by the parents back then.

We also had Aling Linda, a lady who sold a variety of cold refreshments, "ulam" (viands) and snacks during the hot summers. She had to do so for she had to support a rather large brood. Sleek and Tomas were the town tailors.

Unfortunately, the 70s also witnessed the beginning of a decline in the neighborhood. By then, many of the old-time residents had either moved to the suburbs or had migrated to the US or Canada. A lot of newcomers moved in from various places and provinces around the country. Sadly, these people did not share the feelings of ownership and respect old-time residents had for the place.

My family moved out to the suburbs in the mid 1970s although we still made it a point to visit on weekends. My visits to the place became less frequent during the 1980s once I got busy with college, got into romantic relationships, and worked on starting a profession. The last long visit was back in the early 90s when I drove around the neighborhood's streets as some sort of goodbye before leaving for the States.

I haven't been to my hometown in a while. Although I was in Manila last August, I was only able to stop by it once to see a very dear Aunt and my dear cousins. It was a shame that due to a previous commitment, I was not able to stay more than a couple of hours. Given such short stay, I was not able to spend some time to savor the neighborhood of my childhood.

Although a lot of changes have taken place, in my brief visit I saw that a lot of the nice old Spanish-style homes are still there. Many still belong to the same families that have lived in the town for generations, some of whom have had a presence in our town since the early 1900s. The old acacia trees are now gone. In their place stand new apartment-style buildings. Although these new buildings look quite trendy and modern from the outside, neighbors told me that they were not as well constructed as the old ones.

Dr. J is retired now and one of his sons have taken his place as the town pediatrician. His clinic still stands on the spot where I remembered it to be. Dr. G, like his matinee idol brother, has long since passed away. So too has Tomas, one of the tailors. Sleek has retired too. Both of their shops now gone. Mang Roy passed away recently after a long bout with cancer.

My great uncle who lived on P. Campa Street is no longer around too, having passed away in the late 1980s. My great grandmother's P Campa residence is no longer there. The property was sold to a Manila businessman who had the house demolished and a commercial building put up on its old site.

Aling Linda, happily, is still around. All her hard work in the summers surely paid off for she has become a landlord and now owns at least two apartment buildings in the area. Most of her kids have done quite well too for themselves.

Those are the stories and there are much more, too many to fit into one blog entry. The town occupies a special place within me for all of the above helped me to become what I am. I don't know when I'll be back for another vist. But when I do, I'll probably stay awhile.

Here Comes The Sun

Little darling,

It's been a long cold lonely winter;

Little darling,

It feels like years since it's been here.

- The Beatles

It may be quite hard to imagine but in a few weeks, all these oak trees will be thick and green with leaves once again, bringing much needed life and vibrance back to what now seems to be a dead and drought-parched forest.

Soon, the summer birds will be back, the kids will be out in full force playing in the parks, and people will be working and planting flowers in their gardens. A renewal.

Spring's finally here.

Original Photo by: Panaderos

Happy Easter Everyone!

Dear Readers, please enjoy this little Easter video that was patterned after my moves on the dance floor. Hahaha Just kidding about the moves.

Let me also share with you below "The Original Human Tetris Performance" by Gillaume Reymond, one of YouTube's Best of 2007 awardees. It shows you what some people can come up with if they have a lot of free time on their hands:

Wherever you all are in the world, I hope and pray that this Easter finds you and your loved ones happy, safe, and well. Take care.

A Little Story (Conclusion)

I knew I was falling for this lady. Her smarts and her way of writing enthralled me. In the days and weeks that followed, I found myself brooding over her and my situation. Should I move on with my life and simply admire her from a distance? I didn’t even know what she looked like and who she really was. Should I even give the whole thing a try?

Knowing myself, I knew that a question left unanswered was something that would bother me no end. I therefore decided to give the whole thing a shot even if the chance of success seemed pretty slim. Better to have loved and lost, right? But of course, nobody likes losing. So to significantly reduce the chances of losing, I had to do some careful planning.

Although I was already quite active in that online forum, having posted numerous entries in quite a number of threads, I still decided to plan my “moves” on the assumption that she knew nothing of me, that she had neither read nor come across any of my posts. Although the forum also had a private messaging facility that allowed members to send private or personal messages to other members, I also decided not to go that route to introduce myself. I felt that it was a risky move had I approached her from out of nowhere. My intentions would have been suspect and she probably would have rejected me right there and then.

So I opted for a subtler, albeit slower and more deliberate, approach. I wanted to do things right, old-fashioned guy that I am. I decided to wait. My plan was that if I see her post an entry on threads I was interested in, that I would respond directly to her post. I was hoping that by doing so, she would respond back and that it would lead to an exchange between us and she would then know that I exist. In other words, the geek in me borrowed a page from my Marketing course in college in terms of raising “brand awareness” on a particular target market. She was the target and I was the brand, so to speak. (Wink)

The approach I took required a lot of patience and did try my patience for it ultimately led to weeks of waiting. The time difference between Manila and the US did not help matters either.

Until one sunny spring afternoon, IT finally happened.

I was busy at work drafting a report for my boss when I saw a post from her show up on one of my favorite threads. The thread was actually a game where a member, say Member A, would start off by asking to no one in particular if he/she would still be loved in spite of some quirk he/she may have that he/she will mention. Another member, Member B, would then post a response by either saying a “yes” or a “no” and give a reason or two why he/she would still love/would not love Member A in spite of/because of his/her quirk. Upon responding, Member B would then throw a similar question but this time mentioning a different quirk.

So once I saw her post a question, I immediately dropped what I was doing and immediately started to formulate a response. I hurriedly drafted and posted a witty reply not only to hopefully attract her attention but also to beat any other member who may also have been thinking of responding to her at that very moment.

Luckily, my response went through and got posted before any other members’ responses did. Then I waited. To hell with the draft report I was working on. The boss wasn’t expecting it until the following week anyway. I waited for what seemed like forever, hoping that she would respond.

A few minutes later, she did. Yes!

I pumped my fist into the air and quickly answered her post back. A few minutes later, she did the same. Great!! This back and forth between us went on for a good couple of hours. Along the way, a few forum members tried to join in but I shooed them away. (She can attest to that.) That game thread was mine at that very moment and no member was going to deny me the golden opportunity that I had long waited for. I wasn’t going to walk away from it without making sure that she had become fully aware of my presence and existence.

We had fun because after that first session, she and I continued with our one-on-one exchanges on that thread for several more days before I finally sent her a private message to introduce myself. That led to us having nice little chats daily where we got to know each other more. We also exchanged photos and I was pleasantly surprised to find that this smart lady was also a very pretty one. A week or so later, we finally exchanged phone numbers and I finally got to hear her sweet voice on the phone.

We had to coordinate our vacation and work schedules to prepare for our first meet. But when it finally took place a few months later, it was very sweet. Since then, not a single day has gone by without us keeping touch with each other in one form or another. We've met a few more times since then, each meeting lovelier and more memorable than the one before.

It will be close to a year since that lovely spring day. The ocean that separates us remains a challenge but with each other's love and support, we'll hopefully make it.

An Afternoon Break for a "Lush"

Took an early break from work yesterday and went on a winery tour with my buddy, S. We went to a town called Healdsburg in Northern California, about 75 to 80 miles north of San Francisco. The town is right in Sonoma County, one of at least two counties (the other one being neighboring Napa) in that part of California that are famed for their wines and vineyards.

Our first stop was the Sapphire Hill Winery.

We got to taste at least five of their wine products. A few of the wines we sampled are shown below:


I am very partial to red wine and thus, except for one, the rest of the varieties I tasted were "reds". I ended up buying a bottle of wine, a Sapphire Hill 2003 Pinot Noir, the one in the middle above. The second and last stop was at the Seghesio Family Vineyards, the leading vineyard in Healdsburg:


Behind the glass window in the photo above, are the wine barrels as shown in the photo below. I apologize for the quality of the picture for I was behind a glass window at the time. It also did not help that I am a man with an awful camphone and equally awful photo-shooting skills.

I tasted about six of the red wine varieties at this place. Yours truly had to admit that I was a bit "buzzed" by the time I left this place. It didn't help that while in that "buzzed" state, I ended up buying two bottles of red wine, a Sangiovese Vintage 2005 and a 2004 San Lorenzo Petite Sirah, and also ended up applying for membership at their wine club.

After the winery tour, S and I had a couple of rounds of the Red Rocket Ale at the Bear Republic microbrewery. Actually, a couple of rounds is quite an understatement because each round came in a 22 ounce glass. Plus, the ale had a kick to it.

Anyway, five glasses of wine at Sapphire Hill, six glasses at Seghesio, and two 22-ounce glasses of red ale at the Bear Republic were bound to take their toll sooner or later. I didn't realize the cumulative effects those drinks had on me until this morning when my loved one told me that I fell asleep on her last night, right in the middle of a phone conversation. (Yikes!) That also explained why as soon as I woke up this morning, I found my cellphone right next to me on the bed and all the lights in my room were still on. (Another yikes!) When I got up from bed, I found that my hotel room door was not locked . (Oops!)

Needless to say, I had to apologize profusely to my lady love this morning for falling asleep on her last night. In addition, the planned sequel and conclusion to my little story did not materialize due to my inebriated state. Sigh.

Original Photos by: Panaderos