Last Thursday, I had a great night with my mom and my "kuya" (actually my uncle, but the age gap's not that big). Apparently, "kuya" had to sleepover at our place because everybody back at his home left him in their not-so-singles' pad. Wawa was off to Tagaytay to enjoy her hobby, madjong, which at the same time socializing with her friends. My 40-something uncle went to Davao to re-live his younger days with a younger love (having relationships with quite a big age gap is pretty common in our family... please refer to my older posts;D). Tita, on the other hand, "visited" her sister in Hong Kong with a certain someone *ahem ahem*.
So there we were, in the dining room/sala, my mom playing solitaire at the same time chitchatting with us. Kuya was getting hold of the white cheese popcorn, multitasking because while he wanted to watch Doom on dvd, he was also up for some kwentos as well. I thought that it was a great time to reminisce and just talk about the good, old days...
You see, kuya lived with us for a few years when dad was assigned in Cagayan de Oro. I remember I was 4 years old at that time, astonished with everything that was going on around me. We lived in a neighborhood where everybody practically knew each other. My then best friend lived two blocks away from me. Kuya, who was then around 12, had a gang of boys who were trying so hard to be like men. My mom had her own group of friends that reminded me of the Desperate Housewives sans the desperation. It was the perfect "provance" life I knew of.
My 2-year stay in CDO was actually part of my fondest memories as a child. I would remember going around our village and crossing the other village separated by a highway with a traysikad to visit the nearby "beach" with my neighbors. On other days, we would set up the kiddie pool in our spacious and beautiful garden, imagining we had an actual swimming pool with the water hose as a fountain. I also remember staying up late on Saturday nights to catch the live US feed of Saturday Morning Cartoons on ABC (Darkwing Duck.. loved it!!).
During the conversation over Solitaire and Doom, these fond memories of mine were brought back to life. I realized how much kuya still remembers about his first love (the sister of my best friend) yet not remembering how he would tell me tons of jokes and stories that I once believed in. Mom would then reminisce on how we would spend the night at the neighbor's with the grown-ups watching PBA and the kids playing around the house. Next thing we knew, we were laughing our heads off thanks to the "chicks" kuya had for his Science project, which led to my memories of Lola Lita (our laundrywoman who chewed tobacco occasionally) taking hold of a live chicken's feet, getting it ready for the next tinola....
It was actually fun remembering all these things during that night. It's been quite a while since I last thought about how fun my childhood was. Unfortunately, we had to leave CDO and eventually make Davao our home. But then again, that's another trip to memory lane over solitaire, Doom, and white cheddar popcorn. :)
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