Living in the ‘burbs

I have lived in the South for the most part of my life. We moved there from the city and were one of the first houses in the subdivision. It took at least an hour from Makati on public transport but nothing beats what back then was fresh air and a full view of both the sunrise and sunset. A bonus was the great vista of Laguna Lake on a clear day.

The many empty lots and open spaces allowed me to have a childhood very few city kids had. I climbed the camachile tree in the next lot and ate aratilis as I picked them off the tree. The grass filled spaces was great for taking my father’s goats to pasture, which I took to mean feeding them branches of Ipil-ipil leaves that I broke off myself.

I had the time of my life playing street games. My friends and I used a tabo to wet the uncemented village streets for patintero lines. This was a game I loved both for the short distance running and the excitement of getting caught crossing between lines.

Then there were the afternoons running around yelling “Monkey!” and “Annabel!”, which was way more fun than taking the afternoon nap my mother kept hounding me to take.

But not all street games were for me, I could only watch the neighborhood kids dig up little holes in the ground and throw sticks around while shouting “Syatttttooo!“. I never wanted to use my slippers and go barefoot for Tumbang Preso. Both games were a bit too rough for me but then again I’m only useful until number 2 of Chinese garter, so it wasn’t like a gender thing. I was a klutz on both ends of the spectrum.

When I had no playmates I cut up leaves and cooked and plated them on my plate set. I minced and sliced and pretended to serve food to dolls which I had by the dozen.

But my favorite activity of all was catching dragonflies. I stealthily maneuvered through grass and weeds attempting to catch those beautiful colorful creatures. I marvelled at how their wings caught the light and burst into exciting colors, I fed them little leaves imagining I was their benefactor. When I couldn’t catch one, I’d take a break by sipping the sweet nectar off of the neighbor’s santan plants before setting off again to my quest. I loved those days.

While on a walk recently I caught sight of a dragonfly and was reminded of my childhood. Days that will never happen again, days that are just in my memory.