Recently I received an e-mail from Jane Salcedo Robina an Asinganian presently based in Seattle. Her letter ties up with my next entry, so I am reproducing some portions.
Mng Vic,
Yes its me , the daughter of Cresing and Pedong Robina, I asked my mom about you couple months ago. I said to her that I love reading your blogs thru the asinganweb. My mom is here living with me and going back and forth from the PI every year,She's now a retired teacher. My dad is coming back here this April.
Uncle Pidiong passed away long time ago,,and so with auntie Virgie last 1998 in PI right after she retired.
So you have inlaws here in Seattle? May I know their names? I might know them. Its almost 2 decades since your last visit here in Seattle Why dont you pack your bags and come again,so we'll meet each other.It will be my pleasure meeting a neighbor of mine that i havent seen since i was born. I remember bae Petra and laki Vicente* ,I used to go to your house all the way to your backyard to play when I was a kid. I played with the Sampagas, your next door neighbor; ,Jerry ,Gildo mng Boy and family,the Canadidos,Ongs,Pisos,and the Suratoses.I was the naughtiest kid on the block but enjoyed every second of my childhood .
I've been reading all mails and your blogs..They are so very interesting,,,They remind me of my grandmother Esper who also loved to tell us stories.
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* my parents . By the way, my in-laws in Seattle are the Hufana family. My brod in law Mike is already retired. His sons run a Martial Arts studio and also a Printing Shop in Seattle...
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MORE ASINGAN MEMORIES
One morning, we went around the block particularly to the Apartel which was once a Kiskisan was ran by the Cruz family ( Mr. Cruz was once a school Principal and Mrs. Cruz ran the rice mill). One of their sons, Dr. Bernard Cruz is now a successful Medical Practicioner in the US.We saw the impressive 2 storied building which is owned by the family.There are some apartments on the second floor plus a bicycle store in the ground floor. When I was still in Toronto, I heard that a Cybercafe is in the ground floor; turned out my sources were wrong. We also saw his brother Francis, now married. He was formerly my student at the Rizal Academy and when he moved to the Divine Word College, Urdaneta, he also attended some classes handled by my wife, Miguelita. Of course he was so happy to see us. Seeing old friends could be refreshing to a balik bayan.
The lot where the building is now was once an orchard owned by my father. He sold it to Mr. and Mrs Cruz during the late '50s. Before the transfer of ownership, it is one of the places where I played with my cousins ( the children of Dr. and Mrs. Filomena Tendero ). They were my only first cousins in town, so we sometimes would go to this mini orchard just to spend time climbing the trees, the smaller ones particularly. There was a chico tree there, then the fruit tree we called Pias ( or Kamias in Tagalog ). It bore small green fruits that is so sour but we love to dip them in salt and ate them with equally sour faces. There was also a Santol tree at the border beside the Philippine Independent church and it has some of the tastiest fruits in town. Of course it has to be dipped in Asingan vinegar made from sugar cane or eaten plain. Some of my cousins would eat even the big seeds and I would not be surprised if they had difficulty taking a crap the next morning. Then there is the Anonas tree which had fruits but we really did not eat that much. But on Saturday mornings, sometimes my cousins and I would climb this tree just to espy on the goings-on of a group of Iglesia ni Kristo worshippers. There was a church there (the present site of the store run by the Ong family). On Saturday mornings, the congregation would meet and part of their worship is to weep for their sins so these will be forgiven..There would be this crying and wailing inside and we kids would be snickering outside on top of the Anonas tree. We would be holding on tight so we won't fall down and break our necks.
Of course we also dropped by my Alma Mater, the Colegio de San Luis Beltran, formerly the Rizal Academy. When I was a first year student at the Rizal Academy, classes were still held at the Salcedo building just beside the present location of the school. The principal then was Mr. Tito Firmalino. He and another co teacher Mr. Flojo formed a dynamic duo to maintain discipline among the students.Well, Mr. Firmalino and Mr. Flojo were Ateneo ( or was it San Beda ) graduates. They spoke very polished English ; very well mannered. I remember Mr. Firmalino wearing a tie most of the time. And he was a pleasant, soft-spoken chap.To me, letting a gentleman and a scholar run the Rizal Academy in the 50s is like driving a Mercedes in one of Asingan's cowpaths. Sooner or later, something or somebody will get stuck in the mud. I still remember a senior student singing a church song in the school yard, but he changed the words to include Mr. Firmalino's private parts! He and other students in the RA at that time were quite colorful characters: Gil Neri, Napoleon Legaspi, Florencio Soberano and Rolando Layos, to mention just a few..They always participated in school programs, acted on school plays, delivered brilliant declaimations during the RA Foundation Days. And they might have given a few gray hairs to Mr. Firmalino before he quit RA for a better job in Manila!----#
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