THIS E-MAIL'S A CLASSIC!!

Dear Vic,     

Thanks for reprinting the enquiry of Arsenio Macanas.  Yes, I remember Lipit, my dear friend.      I still recall vividly our younger days in old Asingan.  As the second son and third child in a brood of eight children, I thought my father and mother would not miss me.  So I used to "escape" from the house quite often, and spent lots of time in the market place and plaza, watching the older folks play "buntayug," "tatsing," and basketball.  Oftentimes the sessions end in "buntalan".  

Among the unique and memorable characters that graced the old marketplace and plaza were Eloy, Ernes and the two brothers Henry and Filemon.       

Lipit was among us boys.  Then there were also "Rol" or Rolando Zareno (also called "Poging" who later became a municipal policeman -- now retired), Ben Daroy, Jimmy de Guzman, Sidong Abalahin, Junior "Bulog" Velasco, Willie Abalahin, and other kids from Cabingkulan, Calawagan, Kuno, and who knows where.  We were barefooted (most of the time), dusty, dirty, sweaty and stark dark since we were always under the sun and were hardly at home.  During the town fiesta, or "canbasing," or Rizal and Pacifican graduation dance at the plaza auditorium, we would be the "kuto-kuto" and after running around the auditorium and monuments, and rolling on the grass even late into the night, we would simply find a corner on the cement structure of the "fountain" (it did not have water in those years), and lie down as the band music from the distant dance floor and the stars above soothed us into sleep until our perspiration dried up under our damp shirts.  I cannot forget the smell of urine and other wastes that were deposited through the years in the hidden crevices of the "fountain."       

Thus, away from the comfort of home, Lipit and the other kids and I experienced the depth of life in Asingan even as we enjoyed the adventure being young boys in those years -- long ago.     

There was one incident that have greatly affected me and perhaps other kids as well.  At one time, at the marketplace, a parent came to collect his son.  He had been calling many times the name of his son, but none of the kidswas responding.  He then took long strides to one of the kids and with an inch-thick "kawayan", he gave the kid a stinging blow at the buttock, on the back, and on the shoulder.  The kid jumped with pain until he fell to the ground; it was then that the man realized he has beaten the wrong child.  It was not his son.  It was my dear friend Lipit.  There was no apology.  Only chuckles from the man as he walked away.      

Perhaps the sight of Lipit's desperate cry had added to my empathy and sympathy to those who suffer under persecution, especially the victims of baseless punishment.  And I carried such concern even as I became a professor and diplomat, and as a preacher of the Gospel in my later years.       

Even after my foreign postings, I  always longed to see Lipit and my other boyhood friends everytime I visited Asingan.  Lipit used to work in a rice mill.  His brother Turing Macanas was a barber with a shop in the marketside.  But I heard they have left already for America.       

Vic, can you kindly convey this letter to Arsenio.      

To Arsenio:  Please update me on Lipit and Manong Turing.  Extend my regards to them.     

May the Lord bless you.                 

In Christ Jesus,                        

Bro.(Amb) Rudy and Sis. Eva Dumapias