BALIK BAYAN'S DIARY (Memories of Dagupan )

Atty. Fe Hufana did not stay long in Natividad; that same day she was to go to Dagupan. We were to go with her. She had an air conditioned Toyota and she instructed the driver to get ready by 1:00 pm. In the meantime, we dropped by the priest's house which is just the next door just to say Hi and exchange pleasantries. We talked about the chances of Fernando Poe Jr. as a Presidential candidate and since they were all professionals  they were decided to vote against FPJ. But even then we can not tell who will be the sure winner. But I had fun listening to the FPJ jokes and wishing secretly I would be in town for the counting of the votes..Unlike a Mayoralty election, the counting of votes for the new President would take at least a month.

.After a few camera shots in and around the church, then we bade good bye to the Pastor. Nene showed me the colored stain - glass windows that were donated by the different children of Mr. and Mrs. Mariano Hufana. Soon we were back in the house, packed our bags again and we took off for Dagupan City. Our final stop would be the Dr. Mario Hufana building in Arellano st.,  Dagupan City.

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Along the way, I recalled some of my many memories of Dagupan. As a young boy, I always visited Dagupan with my dad, who himself must have been also a Dagupan addict...Our routine is the same. First we watched a movie. I can now remember only 2 theatres of the 4 theatres exisiting in the downtown area during those early years( 1948) ..One was the FLOR theatre which was beside the Farmacia Balingit. Opposite was the DAGUPAN theatre which featured mostly American action movies. Other movie theatres came much later: for example JADE theatre which was along the line of FLOR but closer to the Pantal bridge and opposite it is another theatre whose name seemed to be VINA ( or was it VIDA?) But these ones sprung up maybe the 60s or 70s.. But I know that the very FIRST air conditioned movie theatre was the one at the corner of Bugallon and Arellano sts. Arellano is the street going to Bonuan, Torres Bugallon is the road that will bring you to downtown Dagupan and beyond. The rest of them were just air-cooled meaning they used fans or blowers to push away the humidity inside the building.

I can still remember the titles of the movies I saw in most of the movie theatres here. Each time I went to Dagupan before, I peeled my eyes on the posters pasted on the buildings and walls of Urdaneta..These bills showed the current titles of the movies being shown in Dagupan: the titles, theatres, dates of showing, etc. were printed in huge, red fonts..I started to make my choice of what movie to see once I reached Urdaneta...Upon reaching Dagupan, we usually go first to a restaurant to eat lunch.With my dad, it was always the SANITARY RESTAURANT ( my mom, a picky eater called it UNSANITARY ) located a few doors west of Dagupan theatre. There were also the PAMPAGUENIA, DAGUPENIA, NEW ASIA, DELUXE but these were the expensive ones. The first 2 ones have special cozy rooms where couples dated. ( and I was still light years away from my dating stage )In the market area, there was the ELY NITO which could only accomodate 4 or 5 customers, but the food was clean and tasty. My dad liked SANITARY because it gave free soup. Then somebody told us that free soup is the hot water used to wash the cooking WOKS or SILLASIS. Whether this was true or not, the soup ( or caldo ) tasted good and I never had any stomach trouble. so I guess that rumour is just B.S. We loved to eat the greasy Pancit Guisado with lots of meat pieces or coated shrimps and chopped vegetables.

 

After a movie with my dad, I would ask him: "Can I buy some comics?" And the answer was always yes. I can only buy one though. Either a comic book or a toy. I always selected a comic book. I know that there lots of them in a book store beside the Flor Theatre..It was called Marigold Book store. But I remember buying the vintage comic books like: CAPTAIN MARVEL, DOLL MAN, THE MARVEL FAMILY and also the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED. Then we would go to the Dagupan public market to visit a friend of his who sold copra. The smell of those dried coconut meat would always lingered in my nostrils long after we left the place. They would chat for while with me sitting on a small TABURETE reading my new comic book or walk around the passageway if I get bored doing nothing. After his chat we would go to the market to buy a few more stuff, mostly groceries to bring home to mother.

I remember that every Friday ( that was the BIG Market Day for Asingan ) a book mobile from Marigold would come to our hometown.. It would display on its racks pocketbooks, magazines and my favorite staple: Comic Books. These were not the local ones like Pilipino Komiks or Tagalog Klasiks or Hiwaga Komiks ( printed by Roces Publications ) but the US made comics. The local ones were sold by Mr. Sulpicio Banaag (Guiller ) who also sold Manila Times, Bannawag, Liwayway. Plus he also rented bicycles which high school students from the Rizal Junior College would rent, sometimes with lunch money. Ocassionaly, there is a Classics Illustrated hanging up there side by side with the local stuff. I would save my MICOL and DIEZ coins until I had enough to buy those stateside comics. I still remember one title: A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM by Shakespeare. Who in Asingan was foolish enough to buy that one? Me.

At one time, I had a whole pile of them, and the collection was complete, starting from No. 1 up to whatever was printed last. I guess these had a big influence on me when I was young because, due to the absence of TV, I would be reading over and over again. And these were finely illustrated too by top notch comic book artists. I would not trade these ones to the current Stan Lee and Marvel publications ( althought these are now the basis of many box office hit movies like X-Men and Spiderman ).

Speaking of comic books, one time there was a lady in Asingan who rented comic books. 5 centavos for 1 day. Then when the kids would not return them after 1 day, she would go around to their houses collecting them!

There came a time when my parents trusted me already to go to Dagupan alone..But not to Manila yet.This would come not very long after. I had this self-pride when they allowed me already to go by myself just to the big city. But I was already following a set pattern established by my dad earlier: Eat, movie, buy some comiccs, buy some bread..go home early as not to miss the last trip to Asingan...#