MORE COLLEGE MEMORIES

Recently, I started an e-mail club with some members of class '58, from our Alma Mater in Asingan. I am sharing some of the letters I wrote them. Maybe you will remember your own College days: for me it is some of the happiest days I spent in the past......

One of my friends wrote me and I sent this e-mail to the group:

In a message dated 8/31/2006 9:20:37 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, ******** wrote me:

After graduation from high school, you went for one semester and then stopped? You were bored because you didn’t go for priesthood?

I started thinking re: priesthood only after I was about to graduate from College and I feared I may not be able to find work..There was a certain Bro. Armand from Baguio ( a white missionary ) who was trying to convince me to join the religious life...But,  becoming a priest is no joke..I changed my mind because later when I received  a job offer from Amading Esteban as soon as I finished Adamson University..But this is what happened to me during that school year, 1958-59..

 

School year 58-59

 

I was bored when I was in first year college because my Philosophy and Letters (Philets )subjects at UST were so dry and boring .Philosophy and Letters is the Journalism course at UST during that time...Besides I was always homesick for my parents, my home and the usual hang outs in Asingan. So when I came back after the final exams, I decided to leave UST. In addition, I took the next semester plus the summer holiday right in Asingan.

 

When the Asingan Varsitarians came home that Xmas break, I formed the Blue Eagles combo with Nestor Villanueva.  It was one of the combos popular in the  '50s, you know, the guitar, ukelele and a bass guitar made from an empty gas tank..I organized this group with Nestor, Teresita Villanueva his younger sister and Cora Tendero, my cousin ( now in San Diego ) Alex Tanwanco ( currently a successful businessman ) and the late Moises Carbonnel..We joined an Xmas contest in Asingan that 1958..As mentioned earlier, we called our group Blue Eagle..A group from Cabincolan formed their own ( the Red Lions ).We were College students, remember?.Then there is this group from Sanchez ( forgot the name already ) but their singer is Armisticio Armabit ( my spelling might be off ) but he could sing like Elvis too .Early Elvis impersonators in Asingan at that time..But there was no white rhinestone suit with cape and sunglasses yet.

 

Twas one of the happiest events of my childhood, participating in the New Years battle of the combos..5 of them I think..One is from Carusocan.I already forgot from where the 5th one came from...We won 2nd to the Red Lions. ..The Red Lions singer was Jose Paringit Jr. His dad was a local cop ( I think ) He can sing unabashedly like Elvis, body language and all so they won the big one..My body language is nada ( I am shy )..Anyways, the Red Lions won 10 pesos..we were expecting 7 or 5 pesos also.

 

But all we got is a fricking box of crackers as 2nd prize..My co members were screaming ( not in public of course ) WHERE IS JUSTICE? WHERE IS THE LOGIC IN THESE PRIZES??..Heck, we were mad as hell at first, but then we bought some coke and finished the crackers anyway...

Then when they left for Manila after the Xmas break, I felt so left out and I regretted my decision to stop my studies....

 

It was much easier when summer '59 rolled around because the Varsitarians came back and we resumed our combo activities. At night, we usually rehearsed under the Ilang-Ilang tree beside Nestor's house.Mr. Melecio Villanueva would sometimes look out from his window in the first floor listening to the songs which were tops of the charts in Manila  at that time..Songs by Elvis, the King  of course.

 

School year 59-60

 

After Summer '59, I enrolled at the UE, College of Engineering. I hang on for a year. I dropped Engineering Drawing. I hated the technical subjects. I wanted to know if I can handle Engineering. I also hated ROTC and most of all, I hated living in the house of my aunt and uncle in San Juan. They were good people, but the house seemed to be a "prison" to me..After  that whole year at UE, again I stopped my schooling.This time, I had the whole year off..This was school year, 1960-61..

 

School year 1960-61

This was the year I joined the church clubs with Philip Martin and Angelito Domaoan..Angelito hang on until Sept. or Oct. 1960, then  one day, he told me"I have a free ride going to Manila.I have to go...".

 

"What??" I said. It was a quick good bye .. I was with him since the beginning of summer '60. He told me he found a job at the Orthopedic Hospital and he wanted to study while working..

 

T'was kind of sad because for the last few months we have been bumming around almost everyday with Philip and anybody who liked to join our bohemian group ( guys who can not or do not want to go to College). We spent many carefree days in the small house owned by Mr. and Mrs. Isaac near the street going to the Dupac Elementary School. Sometimes our group would go to the barrio visiting friends esp. those with fruit trees in their backyard. Other times we would be at the Dupac School yard ( it was an open playground then, grass as far as the eyes could see ) with my guitar and we would sing some songs right in the middle of the empty school yard. (The Blue Eagle combo was gone at this time. Like the Beatles we just broke up and we never put the pieces back..)

 

I could not forget how beautiful  Dupac Elem School's back yard then when the swimming pool was not yet built. On your right, you will see this huge mango tree. Directly in front of you will be the brick wall of the Asingan Municipal Cemetery. On your left will be the Industrial Arts building where Mr. Fabian Ballesteros held his classes. Before I forget, the gardens of the Gr. 5 pupils were in front of the cemetery. Plus there was this huge breadfruit tree being inhabited by a  PUGOT, a tall dark man about 10 feet tall during moonlit nights. He would be sitting on one of the branches, swinging his legs and enjoying one huge cigar..( a more complete story of this is in one of my older entries )

 

 

From that day , Angelito D.   seldom ( if ever ) came back to Asingan..Alone again in Asingan. I started thinking it was a bad move to stop College, but it was my choice. And I did it for the second time, but I really enjoyed being carefree during those days...

 

 Anyways, I found out that the small organ at the church was open and anybody could play on it.I befriended the sacristan of the priest Fr. Lazaro de Guzman and  I started practicing on this musical instrument during noon time. I also  continued my acitivities with the church group which we joined with Lito D...I learned how to read, write and play music for the next remaining months before my year long vacation would end. Soon I was accompanying the students coming from the Rizal Academy every Wednesday afternoon for the Mother of Perpetual Help novena...Then I joined the choir of Fr. de Guzman..More fun, especially singing with some girls! (I learned so many church hymns which I am still playing up to now here in St. John church, Toronto)

 

I joined the singing during Patron Saint Feast ( October ), then Misa de Gallos, midnight mass, then Holy Week and easter Sunday..We used handwritten music scripts and so I learned how to read music out of necessity. When it was almost the end of my year long holiday it almost broke my heart to say good bye to the choir, the church and the massgoers whom we saw every Sunday after mass...

 

 At the end of my vacation, I asked my Mom if I could change again my course. "What course, this time?' she asked, sounding slightly irked..

 

"I want to go to Adamson U, to take up BS Chemistry." "ARE YOU SURE?" she asked.."Yes," I said.She told me I will never finish any College Degree if I continued changing courses and taking year long holidays..

 

 My Mom warned me: "If you change your course once more, do not go to College anymore. Just stay in Asingan..Anyway you like to stay here most of the time. Maybe you can help in the housework..."

 

(more next time)