The Things I Remember

Nostalgia they say is "the kingdom of the old." So, as I turned 40 years old this month, it was a natural reaction for me to look back and remember the things that I had or experienced as I was growing up.

If you are from my generation, I am sure you will remember the following things too:

1. Listening to long-playing or 45 RPM records on your family's phonograph (complete with the needle that you could put on any of the lines on the record so you could play a particular song). My favorite was our Sound of Music long-playing record.

2. Getting up to turn the knob on your black and white television. No such thing as remote control. You remember what it felt like to watch a colored TV for the first time. There were only 5 channels - 2, 4, 7, 9, and 13.

3. Waiting for a specific time to watch your favorite cartoons: Wacky Races, Josie and the PussyCats, Casper, Funky Phantom, etc. There was no cartoon all day. During the early afternoons, you had to watch Piling-Piling Pelikulang Pilipino or those old Tagalog Movies with your yayas. Same with Big Ike's Happening, Superstar, Apat na Sikat, and John En Marsha when these were showing.

5. Watching Mr. Hooper, Maria, etc. on Sesame Street. You knew Morgan Freeman as the Easy Reader on the Electric Company.

6. Shopping at SM Cubao, COD, or having to go to Gregg for your school shoes. There were no malls!

7. Riding your favorite amusement park rides at Fiesta Carnival in Cubao. You also went to Manila Zoo and to the Magnolia Ice Cream House on Aurora Boulevard. My favorite ice cream treat then was Peach Melba.

8. Eating Jack and Jill Prawn Curls, Barbecue Curls; Magnolia Ice Cream Sandwich; Orange Kist candy, Laurel and Hardy Butong Pakwan, Vicks candy (those green, triangular menthol candies), Sunkist orange juice in the triangular tetra pak. Sharing your yayas' merienda -- different kinds of bread bought from the "Potpot" man.

9. Having to turn the dial on the phone when making a call. No such thing as touch tone phones.

10. Playing piko, hula hoop, patintero, jack stones (Chinese and the regular one), and tumbang preso. Going after and catching dragon flies (tutubing karayom and the bigger ones) in broad daylight.

Those were the good old days. Our kids today live in such a different world. My eldest, for example, thought that I used to watch Cartoon Network when I was young. Was he horrified to find out that there was no "cartoon all-day" channel then.

Anyway, allow me to share this cute story which shows the so-called generation gap if ever I saw one:
A dad and his child are at home. The child keeps asking the dad the same question until the dad, exasperated, says: "Ano ka ba? Para kang sirang plaka." ("What's wrong with you? You're like a broken record.") The child stops, thinks, and then asks: "Ano yung sirang plaka?" ("What is a broken record?").

The world changes even as we speak or even as I blog. Doesn't change the fact though that life is a great gift which is meant to be savored and enjoyed. Be glad you're alive!