It was long ago but it’s so familiar and it felt good.
Makes me wanna walk on sunshine and go: “And don't it feel good?” ala-Katrina Leskanich.
Yesterday morning, I was chatting with two of my guy classmates from elementary. One of them, K, who is now based in Chicago, will be in the Philippines next week. Early last month, he already told me of his plan to meet up and was asking for venue suggestions (he wants videoke!) and help in contacting our other classmates.
The last time I saw K was also in a sixth-grade class reunion in the late '90s. Yes—it’s been more than 20 years since but thanks to Facebook, we were in touch again after he seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth.
I digress.
I may have the coltish ugly-duckling episodes that got me somewhat bullied when I was younger by boys who’re now paunchy and losing hair (karma!) but generally, I have a happy childhood filled with memories of playing outside our street and having guy pals in school. It was so fun I wouldn’t trade it for a childhood in the age of tech gadgets.
Since I was consistently in the first section then, I almost always have the same classmates every year. For all those years, we were almost like siblings.
I was never the girly-girl when I was younger; never the type that boys my age would have a crush on. I was more of a tomboy who enjoys the company of boys more.
While I don’t get along with some of them, at least I’m friends with the few nicer ones. I remember one in particular, the guy who every girl had a crush on (except me–at least not later in my teen years because puberty hit me late), stuck up for me against the class bully. He may not know it, and perhaps he no longer remembers it, but those are the kind of things that I never forget: A good deed or gesture shown to me.
Well, K was one of the nicer boys in our class.
K lived a few blocks away from us, so he’d usually drop by the house on his bike. It’s quite weird that older people who see us before thought we were cute together and would tease me about it. And since K’s family also owned a bakery, he’d usually bring me panaderia staples like Spanish bread, pudding or pan de coco every recess that when people see or hear about this, I’d get teased again.
“Huy, dinadalaw siya nung naka-bike!”
“Yihii! Dinadalhan siya ng tinapay!”
Honestly, it was nothing like the adults think. It’s just two kids—for crying out loud! Adults can be annoying, really. (But come to think of it, if I see us then too, I would have joined the teasing.)
If you ain’t convinced that it’s nothing but a young boy’s good deed towards a classmate, when I reminded him about that recently, he’s already asking me to pay up for all the bread he gave me. Hahaha!
So I was chatting with K and another classmate, N, planning out the videoke session for next Friday, the 19th, and I found myself laughing like a loony in front of my office computer over the same bickering, teasing and corny jokes. It’s just like the way we were many, many years ago as kids slumped on the floor of our classroom when our teacher’s out.
One of our many conversations (in Tagalog, though) was this one:
“Anyone who asks me why I’m not yet married would be fined one thousand pesos!” I said.
“Okay, I’ll tell them to ask Vayie if she’ll get married already so we’ll get rich!”, N replied.
“Hey. What do you mean “we”? Are you saying you’d get a cut?” I asked incredulously.
“5% for marketing and advertisement”, N replied jokingly.
At the very moment I was chatting with the two of them (three—if you’d include G, who was not in the chat, but was leaving funny comments on an FB post around the same time), I was listening to my `80s playlist on Spotify and it felt like I hopped in a time machine and zapped back to 1989. It felt so good.
Maybe because I know for a fact that even though it’s a time long gone, the memories of our childhood remind us that once upon a time, the only thing we worry about is just coming to school and doing homework after, nothing else. Life was simpler.
Oh well—I don’t really know how many will join in, but it wouldn’t matter even if it’d be just a few of us (considering the short notice and most of our classmates are either busy or overseas), but I’m actually looking forward to it. Four decades may already be showing in our faces, but I’m pretty sure that if we want it, we could still be those silly, guileless little kids we once were even for a few good hours.
Makes me wanna walk on sunshine and go: “And don't it feel good?” ala-Katrina Leskanich.
The last time I saw K was also in a sixth-grade class reunion in the late '90s. Yes—it’s been more than 20 years since but thanks to Facebook, we were in touch again after he seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth.
***
I digress.
 |
| I have been showing off my legs even then. First row, second from the left. |
Since I was consistently in the first section then, I almost always have the same classmates every year. For all those years, we were almost like siblings.
I was never the girly-girl when I was younger; never the type that boys my age would have a crush on. I was more of a tomboy who enjoys the company of boys more.
While I don’t get along with some of them, at least I’m friends with the few nicer ones. I remember one in particular, the guy who every girl had a crush on (except me–at least not later in my teen years because puberty hit me late), stuck up for me against the class bully. He may not know it, and perhaps he no longer remembers it, but those are the kind of things that I never forget: A good deed or gesture shown to me.
Well, K was one of the nicer boys in our class.
K lived a few blocks away from us, so he’d usually drop by the house on his bike. It’s quite weird that older people who see us before thought we were cute together and would tease me about it. And since K’s family also owned a bakery, he’d usually bring me panaderia staples like Spanish bread, pudding or pan de coco every recess that when people see or hear about this, I’d get teased again.
“Huy, dinadalaw siya nung naka-bike!”
“Yihii! Dinadalhan siya ng tinapay!”
If you ain’t convinced that it’s nothing but a young boy’s good deed towards a classmate, when I reminded him about that recently, he’s already asking me to pay up for all the bread he gave me. Hahaha!
***
So I was chatting with K and another classmate, N, planning out the videoke session for next Friday, the 19th, and I found myself laughing like a loony in front of my office computer over the same bickering, teasing and corny jokes. It’s just like the way we were many, many years ago as kids slumped on the floor of our classroom when our teacher’s out.
One of our many conversations (in Tagalog, though) was this one:
“Anyone who asks me why I’m not yet married would be fined one thousand pesos!” I said.
“Okay, I’ll tell them to ask Vayie if she’ll get married already so we’ll get rich!”, N replied.
“Hey. What do you mean “we”? Are you saying you’d get a cut?” I asked incredulously.
“5% for marketing and advertisement”, N replied jokingly.
At the very moment I was chatting with the two of them (three—if you’d include G, who was not in the chat, but was leaving funny comments on an FB post around the same time), I was listening to my `80s playlist on Spotify and it felt like I hopped in a time machine and zapped back to 1989. It felt so good.
Maybe because I know for a fact that even though it’s a time long gone, the memories of our childhood remind us that once upon a time, the only thing we worry about is just coming to school and doing homework after, nothing else. Life was simpler.
Oh well—I don’t really know how many will join in, but it wouldn’t matter even if it’d be just a few of us (considering the short notice and most of our classmates are either busy or overseas), but I’m actually looking forward to it. Four decades may already be showing in our faces, but I’m pretty sure that if we want it, we could still be those silly, guileless little kids we once were even for a few good hours.
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