pasaylu-a

Pasaylu-a ko is a Visayan term which means "pardon me" or "forgive me" and this early I would like to apologize if in the coming weeks my posts will be full of phrases like "I remember when..." or "Once upon a time..." or "Dati-rati..." or "We used to..." and other such goo.

The reasons for this are the following:

1. I'm really old enough to have lots of subjects where the above lines are very useful.

2. It's almost August and that means it's going to be Silliman University's Founder's Day.

3. It's the 30th reunion year of my high school batch.

Number one is undebatable and needs no further explanation.

Number two is something that perhaps only Sillimanians and those married to or are very closely related to Sillimanians can fully understand. It's called the Silliman Spirit. Hard to define but truly palpable nonetheless.

And number three, my beloved classmates are coming home for a weeklong celebration of our 30th reunion. We are all so like looking forward to this, would you believe we've been planning this for five years already?! Yes, ever since our 25th. And of course, every year, actually many times during the year, in Dumaguete/Manila/America we would have our little tapoks (gatherings) and always the topics would include, "What are we going to do on our 30th?!" Oh, we know the answers to that already but we just love to talk and discuss and argue and talk some more about it. Ees such fun, it is.

So let me just begin this "Once-upon-a-time" posting series with this antique photograph of my Auntie Mary, me (way before my high school years), and goodness gracious, you young people, do you know what that behemoth behind us is?

It's the iPod of the 60's!

Yeah, music was not very mobile then. This music storer and player was as big as a ref. And we had it right in the porch of my lolo and lola's house, where I grew up. Since nobody could lug around a full sized jukebox, music lovers flocked to my grandparents house to put coins into the slots and actually dance to the music! I can't remember any of the songs right now but I surely remember this young man who wore boots and a hat, and who would go to lolo and lola's house early in the morning to put coins in the jukebox and do this really lively cowboy dance! What a treat for me, who was not going to kindergarten yet. I was as smitten as any five year old could be. I can't remember his name though.

But here's someone whose name I know and have known for more than 30 years already. Avant-garde and a man of the modern world, he dreams of someday having his very own life-sized jukebox at home.