(Note: This blog entry is on the topic, "Imagine that you could travel in time. Where would you go and why?")
If
I could meddle with time, I'd want to witness the different lives of
my parents loooooong before I was born....
If
could travel through time, I'd want to see the life my father, with
his parents and siblings, back in his hometown. I would want to see
the teenage faces of him and his siblings who I just recently saw or
have seen through few photographs, and those I've never even seen
before. I would want to see how beautiful my grandmother looked like
in her “mother years”. I would want to see my grandfather who
passed away long before I was born. I would want to see how the 5
children, 4 boys and a girl, were raised and disciplined. I would
want to see how those 5 children lived harmoniously
under one roof.
I
would want to know how it is, in his childhood, to live in a time
when they'd had to walk their way to school in the morning and back
home at night – in a province that didn't had electricity. I would
want to experience playing the games they've played, or climbing the
trees they've climbed plus stealing its fruits they've all coveted.
I want to know how it is to dine with ginamus
and toyo, or what else
have they to find, as
their viand when nothing could be served for dinner,but still
uncomplaining with what they have – or don't have. I want to know,
as my father's story tells, of how they'd been forced to eat the
“luod” vegetable
dishes their Lola served, or how they'd loved their favorite
lutong-bahay food.
I
would want to know how it is, in his college years, to live far from
his family to study in the city. I would want to know how he
struggled to attend his classes with an empty stomach, or how he
managed to continue while he had to work to help his parents for his
expenses.
If I could travel through time, I'd want to see the life of my mother, with her parents and siblings, in the city. I would want to see the youthful faces of my grandparents and compare the faces of my titos and titas then and now.
I
would want to know how my mother, and her siblings, did in school
with only 10 pesos as their tuition fees (of course it was somehow
big money then). I would want to know how 5 children, and their
parents, lived in a small space and made it a home. I would want to
know how they went through their not-well-off life through their
mother's cooking and their father's drumming (in the band. He is a
musikero.). I would
want to know how my grandparents managed to send my mother to the
Ateneo despite their difficulties.
Furthermore,
based on their stories, I would like to go back to the time when
Victoria Plaza was
then the most popular hang-out place in their office days. I would
want to witness their frenzy over the sought after Mister
Donuts (or was it Dunkin
Donuts?) pasalubong
from someone who just came back from Manila; it's funny that
nowadays, these donuts stores are everywhere to be seen and most
people would just pass without looking. Also, I want to know how
places in the city looked like before then compare it to the huge
transformations they never imagined would happen, but did.
Knowing
their stories would greatly delight me, but unfortunately, not all of
their experiences before could they still remember. I wanted to know
because I want to understand how they came to be who they are today
and how they shaped me through their different experiences before. I
also came to realize...it's amazing how unwell-off families of fives
or dozens or more could send their children to school and manage to
live a life; compared to most of the families under the poverty line
nowadays...
I
know these experience are not mine to recount...but if I could meddle
with time.....
