If I Could Meddle With Time...

(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.....