Paper Boats

Memoirs. Nostalgic. Innocence.

Today I write about childhood, a childhood that was at the very least was a part of everyone’s happiness. I am pretty sure that I started to talk when I was 3 because my first memory of someone asking me a question is about my age and I always say 3. I used to play with the little boys in town, I never had Barbie or teddy bear to hug when I sleep, and my hair was never long so I thought – I must be a boy?

We lived in a swampy piece of land nearby the Church, and every time I hear the bells ring, I thought another wedding is about to happen and I wish I could see the bride walking down the aisle. I love going to church because I had the chance to buy my favorite cotton candy - the pink one, even until now actually J

 Every afternoon we fly kite with my sister nearby the swamp and that was the time when I had to learn how to whistle, otherwise I don’t get the wind to blow my kite. I love to shower in the rain, it’s the only time I experience a real shower because we don’t have a shower in our bathroom. 30 years earlier, the rain was not as salty as today that’s why we can bathe as much as we want without the fear of catching cold. We would look for a small drain from the gutter and we race paper boats there, ohh, paper boats.

We would look for dragon flies which we call it helicopter, and just like spider fight we race dragon fly by pulling their wings out so that they won’t get to fly away. I love butterflies, I used to draw them and paint some of them, and sometimes I wish I’d be a butterfly with so many colors and I can fly to anywhere I want to be. 

I don’t like earthworms, my aunts always scare me if I don’t go to sleep the worms will enter my ears and eat my brains. OK I think that is too morbid for a child. I would never sleep because I always wait for my favorite Princess Sarah to be aired on TV  every 3 in the afternoon J

I guess the most exciting part of my childhood was that every Christmas season, we go caroling to that long old street in Corrales, and there were 6 of us. Melmel, Merlyn, Cecile, Tata, Dodong, and Kimberly. OMG! I still remember. We were the 6 putoters because we were all short kids, I mean literally by height. And because I was the shortest, they call me putot pangag, that was when my front teeth was so shy to show herself yet. J  And they will singing this jingle to me every time I get annoyed – (With the hymn of Lupang Hinirang) Bayang tigulang may bukol sa agtang, kinsay nagsumbag si putot pangag!  Ahahha! And we all laughed our hearts out….

Today, as I am looking at the window, the cloud is heavy ready to pour out with cold, salty water, that rain I loved so much when I was a child.....

But today I don’t see any child outside waiting for the playful rain to shower, no butterflies, no dragonflies, kites, or paper boats.