Simple Joys: Remembering Childhood Days

When I was watching the Back to the Future Trilogy, I felt a little nostalgic. Not because I was born in the 80's (the time the trilogy was made) but because if I have a DeLorean time machine, I'll go back in time and revisit my childhood days all over again.

I consider myself blessed since I had the best childhood experiences. I managed to make the most out of being a child, seeing the world in my own little eyes, finding joy in the simplest things, and having fun in every possible way.

Toys are child's best friends. And every child is entitled to them. Lucky for me, I had plenty of "best friends" to keep me company during the days when I was forced to stay home. Mostly bought by my parents, some given by my Titos and Titas and Ninongs and Ninangs. I remember me and my brother being envied by most kids our age because of our vast and latest toy collection. And being a proud kid that I was, I used to show them off whenever possible. But I don't keep them only to myself. I loved sharing them with my friends just as my brother loved sharing them with his own set of friends. I would invite friends over to play when the school was over. Or bring the toys over to my friends' houses. Unfortunately, as I grew up, the number of my toys began to diminish. Not because I threw them away or failed to maintain them. My mother loves giving away used stuff- my toys included. So before I knew it, I was already saying goodbye to the last toy I had.

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Out of the school premises, my brother and I hanged out and played with our neighbors' kids. And aside from the toys, we also share our bicycles with them. We would take turns riding the bike around the neighborhood. We would wait for our turns patiently while we talk about kids' stuff and eat our favorite chichiriyas. I even remember that, little kids as we are, we loved bragging about material things to each other. Sometimes we would even talk about serious things like what we wanted to be when we grow up or what we wanted to achieve in the future. I think it's safe to say that it was the time when we started building our dreams and thinking about our goals in life, in a child's perspective.

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When I was in grade school, we lived in Mabayo, a small barrio in Morong, Bataan. Back in the day, the only means of transportation between Mabayo and Olongapo was a bangka. And the duration of the journey was one hour to one hour and a half. It was a little scary especially when the weather was rainy or when the waves were bigger than usual, but it was fun. My brother and I loved staying at both ends of the boat. I remember feeling the ocean breeze in my skin and how relaxing it was. Then, on my last year in elementary school, SBMA allowed us to pass. Till then, every single folk from Mabayo traveled by land to reach Olongapo.

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Every weekend afternoon, during playtime, we would sneak to our palaisdaan and thread the "dangerous" path to reach it. Since it looked a little bushy and we had to pass through a short narrow bridge where you have to walk sideways in order to reach the end safely, we made ourselves believe that we were embarking on an adventure. We would tour the whole palaisdaan singing, laughing at our own jokes, and goofing around. So much so that we sometimes ended up in small accidents and little bruises.

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Ah, aratilis! That sweet-flavored fruit of my childhood days. My playmates and I would go places just to get a taste of this sweet succulent fruit. Yum, yum!

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Sometimes, we also play with Gumamelas, use them as "cooking oils" for our luto-lutoan then drink their sweet nectar.

And my childhood won't be complete without my favorite street games:


Hide and Seek

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 Role Playing

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Patintero

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Jack Stones

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Piko

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Indeed, my childhood days were the best days of my life. The days when my big worry is the assignment/project the following day. The days when all I did was study, play, eat, and sleep. The days when all I had to do was to become a good girl and I could easily get the toy that I wanted. Ah, the golden years.

Now, if I could only borrow that DeLorean time machine, that would be wicked!:)