Grade 4 - San Lo and Herran Mix, last year in Herran

Grade 4: This is when San Lorenzo came to join us. Some of you San Lo girls came in Grade 3, because you had older sisters in Grade 4, who made the move to Herran one year earlier. Now we were 5 sections strong: 2 from San Lo, 3 from Herran. We had three sets of twins: Annabelle and Annette Agregado, the Melvins, and Marga and Jenny Villalon. I have theories that since I knew many twins during my childhood, I made some of my own. I think I was the class president. How did that happen? My friends in the mafia: the likes of Popsie, and Christine Carlos, and more, how else. I remember someone telling me in confidence “you will win, cause three sections will vote for you and two sections will vote for the other girl.” My apologies to the "other," a San Lo girl, don’t even remember who you are for sure, (but I have a vague memory that it was someone whose name I could not pronounce then, P-U-R-I-F-I-C-A-C-I-O-N Jalandoni, or was it Cricket Concepcion?) In the beginning, we called each other by our full names. It seemed to us Herran girls that the San Lo girls were noisier, bigger, taller, and had...well, lighter colored hair! It was a case of “us” vs. “them” when the two schools first joined. Soon enough, we made friends with each other and learned each other's nickanames and now it seems like it’s been forever. My new found friends in Grade 4 from San Lorenzo include Liaa, Finina Reyes, Toni Feliciano (whom I called Antoinette for the longest time initially), Rina Macasaet, Cricket Concepcion. Betta Gallego came in (from STC?) Rhea Rodrigo also arrived that year, and so did Eva Marie Tan. I think we were Section 5 and our teacher was Mrs. Angeles. Our mistress of class was Mother Rita Imelda.

Tessa P., a.k.a. Sea Princess, also came to Herran. That year, I saw Best of Broadway at the CCP, and in one number, I think it was South Pacific, Tessa and some other kids popped out of baskets and they all sang "Happy happy happy happy talk, talk about things you like to do." Am I remembering this correctly? Even back then you had dramatic entrances! Marichu Alcasid has told me she was in Herran for Grade 4, but I don't remember! There were so many of us now. I never had this many classmates before.

I remember that I had at least four friends who had long, beautiful hair: Liaa, Toni, Finina, and Jackie Bustamante. I was not allowed to have hair as long as theirs. We also used to love playing in the lagoon which was in front of our school building. Some of us would get into that dinghy and row around. One day, the end of lunch bell rang, and whomever was in the boat kept trying to get back to shore with no success. Then someone panicked and rocked the boat, and everyone fell into the lagoon. Of course it was icky and sticky and yucky. I believe the clinic ran out of spare uniforms that day. I don’t even remember anymore if I was in the boat, or watching! All I remember for sure was that Jackie and Liaa were in it. I remember you crying Liaa, and I remember thinking of your hair, and all that lumot from the lagoon. I will also never forget your telling me what your full name was, hence the acronym nickname LIAA! In Grade 4, I had a nice fried chicken lunch memory thanks to you (See Grade 1 post for the bad fried chicken lunch.) Your sister Mikey was born sometime in Grade 4, and the next day, for baon, you brought Max Fried Chicken, including the ketchup packets. It had something to do with there being a Max near the hospital when your family visited the new baby the night before. Don't tell Mikey, but when I see her now on TV or newspapers, pretty and glamorous as she is, I think of Max Fried Chicken. Funny how you make memory associations and they stick in your head forever.

I remember celebrating United Nations week with a contest. Our team was composed of girls from all sections, and our rival was Grade 5. We had to know current events, we had to read HIGHLIGHTS regularly. I think Cardinal Santos even died that year. (Well hello, I really kept reading the newspapers as advised! I still know to this day who Dag Hammarskjold and U Thant are. If you don't, google them!) Why do I think Valerie Novenario was on that team, am I right? I know we won, and we beat Grade 5. My U.N. week costume that year was Dutch. Our modista copied it from one of my story books. I remember that Vivian's was from Papua New Guinea and it had to be authentic, cause no modista could have done that! (Why that country, or why do I even remember that, I don't know. I think I just OD'd on ginko biloba this weekend.)

I also remember another contest: interpretative reading. Mrs. Aumentado picked me to represent the class (I think it was even to represent the Grade) but I had such a bad case of stage fright, that I cried and backed out. She was so mad at me, then she picked Betta Gallego. Well guess what? Betta won!! And so did Jackie Bustamante, who recited a poem. She was sooo good at that, I remember. Betta and I became friends in Grade 4.

On Saturdays, my sister and I took art lessons at the home of our art teacher, Miss May Martin. I think Paulina Estrella and sister also came to those, and Rica Concepcion and Rianna Hechanova. Miss Martin lived on Samat Street in Mandaluyong. She was such a cool teacher. I heard she passed away already, may she rest in peace.

I am not sure if Christine Carlos and I were in the same section, but we were still friends. I remember that her lola, everytime it was exam time, would send in peanuts as baon, with a portion just for me! Her lola would always tell us that we had to eat peanuts so we would remember everything we had to remember while taking the test. Sometimes it would be boiled peanuts, sometimes roasted peanuts, sometimes peanut cake! I have such fond memories of Christine’s lola (and lolo, and their black car!)

Speaking of cars, who can forget the Volkswagen beetle of the Dilags. Maridol was an only child, and on the day that parents came to visit (can't remember the name of the day, open house?), her parents would always come, then take her to lunch to a restaurant nearby then drop her off again. When she got back, she always had this special candy, can't remember the name, but I think that it looked like a Tic Tac box. Whatever it was, it was rare candy, I only saw it from Maridol when they got it from that restaurant. I also remember that Maridol always had pretty matching dresses and bows, and it turns out, her mom sewed them! I was so impressed since my mom can't sew a stitch to save our lives! Years later, Maridol's mom even sewed Nana's wedding gown!

The nice thing in the lower grades, is that we were friends with girls from all over the grade, not just the same section. We started to get "cliquish" only in high school. I remember that my Herran friends included Jojo Reyes, Leny Llapitan, Lala de los Reyes, Katrina Aquino, Milen Batungbacal, Yvette de Leon, Cecile Cuna, Mimie de Ocampo, Becky Sanares, Arleen Verzosa, Lucille Vasquez. I am sure there were many more, I wish I had all my yearbooks with me here.

The end of the school year of Grade 4 was very sad for me because we were leaving Herran. To this day, I can still cry about that. I love that place so much, and it holds so many memories for me, especially since I picture my beloved late Lola Babing in that place, where she went to school herself, and taught countless generations of Assumption girls including many of our mothers. On the last day of school, I remember walking around Herran with my first ever Kodak camera taking pictures. I know Christine Carlos walked around with me. I took pictures of the buildings, the chapel, the auditorium. They were black and white, and quite dramatic when it came out. I have since lost those pictures, having left Manila over 20 years ago. I also “lost” many friends who did not follow to Antipolo and never came back, not even for high school. I never saw Jackie Bustamante again, not in high school when she was in St. Scho, nor in college. I heard she went back to Assumption but I went to U.P. And to think people used to say we were inseperable. I never saw Monica Veloso again, the one other Monica of our batch. Nor Carla Gomez.

But what you lose, you gain in other ways. Cricket and I were just “hi” friends in Grade 4, cause our moms knew each other. Fourteen years after Grade 4, Cricket introduced me to her babyhood friend, and I married him 3 years later. Today we live a few miles from each other, and are ninang to each other’s daughters. When we meet each other’s friends, we always tell them we’ve been friends "since 4^th Grade”, which as the years go by, simply means "forever."