Sophomore Year

Sometime around sophomore year, three girls from the batch ahead of us took their own lives. Two of them were friends, and died together. One of them was named Joy, and the other I believe was Belinda. The third was Lizanne Powell. May they rest in peace. I do not remember how far apart the suicides were, except that it happened all in the same year, and it shook up the whole school. Never before had this happened, in my life at Assumption, and mercifully, never again. What happened next is that suddenly, the nuns became more visible. We still had a lay Religion teacher, this year it was Mrs. Batacan.

In spite of this, sophomore year sticks out in my head as perhaps the most fun, easy-going year of high school. Our classes were still relatively simple, compared to the next year and the final year. Our schedule seemed looser, and there just seemed to be more opportunity for adventure and mischief.

For Algebra, we had Mrs. Viloria. And I discovered I loved math even more than I already did. Yes, I am strange. I cannot remember the name of our Biology teacher other than that Karina Galang and I disliked her so much. The tragedy was that Bio is such an interesting subject, and could have been much more so, had it been taught to us properly. Lab class was fun though, because of Karina. Never have I seen excellent dissecting and comedic skills combined in one person. We also benefited from the healthy and fine specimens of frogs and pig innards from their family farm. :)

Speaking of comedy: on the first day of 2nd year, who should we find in our classroom but Miss Cristina Concepcion. It seemed that she and her friends were being split up by the higher authorities. Miss Cricket did not look very happy to be in Section 7. She took one look at us heathens, made irap, gathered up her stuff, and left in a huff. Soon as she was gone, we all broke out in laughter. Apparently, Miss Cricket had friends even higher than the higher authorities, because she was back in Section 3 in two minutes flat. For now. One day, she would be back. No kidding.

Karina was our vice president. Some shifting of girls occurred this year, we gained some and we lost some. Now we had Didi Manahan, Gigi Anido, and Mabeth Webb. We lost at least Melissa Maio, Maby Sandoval and I believe Anggot. I really liked our class. We had some of the funniest girls: Bea Montilla and the songs she invented; Tina Fineza and her antics (remember when she wore an ENTIRE pack of Goody clips on her head?); Karina Galang herself and her super Pinoy expressions (Sampal!); Cindy Dominguez and her John Travolta thing. Sure, we all had our own little groups, that even included girls from other sections, but it seemed that for the most part, we all liked each other and we mostly got along. We also had an unwritten rule where everyone else tried to include every one else in everything (party girls pulled the shy girls to come to the dances; smart girls shared their notes with the ones who did not even have notebooks, that kind of thing!) I loved this about our class, something that we managed to carry on throughout high school.

I cannot remember the name of our history teacher (Miss Boquiren?), other than that she taught us EPCR (Economic, Political, Cultural & Religious). She always wanted us to analyze cultures and civilizations using those 4 factors. I still find that so useful to this day. We also came up with the most hilarious skits and presentations. That’s where I discovered that the quiet girls could be quite funny: Janice Muyargas, Mariel Recto, Rory Ocampo, among others. For Pilipino, I believe we had Miss Paredes. I never struggled as hard in this class, with Florante at Laura. I cannot remember who taught us English.

On the other hand, I will never forget the Sewing Teacher: Mrs. Balbina Tapay. We had to use sewing machines again, and this time we had to make a blouse from scratch, including the pattern. Worse, class had to be conducted in Tagalog. I can still see clearly in my head the day she taught us how to draw the patterns. She got to the darts for the bustline, and was teaching us how to measure: “Utong hanggang sa utong.” I will spare you from whipping out your Tagalog dictionary and translate: “Nipple to nipple.” The English was outrageous enough, did we really have to learn it in Tagalog? We also never quite figured out why the sewing room had this ammonia-like stinky smell. Most of us were just glad to be done with making our own clothes forever after that year. Thank you God, for Barney’s, Bergdorf’s and Banana Republic.

We also had Mrs. Carreon for baking, a class that everyone looks forward to when they get to high school. Not only was it a fun and yummy class, Mrs. Carreon was just such a delightful teacher, and who can forget “No neeeebling”? And the only hazard to perfectly manicured nails was Mrs. Batacan’s typing class. But aren’t you glad for it now? Little did we know the personal computing revolution was just a few years down the road and typing would prove to be an invaluable skill.

Our retreat this year was in Silang, Cavite. We managed to do many irreverent and unholy things during this little escape, but they should remain forever secret.

Towards the end of the year, we had a class night at White Sands, thanks to Didi and family. The Towers (Gigi, Janine, Mabeth) all had vans so we rode some of those. Rina took her black family car, con todo driver, Toni took her mom Tita Manette and sister Ana along. The other moms who came were Tita Nening Manahan, Tita Sarah Anido, and Mabeth’s mom. I can’t remember if there were any more parental units. THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Plus, we managed to come back home to Manila in one piece, safe, happy and nicely tanned. I still have pictures (see Sec 7 website.) Don’t worry, we were all thin back then, bikini bodies and all. Really.

After class night, some of us went to our first prom, La Salle’s junior prom. Karen Montenegro has the pictures, and to this day, she won’t tell me how she got those. Sometime that year, I also got my first suitor. No, he did not become my boyfriend. I turned him down (and he went and got himself another girlfriend the very next day, go figure.)

This year, our partying was in full swing. We probably organized one a month, our PRO was very busy. Janine, that was you, right? The other sections also had their filled-up party schedules, and we were very good with coordinating so we didn’t have them all the same night. Thus, if you wanted to, you could find a party to go to every weekend. But, I didn’t. I stuck to my parents’ rule of ONE PARTY PER MONTH. I was so good, I complied. I never made takas. Really.

I don’t know why anymore but on a certain day of the week, we got dismissed early, while other years still had class, leaving about two more hours or so before you got to go home with your carpool or bus. This left a lot of time for us sophomores to explore Makati Commercial Center. I can’t even count how many movies we watched (in uniform, lying flat on the floor, in the very first row, with Birdhouse pizza boxes in tow) or how many times we made ronda around Quad: window shopping and playing games in the carpark. We weren’t supposed to be roving in our uniforms, but we did anyway. We were nicely behaved in public most of the time. Really.

Okay, here is something naughty but funny that we did in 2^nd year. Whoever remembers whose house was the “scene” of the crime, keep it to yourselves, please DO NOT post the name anywhere. We do not want to embarrass anyone, plus we are ALL equally guilty. A bunch of us were off somewhere one afternoon, at someone’s house. Someone had a forbidden Betamax tape. We all piled in front of the Betamax and started the tape. Some of us were so shocked, that we started weeping (really!) Some of us, and that includes moi, started laughing like hyenas. And some of us, were watching AVIDLY! And then, a few minutes into the film, like judgment from up above, BROWNOUT!!!!!! Omaygad! We were going to get caught! How were we supposed to get the evidence out of the Betamax? Lintak na Meralco yan! So we all ran out of the house, giggling and nervous at the same time. (Okay, we were pathetic!) But, our host was so cool: she calmly called her house back, spoke to the maid and said: Pag balik ng koryente, paki-eject yung tape sa Betamax, tapos itago mo. Whew! Safe! I somehow managed to not get into trouble for the very few naughty things I was actually guilty of in high school. Really.

I probably did the most sleep overs in 2^nd year high school. Spent so much time at Toni’s house that I learned to make cheese omelets from her mom! And only at their house did I get to swim with giant blocks of ice at the bottom of the pool when it got too hot. Spent a lot of time at Nana’s house, with most of the fun from running away from her gazillion dogs and watching her eat catsup with EVERYTHING, while she watched me drown myself in Coca-Cola. At Nana’s, I actually met a family that literally prayed together every night, (and that is why they stayed together!) Hey Eusebio family, I really appreciate that, inviting me to pray with you at night. Spent a lot of time at Mimie’s house, playing with make-up and figuring out ways to get more Shower to Shower powder from the Rotary Exchange student living with them then.

So sophomore year was nice and easy, other than the tragedies of the three girls. I never forgot those girls. I don’t know why they decided to end it all. I only know that I decided I just wanted to be nice to people as much as I could.

We were learning to be more social with boys. We were making new friends, renewing old friendships. Most of my friends in sophomore year are still my friends to this day. We had eased into high school life quite nicely. It was actually just the calm before the storm.

From Vivian's Album

TRYING TO BE TISAY: Vivian Honorio, Christine Carlos, Nadine Adad


I JUST LOVE MY BOB HAIRDO: Lenie Llapitan, Vivian Honorio (with the bob!), Shirley Robles and unidentified between Vivian and Shirley; 2nd row: Belen Alon, Mailou San Gabriel, Margot Legarda, Victoria Valmonte; Top row: Cristina Ramos, Nadine Adad, Christine Carlos


GO SNOOPY GO: Vivian on Snoopy, Felicia Mesina in brown to her left, Monica Francisco in white dress. Behind: Cindy Palanca, Lucille Vasquez

Our Teachers

Okay, time to remember our teachers. Whether you liked her or not, she was part of your history and it cannot be denied.

Let's make a list of our teachers -- no more judgments, just a list. Nevermind if you hated her guts, and she almost failed you, or she was "walang karapatan" to be a teacher, or you liked her so much you still text/email each other to this day, or she inspired you to be one --- you must have learned something from her (Or him!) even if it was "how not to be"!

I do not remember everybody, and I don't know who the San Lo teachers were, so you have to help. Send in a comment, with anyone you think of, and I'll keep editing the post to make a comprehensive list.

Prep: Miss Connie Gomez,
Grade 1: Miss Alegre,
Grade 2: Mother Martha, Miss Moran, Mrs. Agregado
Grade 3: Miss Ramos, Miss Reyes, Miss Botanes,
Grade 4: Mrs. Angeles, Mrs. Aumentado, Mrs. Orencia, Miss Bernal, , Miss Santiago
Grade 5: Miss Barba, Mrs. Rebollido
Grade 6:
Grade 7: Miss Silao, Mrs. Aguilos, Sister Mary Grace

Music Teachers: Miss Dulcecilia de Vera, Miss Alzate, Miss Vasquez (later Mrs. Legazpi), Mrs. Ramos, Mrs. Quezon
Art Teachers: Mrs. Blanch, Miss May Martin, Mrs. Antonio
Sewing: Mrs. Estaniel, Miss Saturnino, Miss Custodio, Miss Salvatierra, Mrs. Tapay
Work Education: Mrs. Pedrosa, Mrs. Carreon, Miss Marcelo, Miss Villanueva, Mrs. Ramirez
Religion: Mrs. Mapa, Mrs. Batacan, Mrs. Villafania, Mrs. Casas
Math: Mrs. Viloria, Miss Bernas, Mrs. Huab, Mrs. Gonzaga (? Geometry)
Economics: Miss Nanad
English: Miss Marquez, Miss Lim, Miss Reynoso, Miss Barrera
History: Mrs. Tengonciang, Miss Marquez, Miss Manas, Miss Boquiren (later Mrs. Sinsay), Mrs. Carlos, Miss Zulueta, Miss Barrera
Pilipino: Miss Barba, Mrs. Dizon, Miss Paredes, Mrs. Austria, Mrs. Yoro, Mrs. Monsod,
Science: Mrs. Magtaas, Mrs. Malanyaon, Miss Paulate, Miss Trillanes
P.E.: Miss Rizal (later Mrs. Casacop), Miss Guzman, Mrs. Joven, Mrs. Tenna, Mrs. Santiago, Mrs. Zafra
Philosophy: Professor Estrada
The Nuns who taught us at one point or another:Mother Mercedes, Mother Rose Peter, Mother Vicenta, Mother Martha, Mother Teresa Consuelo, Sister Carolina, Sister Rita Imelda, Sr. Mary Grace, Sr. Fidelis, Sr. Fe Emmanuel, Sr. Regivic

Milen's Herran Pictures

This is the Administration Building, c. 1974, taken from the flagpole area. To the rear left is the Primary Building.

Miss Reyes, c. 1972. Not sure yet if this is Grade 3 or Grade 2. Right behind Miss Reyes is Michelle (?) Pareño, Anna Lucas, Annabelle Luzurriaga .....In the background is the Auditorium. They are standing in what was the parking lot. Note how all the skirts, inc. the teacher's, are minis!

United Nations Day 1974: Annabelle Agregado (like her twin, dressed as American, hence denim); Katrina Aquino (dressed as Russian); Eloisa Blas (costume unseen and unknown); other twin Annette Agregado; Jojo Reyes (dressed as Filipino farmer?) In the background is the building that house the 5th-7th Grades. See the lagoon, and the small wooden bridge at the bottom rear?

Tayo Na Sa Antipolo...yet again

When the nuns announced that they had sold Herran and that we would be moving to Antipolo, I literally felt the world tilt. It was so depressing, we kept on walking by the auditorium and looking at every nook and cranny, our weird way of saying good-bye. I think I decided to hate Antipolo forever. And when we did get there, it sure didn't lend itself to much affection! Overwhelming primary impression: RED MUD. EVERYWHERE. MUD.MUD.MUD. Well, you get the point. And the oddest buildings on earth...why do they have holes in the middle??? Why are the tables shaped like the buildings? Why do we have individualized instruction?? Oh, I was prepared to dislike Antipolo...

But, just like moss, it kinda grew on you. The bare cement with iron spikes ambiance of the roofless multi-purpose hall was great for climbing (and clinging on to dear life when the wind whipped around the corners). The bahay kubos were cool. At least we had lessons out in the fresh air. The nuns decided we should learn to play softball. I guess they figured that warball would eventually kill us all (warball frightened the heck out of me...I seemed to be some sort of magnet or something...)

We dissected a chicken leg for Grade 7 science. If Monica thought that feeding young children BLACK pusit in the cafeteria was bad, dissecting a raw chicken leg was also up there in terms of horror content. I mean, you actually saw the veins and ligaments, they glistened, there was blood...you suddenly decided that fried chicken LEGS were now an absolute no-no. Forever.

How about sewing class (again, a dear favorite) with those Singer machines that you had to pump up and down or tilt or something with your legs to get it going? And if you did it too fast, the cloth got eaten up and you sewed all the way to the bitter end of the cloth...was that a Mrs. Estaniel as sewing teacher?...memory super fleeting when related to sewing...

How about Pilipino with Ms. Barba, Grade 5? The ONLY teacher who ever pronounced "CarRRRRmen" with the longest rolling of rrrr's ever? And I don't even like my name...it was with much dismay that I discovered my name to be even more horrific than expected as I entered UP Diliman. I discovered my real name was "Maria del Carmen Socorro Angeles Peypoch Reyes". Why, God? Why?

Riding a school bus was....I can't find the adjective. For Grade 5, I rode the Assumption bus at the Malate Church. It was filled with a lot of older kids. I got to sit on that middle seat you just push down when everybody is seated (and of course, you had to get up every single time someone moved seats. Sigh). I invariably dozed off and that's when the fun began....for Raiisa Roque or Judy Baltazar. These grade 6? people would yank my pig-tails, wake me up then look somewhere else when I tried to figure out who had woken me up from deep, saliva-drooling sleep. Hey! I lived in Las Pinas, was brought to Malate and rode the bus to Antipolo. Wouldn't you drool too??? You wouldn't?..hmmmm

You'd get off the bus in Assumption, step off in your shiny gregg shoes and SQUELCH into red mud. Ugh. Every single day. Then you would go to the straggly growth of grass on the side and valiantly try to wipe, clean it off. Am not surprised why it took forever for that grass to grow... Rainy days in school meant watching the center of the cluster fill up with water..and if you sat near the back of the classroom, you would actually get sprayed by the rain coming down the middle. But you cant beat that memory, right? Having a mini-pool at the back of your classroom? Actually seeing into other classrooms all day long (if you snuck looks at the back, of course). We were, after all, a MODERN school.

I remember watching the movie "Oliver" in the huge library. I remember discovering the Chronicles of Narnia in the library on the day I finished all my required reading in the II module.

Becky Sanares and I were best friends and classmates since Grade 2. In Antipolo, we sure got into scrapes. Once, we were so bored in class that we decided to draw people on our thighs. With ballpen ink, we drew huge, cartoon people from our knees, going down into our groins. We embellished those drawings and snickered all throughout that class. And then, what happens next is what is known as KARMA. As luck would have it, the next class was P.E....where you wear SHORTS. Skirts could hide the drawings but shorts, ah, shorts meant we were DEAD. Becky and I panicked, we couldn't let anyone know what we did. So we asked permission to go to the bathroom but ran to the library bathroom instead. We climbed up the sinks (one each), knelt as near the sink as we could and scrubbed our thighs violently. I don't even think we had soap. We got back to the classroom with bright red, violet-tinged thighs. I guess the P.E. teacher just thought it wasn't worth going there..hahahaha.

I remember being a Girl Scout. One weekend, I was playing in the park near my house and a swing whacked me on the forehead. Right in the middle, I got a gaping wound with blood running down my face. It didn't need to be stitched but they did have to put a huge gauze bandage right there. Monday morning comes and Ms. de Guzman tells me oh so happy news: I have been picked to lead the ENTIRE school in the "Panatang Makabayan". With a big white gauze bandage on my forehead. And dorky black glasses. In front of the library, facing the entire school. My, my, how assumption BUILDS character....

But when you look back, I feel that Antipolo was just a transition phase, a saying goodbye to a beloved school, a preparation for San Lorenzo. We had miles and miles of land to run around in (despite the red mud.) We had the multi-purpose hall to climb (better than any jungle gym set!) We grew up, played softball, had a fair (and got "kilig" being locked in "jail"), learned social dancing, had retreats in the rooms below the multi-purpose hall...the list is endless. It was our wild and free time before the walls of San Lorenzo. And red mud and all, it was necessary.

Early Herran Years

Reading all the previous entries does overwhelm you with a tsunami of nostalgia. There will never be another Herran. With its imposing buildings, corridors that seemed to whisper of secrets through the ages (like were the nuns really bald??), that incandescent lagoon that drew all of us like moths, the serene chapel (with the tombstones on the side...). How can one ever forget Herran??

Just like Monica, I think the entire female population of my family came from Assumption. Being an only child did not help. My grandmother's studio was then at M.H. Del Pilar (it didn't have its present lovely reputation at that time hahaha). My parents dropped me off every morning and my mom waited at the Studio to get me at dismissal time. Both my parents were veritable chimneys and the long ride from Las Pinas to Herran insured that I would reek of cigarette smoke every single day. Some prep classmates actually commented that "you smell funny" as I lined up my rectangular school bag (with wheels) outside, in that fenced in area, prior to going to our classrooms. Then, while waiting, we would jump up and down those cement enclosures embracing the acacia trees until the bell rang.

I remember loathing sewing class. Those little white scraps of rectangular cloth and you had to do a running stitch, a blanket stitch, sew a buttonhole...omigosh..I felt near death. Years later, I would have the ultimate shame of actually FLUNKING sewing, I think in 2nd year, and taking summer classes to learn how to make a blouse. Of course, when I recount this shame, everyone asks "Why didn't you ask the maid to do it??" and I want to answer, all hoity-toity, "Because I was honest?" but the truth was, because I was an innocent (hahahahaha!) And now I'm an ob-gyn and I haven't yet heard a patient complain about how their c-section scar looks....hmm, maybe that's a whole different story?!?

The foreign classmate in the cutie picture was Tamarra but she was Spanish (at least, to my recollection). During recess, we would play in that central park in front of the administration building. There were slides and swings. The slides were built in such a way that there were 2 slides connected by a midline platform and when you climbed the ladder, it really felt you were high up, like on a pirate's ship and so we played pirate's or robbers or monsters, always making the slide home base. We were very enterprising young things then...

Truly, I hated the fact thay my mother signed me up to eat in the canteen. Assumption meat and I..well, let's just say no friendship ever developed between us and I still shudder when I see meat that has a circle of fat in the middle (oohhh, just saying it, am shuddering.) Bleah. But siomai and assumption tarts were the best. More so the fact that you got to spoon out gobs and gobs of guava jelly and could die of sugar overload and no one thought twice of it.
I dont quite remember the Grade..2? or 3? but Miss Moran was my Science teacher. We had a show and tell day. And Maridol Dilag brought a "balut" egg. And calmly opened it in front of the class. And calmly ate the chick? fetus? Ugh. Whatever. You can surmise that I am also not best friends with "balut". And Maridol, you scarred me. For life.

I remember in Grade 4 that, after lunch, a bell would ring and you had to get to your classroom pronto! Well, one day, Becky Sanares and I decided to play longer, bell rang, we still had to race up the stairs to get to the classroom. There were stairs on both ends of the 2-storey building and for some reason, we split up. I took one side, ran up, pelting for dear life towards the classroom when suddenly...Mother Rose Peter materialized out of thin air! Ulp! Too late to stop, going a gazillion miles a minute! What does this lovely, nurturing nun do? She sticks out her arm. It catches me at my neck. My feet go whoosh (still trying to run to the classroom) and I fall with a loud "thud!" to the floor. I look up with glazed eyes and she calmly scolds me and tells me to get moving. In the meantime, I feel my vocal cords will never be the same again. Oh well, at least, Becky got away. I begin to think of Mother Rose Peter as some quiet POWER, gently swooping when you least expect it. So when I see her eons later, I am surprised that she remembers me fondly (does not remember the ARM incident) instead remembers she put the veil on me for my first communion. What can I say? Memories are fleeting....more so when you take a hard fall in Grade 4 courtesy of jujitsu....

Ah the lagoon. It was a mad, careening rush to the lagoon every lunchtime. And whoever got there first filled up the 2 boats and had themselves a good time with the ducks and their poo and the wilting plants in that stagnant pond. But oh, when the bell rang (as in the ARM incident) and everybody rowed to get back to the dock and get off asap..well, that was a natural recipe for disaster. Maripaz de Sequera jumps out, I tumble into green murky water and surface, HORRORS! underneath the capsized boat. I can hear Becky's muffled voice "China where are you?" and I look gingerly at the water, knowing I have to dunk myself in again to get out. Not lovely at all. I re-surface once again and Becky gives me this look..its a look of horror...empathy...and outright hilarity. She finally has to smile and say, "C'mon, I'll bring you to the clinic". Because, though unhurt, the clinic had a shower and extra clothes. And I had green moss on my hands and forehead. So I take a shower and Mrs. Ibuna hands me a uniform. Remember, I am 9 years old at that time. She hands me a panty that fits but the uniform..oh,well...the uniform is for a high school person. The blouse reaches mid thigh. The skirt reaches my ankle. There are no shoes so have to wear my squeeky, squelching gregg shoes. No socks too. What a sight. And I have this faint sensation that I swallowed some water from the pond...

How about those annual vaccinations? All of us walking around like we had robot left arms (of course, NOW we know we should have moved our arms!!). I seem to remember being punctured yearly!!!!

Grade 4 was also when I discovered I was blind as a bat from reading comic books with a flashlight till late at night. I couldnt see the blackboard so I pestered poor Stella Mendoza to tell me what was written every 5 minutes. What a patient friend! Finally my mother had my eyes checked and I came to school with the BIGGEST, BLACKEST, DORKIEST glasses on earth. Enough said.

My, what a torrential tale this has been so far. Herran really is a state of mind. Talking and/or writing just unleashes it all. What a spectacular idea this is, Monica. BOW. Till the next off the wall commentary...

Ghost Valentines

Dear Classmates,

If you are afraid of ghosts, then stop reading now. But if you believe in Valentine’s Day, then read on. This is both a Valentine and a ghost story. Now many of you will think I’ve gone wacko, although many of you who know me well will remember that I’ve always been like this. My 41-yr old self doesn’t care much anymore what anyone thinks of me. For now, I just need you to listen.

Last weekend, New York City, my home, was buried in record snowfall of almost 27 inches. Homebound, I decided to dig into my box of old pictures. I found this beautiful one, of my lola and her good friends, her Assumption classmates. I realized that they graduated high school from Assumption in 1936, exactly 70 years ago this year.

Yesterday, I got an email from Bing Ongsiako inviting us all to meet the Ruby and Diamond Jubilarians who will share Old Girl’s Day with us. At the same time, I got an email from Bing’s sister Jeannie, inviting me to view her blog, where her lead article was on dreams. So I wrote Bing about the photo I found, suggesting that if any of these women were still alive, they must be invited to the velada. At the very least, maybe this beautiful picture could be published in our program. Then I read Jeannie's blog, and wondered what I would dream about tonight.

So off to bed I went, ready to get a good night’s sleep. That’s what I thought. Instead, I spent the next hour or so crying my eyes out, at the same time, remembering in exacting detail, every little bit about Herran. Jeannie, was I dreaming? Was I channeling? Or did I just drink too much Diet Pepsi before I went to bed?

All I know, is that now I remember it all. So I got up from bed and typed it up. It is now almost 2:00 a.m. Thus, you see how the post below this one was born.

Then, my rational almost 42-year old mind took over and asked myself: Why are you still weeping for a place that is over thirty years long gone, a continent and an ocean away from where you now live? Why and how, does your present day mind, remember in immense detail, a place that your 9-year old brain and body left behind? In fact, it would be a 7-year old brain and body that remembers all the ”insider” places that I only saw on account of Lola, who died when I was 7.

Rational self to Monica: half your friends didn't even go to Herran or stay there long enough. Why are you doing this???

So, did the ghosts from the photo put the map in my head tonight? Or did my 9-year old brain tuck it away deep, so it could be retrieved 32 years later, so I could type it and make you all remember again?

I thought that my typing out the article would make me go to sleep. And I tried, I lay down again. Big NO. The women in the picture did not think so. They were not done with me yet for the night.

Here is what they want: they want to be remembered. They do not want you to forget. Batch 1981, I am not really speaking to just you anymore, I am speaking to every Assumption girl out there, especially the ones who came before us, who may actually have known these women. They want to be remembered, this Assumption High School Class of 1936: From left to right, Front row: Pilaring Aldanese, Mary Whitaker Ansaldo, unknown for now, unknown for now, Conchita Zaldarriaga Arnaiz (Gina Tambunting’s lola). Back row: Aurea Natividad Salcedo, Carmen Bayot Garcia, Bibiana Diaz Guysayko (my lola), Remedios Corpuz Moya. I believe that Mrs. Garcia, and Mrs. Arnaiz are still living, there might be more. Not in the picture but one of their gang, was my grandmother’s best friend, Angela Pena (HS 1934 or 1935), for whom I named my Angelica for. She came to visit me tonight as well.



So please, Manila classmates, I do not need to be Sleepless in New York anymore. Allow the ghosts to be at peace too. Please include them on Old Girls Day, and especially seek out the ones who are still living. They must be invited, they must be remembered.

Be careful of what pictures you dig up on snowy days too close to the day for love, lost or otherwise. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. It is now almost 4:00 a.m.

There, maybe now they will let me get some sleep.

Lola Babing y amigas, permítanme dormir, por favor.

Abrazos y besos,
Monica

The Herran in My Mind

This is the best drafting I can do for now. This is the map of Herran in my head. Corrections will be appreciated. This is not to scale, at all.

I went searching to go online, to see if there were any pictures of Assumption Herran. I found none. Worse, I tried to find a map of the grounds of Assumption Herran. Again, none. But I have a map in my head. Maybe I can describe it to you, and you will remember.

Along Herran Street (now called Pedro Gil), there were 2 gates: one at the corner of Herran and Adriatico (A), and one towards Taft Avenue (B). These gates were big, black, and usually open. The corner gate had elaborate and ornate iron work. If you came very early in the morning, too early, the gates would be closed. You needed to knock or blow your horn so Mang Segundo would come and open the B gate for you. My Tita Luisa tells me that he came quickly because near this gate, beside the auditorium, was the house where he lived. Alongside one of these front gates would be a pedestrian gate. This is where the externs (the girls who went home to eat lunch) would go in and out of. The third gate (C) was in the back, along Adriatico, going towards Padre Faura.

If you entered through the first gate (A) on the corner, to your right, and behind you as you drove in, would be a large parking lot (gray), which we also used for various field activities like games and dancing. To your left, as you drove in, would be the Primary Building (1), parallel to Calle Adriatico. If you made made a right after the gate, you would be facing the Auditorium (9). Dominating the view really, perpendicular to the Primary Building, would be the Administration Building (3). On the other side of the Administration Building, parallel and facing the Primary Building, would be the high school (8). These three main buildings would form 3 walls around the area in the middle where the flagpole stood (10). There were driveways for cars, as indicated by the green lines in the figure above.

Behind the Administration Building, was the Chapel (4). Somewhat behind the chapel, parallel to Herran Street and Padre Faura, would be the Intermediate Building (5). I believe this building was newer than the rest of the school. There was also another such building (7), parallel to it, on the the other side of the chapel, almost coming out of the other end of the Adminstration Building. I believe this housed the upper grades like 5^th – 7^th. This part of the school was also newer than the rest.

The Primary Building: It was two stories high, with stairs in the middle, as well as to the right, if you stood in front facing it. Under the middle stairs was a storeroom were various P.E. materials were kept such as rings and batons. There was also a closet where they kept the games we could borrow during recess, such as jumping ropes and hoop jumps. Mrs. Estaniel also had a small cupboard here where she sold school supplies, including nice smelling yummy erasers. You could walk through the building right here, and come out in the rear play yard. The rear play yard was where we lined up after recess to go up the stairs class by class. The front part of the building had this long corridor. The first floor corridor was were we would sit and play endless games of jackstones (regular and Chinese) during recess. [Can you still sit in your jackstone position, legs forming an M on the sides of your body… and not be in pain?]

There was an extension (2) on one side of Primary. On the ground floor of the extension was the cafeteria for the bigger kids and the faculty. On the second floor, the extension contained the music room, art room, library and faculty room, as well as Mother Martha’s office during my time. The 2nd set of stairs was also in here. At the bottom of the steps on the 1st floor was the clinic. Mrs. Ibuna was our nurse, Dra. Hortaleza was our physician. Some times there would be a dentist too, and I believe her name was Dra. Villegas. Against the school wall behind Primary, the other side of which would already be Adriatico Street, was the cafeteria (pink building) for the lower grades. This is where we bought egg pie and meringue, and where they force fed us Sustagen one year.

Going back to the other end of Primary, almost between it and the Admin, was the Assumption zoo. Walking a little further, going out towards the Adriatico gate, was the walled swimming pool (aqua). Beyond it, walled even better, were the cloisters (purple) of the sisters. If you followed the driveway some more, you would get to the Adriatico gate (C).

In front of the Primary and High School buildings would be yards. The yards were fenced in, with hedges growing all around. (See Vivian’s description of the yard and the trees.) Acacia trees, what would Herran be without those trees? We were wicked but ignorant as children, since we peeled the bark so we could play piko. I wonder if they tore down the trees too. At the end of the day, you lined up in the yard, with your bag (boxy with wheels; or blue and white Assumption school bags – with wheels only if you were an Anido girl) and you moved up slowly to fill the gaps as the girls in front of you got picked up. My aunt says that during her time, they had to wait IN COMPLETE SILENCE. I do not remember that we had to do that, but we did have to stand still while waiting. The cars would come around and stop in front of the little opening in the hedge. I can’t remember how we knew our car was there: did they call us out, and if so, did the one calling know all our cars and drivers, or did our drivers say something to them? After a certain hour, if you were still not picked up, you were brought in front of the Auditorium, joined by the older girls who were also still waiting. If still, after a certain hour, you were not yet picked up, then you went to the Administration Building and waited there. If you started seeing the Boarders come out, still in their uniforms but wearing chinelas, then you knew it was really late, and someone must have forgotten to pick you up! I know it happened to me a couple of times.

The Administration Building was in a way, very forbidding to us as little children. It was a very formal place, almost inducing us to behave once we stepped foot in it. There were steps in the middle to enter the building, although there were also entrances on each side. The middle entrance was the most dramatic, including the steps. This is where we would see VIPs, whether it was the President (Marcos, since we only knew one in our childhood), or visiting Assumption Mothers General. Can you imagine Mother Immaculada standing on the steps? I still can. If there was an important event or ceremony of some sort, the steps would be where the VIPs would stand or be presented. This is also where Assumption brides would pose for their pictures.

This building, unlike the others, had two corridors running on each of its lengths, in front and in the back. In between would be rooms called parlors. Important visitors to our school were also received here. One of the parlors even had a baby grand and we held many programs there, including Christmas Nativities. Upstairs, is where the Boarders lived. Apart from the Cloisters, upstairs is one of the places in Herran that I never went into. Somewhere in the back, along the left side of the Admin was a teacher’s lounge. I went in there many times in search of lola. Her office was at the other end of the Admin, towards the high school. There was a certain ambience, a certain feeling that I associated with these parlors in Herran. I cannot even describe it fully. Now and then, I would get that same feeling in the parlors of San Lorenzo, but it was fleeting, and would be gone in seconds. I never quite felt that same hush in San Lorenzo.

The middle lobby of this building was grand and elegant. You almost wanted to speak in quiet tones any time you were in it. There was a caged window on one side, where you paid for tuition. Through this middle lobby, one could walk through and go down some steps and walk into the chapel. This is where many an Assumption bride walked through, as she brought her wedding flowers to Mother Mary after her wedding. I always wanted to do that one day and of course, it could never be.

I never spent much time in the high school building (8), but I imagine it was built in much the same way as its counterpart across the way, the Primary Building. I also know that there was a library somewhere in here, because Lola would take me in there with her sometimes. There was another building (orange) behind the high school, it was only one story perhaps, an annex of sorts. I know we would have our science exhibits in there, maybe there were labs there, I don’t remember. There was also one room there that had a bathtub. I know. I got dunked in there once to get cleaned up after getting so sick from drinking too much Choco-Vim.

We spent 4^th Grade in the Intermediate Building (5). China describes this building well in her Herran post. Behind this building was the back wall of our school, as well as the side wall. I remember that we sometimes could see the boarders, or whatever they were, in the buildings in the school next door. I cannot remember if it was U.P. Manila, or PGH.

The older girls of Grade School were in Building #7, across from our Intermediate building. We did not go there much unless we had some movie to watch. The AV room was in this building. In between, in front of the chapel, was the famous lagoon (6). Don’t forget that there was a grotto there too (did it have something in it, or was it empty?) and a bridge that spanned the lagoon.

The Chapel: Someone else, please describe the chapel. I think it needs a post of its own. Someone Anonymous posted a comment on 2/7/06 (see sidebar) and said she joined a walking tour a few years ago, and still saw the chapel, which was being used as a locker room (@#$%!) In the late 1980s, I heard that Dondi Mapa, Lorvi’s older brother, was going to get married in the chapel, and that it was going to be reconsecrated so it could be used for mass again. I don’t know if it actually happened. I just know I wished that it did. Log onto Carlos Celdran’s blog, and you will see that our beloved chapel is gone now…it was the last piece of Herran to go, and it has been torn down. Bravo to Carlos for calling what happened to our beloved Assumption Herran a DESECRATION. Indeed, indeed.

The Auditorium: Christine Carlos, where are you? Of all of us, you played in here the most, you should describe it.

Sometimes I still dream of Assumption Herran, and sometimes, I even see myself in the dream, walking around in my red plaid uniform. Sometimes, I see the buildings crumbling, being torn down bit by bit, and I am running in my dream to escape the falling pieces. When this happens, I know it to mean that there is something in my life that I need to fix, and immediately. Sometimes though I will have my Assumption Herran dream, where I am safe, and not dodging the wrecking ball. I take it to mean that I am just longing for my more simple innocent life, and that I should take a break from my present day complicated adult one. Or it might mean I just miss my childhood, so I go to the phone or email an old friend to chat.

I still grieve the loss of Herran. But then my reasoning mind takes over, telling me that without departing from Herran, there would be no Antipolo, the Antipolo that I also loved, even in her incompleteness and newness. I hear that today, there is an eco-park aptly named Pacem, that is part of Assumption Antipolo. I need to visit that park one day, see the waterfall and the butterflies with my own two eyes. Then maybe the hole in my heart called Herran, will finally heal and be at peace.

Freshman Year

We graduated from Antipolo already a large class of five sections. When we moved back to San Lorenzo for high school, several things were going on at once. STC Manila was closing its doors forever, and the previous year’s 7^th Grade class needed to find a new high school. At the same time, since San Lorenzo was infinitely more accessible than Antipolo, all those girls who left after Grade 4, were now coming back in droves: balik-Assumption!

First day of school was a riot. Old, long-gone friends were seeking familiar faces, everyone trying to recognize each other through adolescent acne, braces, newly bought contacts, and growd-up-we’re-not-little-anymore bodies. We don’t know what she did that summer, but… Angelica Calalang was now Ina Calalang: tall, and at the end of the line! Shrieks of delight to find old pals like Mimie de Ocampo and Betta Gallego. From STC came Karina Galang, Tina Fineza, Yellie and Cri-cri Alcaraz, Alma Consing, and the balik Assumption girls Tessa P and Marichu Alcasid. Plus more girls from all over: Janine Cuenca, Bea Montilla, Didi Manahan, Mabeth Webb, Marites Capili, Maxie Maceda, Joy Pena, Melissa Maio, Maby Sandoval, Maricor Sambrano, Carmela Puyat and Georgie Sibal among others. We were now SEVEN sections strong!

Because I was not so tall, I ended up in section 7. With lola long gone, advanced Prep registration be damned, high school was now a different ballgame, a different school. THEY DID NOT HAVE ME ON ANY OF THE ROSTERS AT ALL! For the first time in my Assumption career, I was a non-entity! I was starting to have a hissy fit, but then I realized I was not alone, there were at least 7 of us who were “stateless.” Miss Ramos, one of our Mistresses of Class, gathered us in a circle and started pointing and assigning sections just like that. I knew I wanted to be in Section 7 with Toni, so I hid behind the tallest girl I could find (I think it was Mafe Quimson) who then got assigned Section 1. Miss Ramos went down the line then I popped my head out just in time for her to point at me and say “Seven.” Bingo! Talk about taking destiny into your own hands.

I believe Miss Bernas was our homeroom teacher and Algebra teacher. Mrs. Mapa was Religion, Miss Marie Lim was English. Mrs. Magtaas was our IPS or Integrated Physical Science teacher. Miss Salvatierra was the Work Ed teacher and our project for the year was weaving beads, or abaloryo, in the vernacular. Wasn’t it so annoying, that for the minor subjects, we now had to speak in Pilipino? That was very hard for us who were steeped in learning in English from Day 1. Although I suppose we should be grateful that we did not need to use Pilipino for Science and Math or we would have gone nuts (How would you say “Find the square root of the numeral resulting from the nth factorial of the value of the x-coordinate …” in Tagalog????) And I must say, using Tagalog in work education, for instance, resulted in so many moments of hilarity for us (wait for the 2^nd year memory post).

Our classroom, oddly enough, was diagonally across the hall from the one we occupied for a few months in fifth grade. Marissa Picornell was our class vice-president. I believe that many of my sectionmates from 7^th Grade were in Section 7. Add to the mix: Melissa Maio, Bea Montilla, Connie Quirino, Kandy Fernandez, Rina Macasaet, Janine Cuenca, Tina Fineza, Karina Galang, Anggot Veloso. Can you feel the walls of that old classroom starting to explode? Oh, we had a blast!

I did not know San Lorenzo that much. I thought her grounds were the shabbier stepsisters to the beautiful Herran. To me it was new, characterless, and without history, much like I now distinguish between pre-war and modern New York apartment buildings. We had to figure out where the clinic was and check out the nurse (boohoo, no more Mrs. Ibuna and Dra. Hortaleza.) We scoped out the cafeteria and its offerings (no more Antipolo turon and fried chicken and Manang Rita.) Instead of wide open spaces and rolling hills, we had walls plus Sgt. Pepper Anderson, a.k.a. Mrs. Dominguez, our female sikyo. No more yayas and drivers hanging around. The familiar, smiling nuns were nowhere to be found. In fact, there were hardly any nuns at all. For the first time in my life, Religion was taught by a lay person, (not that Mrs. Mapa was not good, she was brilliant.) Goodbye Sumulong Highway, hello Ponce and Pasay Road. Actually, hellooooo Makati Commercial Center! Back from the wilderness, our urban escape was just a few blocks away.

We lay claim to specific areas where we would “hang out.” Ours was the stairs from the volleyball/basketball court that led up to the dorm rooms.

We made new friends, rekindled old friendships, formed new alliances, joined a “group,” left the group, joined a new group. Our lives were changing. We were growing up. No more little girl games, climbing trees or ball playing. We were working on our poise, coiffing our hair, primping and priming as much as one could in a plaid uniform, and getting ready for….boys.

High School memories - Anna Pison Stanford

I can't place years, but these are my most vivid memories of high school:

Practicing calligraphy and forgery during Pilipino (and other) class. Ina Calalang and I used to try to forge each other's signatures, and it became a game. One of us would scrawl our signature, and the other would forge several copies around it. Then we would have to pick out our own original signature. I won the game - she once picked the wrong signature, but was never able to fool me!

Forging teachers' signatures on test pemission slips. I was too lazy to walk all over the school to find a teacher to sign a permission slip when I wanted to take a test, so I just signed a lot of them myself. Math teacher Mrs. Huab's was the easiest to forge.

China Reyes' cartoon adventures of "Joey" and "Dean". She started doing these in grade school and continued in high school. China, do you still have those notebooks?

Playing "shooting star" (usually with Lupe Romulo).

English teacher Miss Reynoso and writing poetry in her class in either 2nd or 3rd year. I still have those poems to this day.

Giving Mrs. Huab in class a math problem from my book "Mathematics for Fun" and seeing her stumped, unable to solve it. She then borrowed my book and never returned it. I found it in the library one day, stamped like a library book with the envelope pasted at the back! At least they returned it to me when I claimed it.

Those class plays we had to put on in 2nd year! Our group had to do "The World is an Apple". I was the mother, Pauline Bermejo the father, Marlou de Vera the baby.

The (I think in 1st year) class debate on the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere. Our team had to debate in favor of it (which put us at a disadvantage). I remember our arguments reducing Cri-Cri Alcaraz on the opposing team to an indignant huffy reply (can't remember what she said) when she couldn't come up with a rebuttal. Though their team "won", I still believe our arguments were more logical and we debated better, with cooler heads.

I have more, but I'll leave it at that for now!

Grade 7

Ah, Grade 7. Our final year in the idyll that was Antipolo. I think I was in Section 4. In my class were Toni Feliciano, Estrella Fule, Nina Torres, Trixie Garcia, Chinkie Gabriel, China Reyes, Becky Sanares, Rory Ocampo, who was newly returned to Assumption, and Mariel Recto, newly arrived. Also in it were Donna Licaros, Elena Palarca, maybe Elena Viray. We also had an “import”, a Fil-Am girl in Manila just for the year. I think her name was Annette Vela and she was Frannie Figueroa’s cousin. We also had Angelica Calalang, when she was still that little girl at the front of the line, with the Dorothy Hamill haircut. Bonca Bengzon was a little late starting the school year. She spent summer vacation in China, and broke her leg (ankle?) in a biking accident. I remember wanting to see China then, and still haven't. The bikes might even be gone now, just traffic and cars with their newfound affluence.

Cricket Concepcion, Maripi Jalandoni and Mailou San Gabriel were also in that class. Sometime during the school year, they had this intellectual debate (a loud one!) among the three of them: Jimmy Carter vs. Gerald Ford, of all things. I used to scoff at them, like how silly they were, WHO cared about the U.S. elections? I eat my words now. For much of the last 16 years, I’ve dealt with Washington politics, day in and day out. Plus, years ago, I actually spoke to President Carter, an old friend of my boss! He introduced himself on the phone simply as “Jimmy Cahruh”, just like that, with his Georgia accent. I was so thrilled! And I actually did some work for the 1992 and 1996 U.S. elections. Funny how the world turns.

I hung out with Toni, Nina and Trixie. Nina spoke Spanish at home with her lola. Between her and Estrella Fule, they taught us Spanish, the bad words! I learned to say mierda, long before I learned to say “La cuenta, por favor.” I can still hear Nina giggle, making her eyes disappear. Don’t know who was more outrageous, her, or her stories about her family, or... Trixie Garcia!

We had Miss Marquez for social studies, and I think Miss Silao for Math. Mrs. Dizon, an old friend of my lola, was our Pilipino teacher. Miss Moran was our science teacher. For work education, we had Miss Custodio, who will be proud to learn that I still know how to crochet. And now, I can even knit! We learned how to diagram sentences. Strange how I can't recall the names of any of our language and reading teachers, and Cricket remembers that we had really good ones and I agree.

Finina Reyes was in the class next to mine, but in the middle of the year, her family moved to the States. I don’t think I ever saw her again, but I did call her a few times when visiting San Francisco. Her younger sister Candy, who was so cute, passed away a few years after they moved.

The mom of Becky Sanares passed away in Grade 7. China and Becky were good friends. I remember that a bunch of us including China and Cricket, together with a nun, maybe Sister Mary Grace, our Mistress of Class, rode the school’s Ford Fiera (?) and went from Antipolo to Cavite to attend the funeral. Already there was Mafe Quimson, who is Becky’s cousin. Becky was so sad, and so was China, and so were we all. I believe that was the first and only time I ever went to a classmate’s parent’s funeral.

At graduation that year, Cricket Concepcion got the Mother Marie Eugenie award. We shouldn’t, but we do: we laugh about it now. I quote her exactly: I can't recall ever doing ANYTHING Marie Eugenie-ish! And look at me now, struggling to get my daughter into Catholic school!

And my big award at graduation? A certificate for “sportsmanship”, whatever that meant. Did I truly become a jock by then? I still think to this day I fooled Mrs. Casacop somehow. My only interest in sports is that I can spell it.

Patricia Carino remembers our Grade 7 Graduation song, but not the title:

All my life I’ve been hoping to be
Strong as the wind as it blows from the sea
Gentle as the sunset, quiet as the evening shadows
Soft as the green of spring, young full of hope
And now I must live to be, all that I’ve hoped to be
From this moment, I must go
I must be where dreams come true

Did we?

Games We Played - by Vivian Honorio

The big yard fronting the primary building in Herran was just the best place to spend our recess and lunch breaks. Didn't we have those huge acacia trees rooted on large cemented "flower pots"? I recall playing ship: whoever stayed on the cemented base of the trees could not get eaten up by the sharks outside the pots. We'd push each other off those pots until we'd work up a sweat. I remember playing garter. Now there were two ways of playing that! One way was to do the exhibitions, first kicking the sides like 5 times on both ends of the garter, then there were the criss cross, the jumps, and I believe we brought up those darn garters all the way up to our waist for I don't know what? I hated wearing those Gregg shoes with buckles as they got caught in the exhibition part of the game. Then there was the "real" garter game where we'd have to clear the height of the garter which was way past the height of the tallest elementary girl! I was always awed by those girls who had those long legs and just managed to clear it. If I remember right, it was Cristina Ramos who was our usual bet to beat the upper graders as she had very looooong legs.

Didn't we also play with colored strings? I remember having to do some sort of manuevering of the string with all your fingers until you go way past all the steps and freeing the string from your partner? Then we had the piko. I remember drawing the patterns in the floor using orange chalk from broken pots. Now where'd we find those broken pots, I can't recall. Then we'd fashion our pato from all sorts of things: our hankies, wallets (containing laminated cafeteria chits) , etc. but the best patos I think were pieces of bark we chipped off from the beautiful trees as they wouldn't jump that much. The running and "rough" games we played were melting candle, touch taya statue and the boat is sinking.

I also remember playing the jackstones. I don't recall what grade I was, I believe though it was already in the Antipolo days mostly as we had a lot of the marble flooring... just perfect for the game. I remember the exhibition part of the game such as around the world, begging, the dot, the cave, the fence, around the world with begging, etc. I think we had to do 10 of those before we could rewind and do the game all over again. Of course there was also the chinese jacks (with monggo beans.) The exhibition part I could recall was the the cave again, the fence again, the begging again and the ballet.....

There was also the sipa (a million rubber bands tied up together) and I think I was kinda good at that. Of course the champions were Mia Gadi and Bernie Veloso and I could recall they could do that 100 times without missing the ball (both using the inside and outside sorta kick).

Since Antipolo had huge pockets of free space, we played kickball all the time. Again I always looked up to the girls who could just kick the ball way too far for the "fielders" to catch it. Way too far would mean up the hilly red soil of the rugged terrain of our beautiful school. Then we'd also have those good pitchers who would roll you a fast, curve ball until you'd strike out. I would be one of those who'd usually strike out being one of the "weak, payatot ones". Of course there was also the catchball as how Mon, you pointed out, for the "strong," and the patintero for the highly mobile ones.

Nowadays, my daughter Maia would get the usual jacks sometimes in her party loot bags and she would just set them aside as she finds it too difficult to learn. I always thought that all little girls were gifted with the talent of playing the jacks. I guess nowadays this new generation's sense of fun would be anything to do with the TV and video. I wish I could still have time to show her what the real fun games are all about. ---Vivian

Vivian Honorio's Twenty Most Significant Memories

You belonged to Assumption San Lo Batch 1977-1981 if:

1) You owned an Ace bag…

2) You hair brush was probably branded Denman…and the handle stuck out of your right skirt pocket…

3) If you had long hair, you probably wore it in a French braid and had your friends do it in class or you had the deadly flip…..if you had it short, you had the apple cut…

4) Your thermos brand was Aladdin…the red cap and beige body model…

5) You wore your socks below you ankle bone and your school shoes was probably branded Gregs…

6) You mastered knotting your necktie and you knotted it small…sometimes you’d clip a tiny monchichi monkey doll on it…

7) You wore a bra even though you only had booblets…

8) The “in” mall then was Quad, Brick Town, Shoppesville or Angela Arcade and that’s where you hung out to meet the boys…

9) Your wallet was probably Hello Kitty or Little Twin Stars and your baon was P20 a day… I know mine was…

10) Your pencil box had magnets…with a built in sharpener and compartments and you arranged your pencils from longest to shortest…I know I square-rishly did… Your erasers were probably fruit scented…

11) Really good food for you then was Assumption siomai and cafeteria cottage pie…

12) During boring classes you practiced signing your name with your crush’s last name… or you played FLAMES (remember… friends, lovers, admire, marriage, enemies, and sweethearts…)… or you could have also wasted your time playing tic tac toe or hang man or shooting stars…with your equally bored-in-class-to death seatmate…

13) You knew how to dance the swing….or also knew how to dance to the tune of Rock Lobster and Oh Mickey…..

14) You loved Sesame Street and might have spent your weekends watching Combat, Little House on the Prairie, Dance Fever, Charlie’s Angels and Hardy Boys…

15) Then, the best movies you’ve ever watched were Boy in A Plastic Bubble, Carrie and Endless Love…

16) You at least owned a pair of Clogs, Happy Feet or Crayon Shoes…

17) The height of your artistic creativity then was how to innovate your class party invitations…we went from laboratory slides, test tubes and blown glass…

18) Your worries then were what you were going to wear for the weekend parties, or how you were going to do your hair (which side of flip you were doing your hair…). You also worried about what excuse you were going to tell your parents for being late that Friday or Saturday night….

19) When you received your class graduation ring, you made everyone turn it once to make a wish…don’t know why we did that…?

20) And you probably wished you looked like Brooke Shields….

--- Vivian

Melissa Maio's Addendum to Vivian's List

You belonged to Assumption San Lo Batch 1977-1981 if:

(Continuation…)

1) Not only did you wear a bra (and panties), they were branded St. Michael, di ba?

2) If not Greggs, you wore black kung-fu shoes to school.

3) Your everyday scent was Nenuco or Denenes.

4) You were in love with Rex Smith and adored his movie about the teeny-bopper fan and him falling in love. Haay! His hit song was You Take My Breath Away (…and I don’t know what to say).

5) You were a Superstar if your household had a Betamax.

6) You loved Dippin’ Donuts and hanging out at Whistlestop where you could purchase the latest American-made candy and chocolates.

7) If you smoked then (or explored to---I know I did), you bought your blue-seal pack of cigarettes from the Manang at the Caltex station, Makati Avenue corner Pasay Road.

8) Your nail polish was metallic red.

---Melissa

Grade 3

Grade 3 was a really fun year for me so maybe that's why I have soooo many memories of what happened then.

We were Section 2, but I don’t remember our teacher’s name. Section 1 had Miss Ramos and Section 3 had Miss Botanes. My classmates in Section 2 include China Reyes, Popsie again, Gia Maramba (a San Lo migrant), Carla Fernandez, and I think Lala De los Reyes, Mimie de Ocampo, Elena Palarca and Nelia Gonzalez. Maybe Milen Batungbacal was in that class also. We also had Michelle Hizon (small girl, curly hair, always had an elaborate hairclip for her fountain, and Diana Gamboa, sister of Arnold, the artista. Some San Lo girls came over because they had sisters in Grade 4, the “experiment" batch, for the transfer to Herran. I know one of them was Sylvia Santos-Ocampo.

We had Mrs. Estaniel for sewing. This is the year she taught us to embroider, with basket weave and DMC thread. I LOVED those classes, and in this sense, I am NOT my mother’s daughter. I can still embroider to this day, and I have taught one of my daughters how (she also loves it!) We also made hooked rugs this year. Popsie’s was peach and mine was aqua. We were so surprised that Mrs. Estaniel came through with our unusual yarn color requests.

China and I always got to play together after school, because we would go straight to the Chat Peypoch Studio. Our mothers had a PX business together there. China, I know I promised you in Grade 3, that I would never tell anyone our secrets. Well guess what? I will never tell, because for once, I can’t remember what those secrets are anymore!

You did break one of my secrets in Grade 3, but I still love you anyway. One day, while playing at the studio, my mom discovered that I had….kuto! Que horror! She grabbed me and my sis and we ran across the street to Realistic Beauty Salon to have our hair CHOPPED OFF. I made you PROMISE China, not to tell anyone what happened, but… either you did, or Popsie figured it out the next day in school. Are your ears really red now, China? Good, cause I’m sitting here laughing my head off telling everyone my big Grade 3 secret. You escaped the kuto probably because you hair was already short, lucky you. But SOMEONE in that 3rd grade class gave me the kuto. Whoever you are, well.....I hope it’s gone by now!

It might not have been China’s fault really. It was hard to get anything past Popsie. It still is right, people on the velada committee? One day I wasn’t feeling so good so my mom put a bottle of Polymagma in my lunch box and told me to drink a teaspoon every few hours. I tried to be discreet, when I went out to my lunchbox (they were on a shelf outside the windows, remember?) But Popsie noticed and wanted to know why, and of course she checked out the bottle. I was hoping she would not know what Polymagma was for. Of course she did.

You all know by now that Popsie = Milky Way = Food. Well in Grade 3, she brought in this special sarap kind of brownie that we called “food from the gods.” I can't forget, cause I never tasted that ever before. Well, I haven’t stopped tasting it since.

Grade 3 was also when Martial Law got declared (September 21, 1972.) China’s mom and my mom were on their way to Hong Kong that very morning when they got turned back at the airport. Travel ban! Vina and I were so upset, because all our bilins would not get bought. Little did we know that should have been the least of our worries. I am not sure if this really happened anymore, but did they teach us to seek cover under our desks that year? I know my dad taught us to duck in the car. To get to school, we had to travel through parts of Manila where there could be gulo. He said that if he ever yelled “Duck,” we were to dive down under the seats and not come up until he said it was okay. We even practiced a few times. Vina and I would of course, say “quack, quack, quack” and giggle while we were down under, not realizing the direness of such a situation, if it happened.

Miss Ramos was our reading teacher. One day, we were reading a piece from our American textbook, and the piece happened to have a song called America. Of course, none of us knew the tune to it, except Gia Maramba, who had previously lived in the States. So Miss Ramos asked her to stand and sing, and I can still hear her voice:
My country ‘tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty
Of thee I sing...
Little did I know that one day that country would be my home.

At the end of the school year, we had our usual musical presentation in the auditorium. For once, it did not just involve my putting on a nice party dress as costume. Actually, I think I had three numbers to change for but one of my costumes, my favorite ever, was for Mr. Banjo (Look at that fine young man, Mr. Banjo...) China and I were in it together. We had to wear black pants, a black vest, a white shirt, a black top hat and a cane. Just a few years ago, I could still remember and sing the songs we sang for glee club that year. That was the last year I ever joined glee club, and probably the last time I ever voluntarily wanted to sing in public. No, I don't think I was bad, I could sing then. Just don't remember why I quit.

That summer, China's family and mine went to Baguio. My Zosa cousins came too. We stayed at an inn owned by the family of Rowena Alonzo, a year ahead of us. All I remember is that we had FUN.

PREP and Grade 1

Shortly after my cousin Gia was born in April 1971, on my lola's desk, I found an Assumption enrollment form for Prep 1976. I asked my lola why, and she said, "I also enrolled you for Prep right after you were born." She did that for all four grandaughters who were born in her lifetime. Thus, it was sometime in 1964, and not 1969, that my career at Assumption actually began.

My Prep Memories 1969-1970: Popsie Gamboa was my first friend ever. On the first day of school, our moms who were friends in college, introduced us. The rest is history. In 1999, Popsie came to visit me and gave me a pearl necklace. Why? Cause we had been friends for 30 years, so pearls. Wow! I treasure that necklace and not just cause I love pearls. My other friend from Prep, and still to this day, is Vivian Honorio. Vivian and I ended up living in Chicago in the mid 80's and have kept in touch ever since. Now there's your "to the grave" secret stories, right Vivs?

Back to Prep, our teacher's name was Miss Connie Gomez. Our classroom was the last one in the floor, and right outside was the Assumption zoo, with the monkey named Valentino. We were just around the corner from Mother Martha's office and the school clinic. Our music teacher was Miss Dulcecilia de Vera and our P.E. teacher was Miss Rizal (actually related to Jose) who later became Mrs. Casacop. My lunchbox was Dawn. I used to treat my lunchboxes badly, to my regret. I looked it up on Ebay recently. Wow. You try it, look up your old lunchboxes.

My Grade 1 Memories: Our teacher's name was Miss Alegre. I liked her so much I invited her to my 7th birthday party at the end of the school year and she came! Our mistress of class was Mother Rose Peter and for some reason, for part of the year it was also Mother Vicenta. My lunchbox was Super Laugh-In. I remember that Peachie Gonzalez was also my friend. One day at recess, Peachie and I were running after each other. This scene in my mind is precious, because years later, Peachie got poise, and a lot of it, so now it's hard to picture her running around. Plus, in Grade 1, Peachie's hairdo was...a fountain! Don't kill me now PGU. You were cute. Okay, so back to recess. Running around, I ran smack into a 3rd Grader and she dropped her merengue on the ground. It was Elvira Mesina, older sister of our classmate Felicia. I was terrified! She looked at us with her big round eyes and she was so mad, so we just ran away. Then recess was over and we had to line up and wait our turn to climb the stairs back to class. They had monitors every few steps and if you were not walking up properly, you would be turned back to go down the stairs and start all over again. Nakakahiya, diba? Everyone behind you would see that you got turned back. Well of course, on that day, one of the monitors was ELVIRA. I was trembling that she would see me and make me turn back. She did not but I was afraid of her since then. Of course, in the 1980s, I met her in New York. No longer terrified, I told her the story. We laughed so much about it, especially since she did not even remember the incident AT ALL! I haven't run into her in a while, but everytime I see a piece of merengue, I have to laugh!

My awful Grade 1 memory: I was a day-boarder, meaning the school prepared lunch for me. I was inggit of the picnic lunchers so one day, I asked my mom to make me a baon. She did, it was fried chicken and rice. Well guess what, she forgot to put in utensils, so I think I cried. Peachie tried to save the day, and wanted to lend me hers, but I don't think I agreed cause then she took me to look for my lola in the high school lunch area. I don't remember what happened anymore other than I never wanted to picnic lunch again and today, I am very careful when I make my daughters' baon so they never have traumatic fried chicken lunches.

There are so many faces in our Grade 1 picture, classmates who left Assumption and did not come back. I still wonder where and how they are: Marissa Laurel (now known as Iwi), Mia Roces, Mirza Alfelor, among others. There was also an American girl named Tamara who was with us for a few months while her dad worked at Shell Oil (how do I remember that?)

Seated, left to right:

Bottom row: Teresa Hernandez, Corinna Abarri, Katrina Aquino, Mirza Alfelor

2nd Row: Jojo Reyes, Peachie Gonzalez, Belen Alon, Eileen Alikpala

3rd Row: China Reyes; Milen Batungbacal, Mary Ann Ignacio, Diane Pardo

4th Row: Tamara ?, Leah Montinola, Jackie Bustamante, Popsie Gamboa

Standing in front of the planter: Maridol Dilag, Chinggay Evangelista, Marga Rellosa

Standing against wall on the left, moving up and to the right: Christine Carlos, Cristina Ramos, Mafe Quimson, Pureza Marifosque, Marianna Unson, Teresa Borja, Monica Francisco, Mia Roces, Angela Quirino, Vivian Honorio, Marilyn Santiago, Marisa Laurel, Felicia Mesina

One of my funniest Grade 1 memories is of...the cabinet falling on Vivian! I know she won't kill me for telling this because we still laugh about it when we get the chance to chat. I think it involved girls just running around and running around like Diane Pardo, Felicia Mesina, Peachie, Vivian, and myself until that cabinet falls, and Vivian is on the ground lying still. Well, we all know she turned out okay after that mishap (or so we think!) Speaking of Diane, I remember distinctly that I learned the term "Indian giver" from her in Grade 1. Don't remember why, just that she explained it to us. In this age of political correctness, when we can't really use that term anymore, I sometimes use it in my head, and think of Diane.

One of my best Grade 1 memories is my 7th birthday party cause so many of you were there: Vivian, Maridol Dilag (hitting the pot on the left), Teresa Hernandez, Teresa Borja, Chinggay Evangelista (our husbands are now good friends in NY), Marilyn Santiago (distant cousin of my husband), Marga Relloza (we became classmates again in UP), Corinna Abarri, Popsie and sister Gina Gamboa.

Another birthday party I remember is Popsie's and I think it was in Grade 1. Her birthday fell on a weekday so after school, her mom sent a coaster to pick up the entire class and we all went to their house in San Miguel. I remember that we had so much fun going up and down all the floors plus, our loot bag that day was a chain of candy (cellophane with candy tied inside like sausage links.) For many birthdays after that, Popsie's mom would send boxes of chocolate bars to school. Each girl would get an entire Cadbury bar or something like that. Yum. I should blame my loving chocolates on Tita Julie.

Typing this now, I realize that a lot of my Grade 1 memories involve Peachie. And it gets worse, because after Grade 1, she left and moved to San Lorenzo. That was awful, I remember. I can still see Tita Aguing telling my mom that San Lo was just so much nearer their house than Herran was. Peachie invited me to her birthday party in 2nd Grade and I was happy, even if all the other kids were from San Lo. One kid I remember in particular was Elsa Almeda. At first she was wearing a peasant dress like the rest of us. Then later it was hotpants and boots, and she was doing cartwheels all over the place. So Mariels, that was my first memory of you. Haven't bumped into you in years but I think you are still in NY/NJ somewhere. Send me a note when you get the chance.

The Madre Mystique

Maybe it was just because I am third generation Assumption girl, after my mom (HS 1957) and my lola (HS 1936) or maybe because my lola was a teacher there, that we were close to the madres.

Growing up, I remember the “foreign” nuns, and we addressed them as Mother: Mother Immaculada, Mother Veronique, Mother Marthe. There were also the homegrown nuns like Mother Estella Infante, her sisters Mother Rose Peter and Sister Carla Teresa. There was also Mother Milagros. I got into trouble big time with her – she kissed me and I wiped it off, how ill mannered of me. I got a super scolding from lola but I loved Mother Milagros anyway. She passed away a few years ago, still devoted to Assumption in San Simon, Pampanga. There was Mother Bernarda who disappeared and left for Africa when I was a young girl. Last I heard, she’s still there. Mother Estella was co-principal with my lola and later went on to be Provincial of the Assumption. She made the most beautiful scrapbook for us after my lola died, made up of the pictures that were under the glass on her desk. I still think of that scrapbook. There was also Mother Esperanza, and Mother Angela, and Mother Carmen, and Mother Remedios, and Mother Rosario, and Mother Mercedes. Many of these nuns have passed on, I just don’t know for sure, which ones, so I dare not even try.

At some point in time, we made the shift from calling them “Mother” to “Sister.” I never knew exactly why. Mother Carolina became Sister Carolina to us. I know she passed on a few years ago, may she rest in peace. Then there was Sister Rita Imelda, Sister Gertrude, Sister Regivic. I had Mother Teresa Consuelo in Grade 3, and she is now known as Pinky Poblador. Yes, the Assumption lost many of its younger nuns to the larger society extramuros: Mother Martha became Mrs. Remia Bacaling Evaristo. Mother Jude Mary is Carmen "Pinky" Valdes of San Francisco, CA. Mother Joan Frances is now Mrs. Ann Marie Carlos in Chicago, IL. Sister Araceli is now Araceli Suzara, also somewhere in Illinois. Sister Mary Grace is Mary Grace Montelibano at the United Nations in NY.

How did I keep track of them all? Well that is the fault of my mother, who tends to look for Assumption nuns anywhere she is, and she makes sure my sis and I know who is where and what and makes us call them (which, I have to admit, we are not very good at complying with.)

When we were younger, we used to wonder if the nuns were really kalbo, as rumor had it. So we kept trying to make silip Sr. Rose Peter in Grade 1, and observed she had wisps of hair coming out of her veil. We thought maybe she was allowed, because she was just a postulant then. Speaking of Sr. Rose Peter, our family got invited to her final vows, I think it was in Antipolo Church. It was quite a moving and beautiful ceremony, as she became the bride of Christ, but not enough to move me to ever desire donning the purple habit myself. I think I steeled myself to reject such notions at an early age since I had this line “Monique, will you be one of us someday?” whispered in my ear one time too many by one of the nuns (Mother Milagros, forgive me, but I think it was you.)

We used to wonder as children if they ever took their veils off, if they wore nightgowns to sleep just like the rest of us, how hot it got under that habit, if they were allowed to use deodorant and shampoo, if they missed their own families while they lived in the convent. I don’t think I ever discovered the answers to those questions and maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe the answers to the mysteries should only be given to those who actually say yes to the “calling.”

Now I can tell you they are not bald. They don’t even wear veils anymore, how shocking is that! (Don’t know how it is in Manila, over here, no more veils.) And this side of the globe, the “habit” is a purple suit jacket and skirt! Last May, I attended the ordination of one of my cousins in Philadelphia, such a rare occasion nowadays. To my delight, coming out of the church, I spotted eggplant and lo and behold, two Assumption nuns in attendance: Sister Cecilia Hervas and Sister Loreto Mapa. We had a nice time saying hello and chatting after all these years at the luncheon that followed. Of course, now that I have seen them bareheaded, my inquiring mind still wants to know if they use rollers or blow dryers, or ever use Clairol to cover the gray…

So after years of thinking I was tired of Assumption (could not wait to get out of there, was arrogant enough to not even apply to Assumption College), I realized I missed that purple habit. The purple habit is a good habit.