> An affair
to remember
Words escape me, now that I want to share with you all that I felt
during and after those three, seemingly endless, days of our 2006
AdeN-CSI TIRIPON (Feb. 10-12). That it was a rip-roaring success
is an understatement! That sweet memories were recalled and made
once more cannot be denied. That it helped us all realize the
priceless beauty of lasting Friendship and the endless,
unexpected, and miraculous ‘twists of fate’, just has to be taken
as a part of everyone’s individual, let’s just call it,
‘destinies’.
To narrate the various ‘happenings’ on a blow-by-blow basis would
indeed be tedious and boring since the excitement was more on how
the personalities involved interacted and related to each other,
some after the first 2001 Reunion, and some, if not most, after 40
years, or right after High School Graduation! Seeing a high-school
classmate like Bobby Berina turning up to be also a Doctor after a
40 year hiatus indeed is a sweet shock that reminds us that there
really is nothing impossible on God’s good earth! A shock which, I
was told later, some classmates also felt upon learning that I,
the class ‘magician’ (now you see him, now you don’t!), also
turned up to be an M.D., despite all the odds!
Meeting old (and not so old) classmates after years was also even
an experience in itself. At first I simply kept up my disarming
smile while at the same time thinking fast and scanning my past
recorded memory for the high school faces I had stored only to
come up with just a lousy 30% batting average! It thus came to the
point that I just had to come up with a crude question like: ‘by
the way, what’s your name again?’! Hardly a pick-up line that
could work wonders for all the girls we might’ve loved before!
Sosmaryosep! A compadre, Ramon Lee, who I last saw when he stood,
together with Goyo Castilla and Gene Bona, as one of the sponsors
in the Baptism of my son, Bong, who was just married to Hanna
Sabando, Goyo’s niece, last December, suddenly turned up, still
with some islands of hair in between widening gaps of clear water
seeping in from the front! The baritone, radio announcer’s voice
of Ernie Verdadero, easily made his presence felt. Hearing him
coming made us feel more secure as the Eco Village was his domain,
obtained, thru the graces of our young and sharp Governor, El Ray
Villafuerte.
The Colegialas, for their part, usually came just as soon as the
sun went down. They, with their ocean wide ‘monster hips’ and
randomly distributed rich ‘fatty deposits’, would, usually,
announce their coming with the clang of the stainless steel food
containers that gradually conditioned us boys to salivate at the
sound of their voices and the sight of their cavernous waists! The
only noted exceptions and ‘saving graces’, if you can call them
that, after all these years, and as far as I can remember, were
Connie Centenera-Bichara, who stood out like an older version of
Bo Derek, Cynthia Antonio, who still oozed with some traces of her
youthful sex appeal, Celeste Sicam-Mueller, who still exuded some
of her repressed youthful impish grace, Sonia Meneses-Mendoza, who
was, as usual, regal and reserved like a queen, and Penny
Punzalan-Asinas, who permeated the place with her calculated
coolness!
During the whole affair, a sort of battle cry was coined by Tony
Martires, and well seconded by King Pasilaban, Kid Requejo, Ric
Palanca, Nap Coner, Toots Perez, Kent Cavite, Vic Rey, Don Nabua,
Manny Disuanco, Jimmy Dumalasa, Lindo Tordilla, Rudy Fajardo, Boy
Claro, Tony Adupe, Melvin Arquillo, George Caudilla, Manny Magadia,
Denny Ferrer, Pedro Hife, Roger Ordas, Gabby Pilapil, Felix Prado,
Jimmy Rapi, Vic Sumalabe, Cyril Tena, Manny Claveria, Anting
Saltarin, Jimmy Malazarte, Romy Nolasco, Benny Rueda, Lito Balaag,
Marianito Abella, Gogo de Luna, and Gus Victoria, just to name
those I could remember before my brain swam in a sea of beer and
alcohol! A battle cry which Tony shouted on top of his lungs
everytime we ran out of spirits, and which goes like this in
Bicol: “arak paaah”! Sosmaryosep! You can just imagine how our
livers and kidneys are right now! Fatty Livers we must now have
cheaper by the dozen! Emphysema, and ulcers must be on their way
too, not to mention heart disease, so much so that I have gone
ahead and coined a battle cry for our projected 2011 Golden
Reunion, also in Bicol: “Si bulooong ko!”
Yes, TIRIPON 2006 was indeed a resounding success, but not without
the self-less efforts of just retired U.S. Navy man, Joe Vallejo
and the CSI ladies who helped, like: Gilda Balcueva, Amy Guevara,
Delia Guinhawa, Telly Abella, Tita Caoile, Cecile Sto. Domingo,
Bituin Torte, Nelia Lim, and Francie Perez. Five more years to the
young ones is but a fleeting moment, but to us ‘young once’, it
will seem like an eternity. So until 2011, I guess we just have to
trust and place our Fate and Faith in Him, and do what must be
done to make this place a much better place to live in.
