My Childhood Days

I know these photos will bring laughs to those who didn't know how I looked when I was a child, or those who have forgotten how WE looked then.

All these first five photos show me as being a consistent honor student all my elementary life. But that doesn't mean that my childhood was confined to books. Actually I was so fond of reading komiks then, and I was always roaming around with my girl friends, oftentimes under the searing heat of the sun (which was probably why I developed my tan color), I was not spared by nits and lice (my mother and aunt would spend hours getting them off m hair!). I would even visit regularly the stream near our house, make toys out of the leaves...I was very much a typical child. I was not aware of the full implication of being on top of the class.

These are some of my class pictures then in the humble Bagong Pag-asa Elementary School, a public one. Ms. Manaloto had been on of my favorite teachers -- so soft-spoken, yet could effectively teach her students. Another teacher who made an impression was Mrs. Morales, who taught me to try to excel in subjects where I was good at, and that included her subject, Music. That lesson she told me during a practice session where she was asking me to play by oido using my bandurria a folk song, Sampaguita.