�� As we ambled along on the way to town Jimmy and I kept winking at each other and did not even dare ask our little friend if he wanted us to take over. By the way our friend's name is Goyon. I have not kept in touch with him for over 50 years so I really do not know whether he is still in the land of the living.
Anyway on with the story. We sold the bottles and made just enough money to go to the movies or pictures as Aussies call it. It so happened that the movie that was on show was a whole serial and if you don't know what a whole serial is it would be the equivalent of a marathon movie much like a lot of tv serials collected into one whole marathon. So we� decided to see the movie. Meantime Mama and Papa started to get worried. Pretty soon according to Mum the older brother of Goyon came and was also worried because he did not come home. So a search party was formed by Goyon's older brother and as we were coming out of the theatre past midnight and as it is typical of kids who have seen a lot of action we were busy retelling each other about the exciting parts of the show. Pretty soon a gang of men came towards us and we got worried we wouldget mugged until Goyon recognized his brother. A collective sigh of relief
�� We were promptly dispatched for home and the parting words of Goyon's older brother to my Mum was:"Don't give them money to go to the movies anymore.!"
" But ",Mum answered. "We never gave them any money. They sold a sackful of empty bottles and went to the moves with the proceeds."
�� To this day I marvel at our sheer resourcefulness.
I have another brother named Don and a sister, by the way, the only sister Maribel. As you can see in the front page photo� they are the little imps.. Just a little trivia. Don just confessed to me the last time he called me from the good old country, the Philippines that in this photo there is something very special, namely, that he did not take a bath or shower for five weeks. And would you believe then that poor little Maribel who is holding the beautiful flower is trying to face the other direction. Can you guess why she has her nose turned away?
noticeable limp which popular legend handed down by word of mouth that he fell from one of those box cars used to transport people from a low area to a much higher altitude. Anyway, on with the Goyon story. As we were on our way to the pool I explained to Goyon that I couldn't swim. I knew that he was a good swimmer because I had actually seen him swim like a fish in a small pool of water just above his house on a hill.
"Oh." I can teach you. It's so easy."
With his words I ventured forward reassured that nothing much would happen except that we would be having the fun of our lives. As we neared the pool, we saw a lot of other boys jumping in and out of the water. Shouts punctuated the air and I said to myself while watching them jump in and out with ease that swimming was no effort at all and that all it needed was to jump in the water and start moving your arms up and down. Pretty soon we took off our clothes and Goyon jumped in while I still wavered on the edge of the water hole.
"Comon in, comon in, egged Goyon and before I knew it I jumped into the pool. I started to follow the example of the other boys and started flapping my arms like a bird and hoping that I would float. Alas, I started to sink and worse still to swallow galons and galons of water. I really thought that was the end. I was at first bobbing in and out but pretty soon I was sinking to the bottom of the water hole. This is really the end I kept repeating to myself and then out of nowhere I felt a strong push and another push and then another push. I thoiught it was a big man pushing me towards the bank .It was Goyon to the reescue. Soon the other boys helped lift me out of the water and I lay on the bank coughing out all the galons of water I swallowed. It was'nt a pretty sight at all. Thanks to Goyon I am still alive and that is the reason he stands out as a giant in my boyhood . As I mentioned in my earlier story about our venture in selling bottles, Goyon was a very tiny person, one who would easily have succeeded as a jockey if he wanted to, and yet inspite of this lack of physical stature he stands out as the giant in my boyhood. You see now why I have included him in this sort of reminiscing exercise.
