UP High '73. What a beautiful batch, and successful too. Looking at all these pictures being sent to me and reading what we've become, I really am beaming with pride that I belong to this wonderful collection of eclectic and motivated people. I really wish I could be with everyone during the meetings and the reunions - but with cyberspace bringing everyone closer and with Susan Ceballos-Aguilar organizing us here in the US, it seemed like I never lost contact - even if it's about 12 years since I last talked to anyone from the batch.
This is my own personal history of UP High batch '73. A lot of what I am relating is true, but a lot is peppered with fantasies. It is true that as time goes by, the beautiful experiences get to be remembered through rosier glasses. So what ... high school was a lot of learning, some events were painful and disastrous, most were pleasant ... but most of all, it was f*cking fun.
First Year - 1969-1970
Fifth Dimension - Aquarius/Let the Sunshine (1969/
We came to UP High 140 plus strong after hurdling a tough entrance test and interview. The majority of us shone in the test and got in without a hitch but a few were in the waiting list but got in nevertheless. We were from all walks of life, from the cities and from the provinces. Many of us were friends and classmates from the UP Elementary School, sons and daughters of UP personnel and felt at home right from the start. Some of us came alone from other schools and took a little time to find same-minded friends and blend in with the crowd. A few of us just didn't blend in, no matter what. And especially those of us who came from exclusive schools, the United States, or the provinces, our kind had a hard time adjusting because we were looked at as freaks as we spoke differently from the rest of us. (Remember Kep Line from Willie Pacheco?)
I belonged to the last group - my father, who was a professor at UP College of Engineering at that time (he is now retired), yanked me out of my blissful existence in the bucolic town of Malinao in Aklan (left) to live with him in the big city so I can get a better education. The day after my graduation ceremonies from the Malinao Elementary (accent on the 5th syllable please) School, I was whisked off on to a plane bound for Manila in order for me to take the UP High entrance test the following day. I didn't even have time to say goodbye to my friends - or prepare for the exam. I didn't even know I was to take a test! All I knew was that I was going to be enrolled in UP High where my two elder brothers went. Which wasn't what I wanted in the first place because I already hurdled the first screening test for Philippine Science and really wanted to go there (hey, who wouldn't, with allowance and all ..).
The next morning, still dazed and confused after a sleepless night on a new bed and a new room at our house in UP Campus, I was dropped off at UP High by my father, early to take the entrance test. I don't even remember the test at all - was there a test or an interview? or both? All I remember was that, after the exam, going home on the bus (since no one picked me up and my father entrusted me to some family friend's daughters, the younger of whom also took the exam), I was still in la-la land that I missed my bus stop and became very scared (and shy) even to say para!. Good thing someone got off at the stop in front of the UP Cooperative, so I was able to get off the bus. Needless to say, I walked the long way toward home.
I was a wreck.
A few days later (weeks? months?) I went back to UP High to get the test results - I remember it was a very peppy teacher who turned out to be Mrs. Teodoro who gave out the results for my alphabetical grouping and the guy in line before me was Joel Paredes. I didn't know him that time of course, but I remember him because, well, if you saw Joel then, you were bound to remember as you can see in the picture (left). He came out of the room smiling and showing a thumbs up to his mom who was waiting outside.
I was very nervous going into the room and waiting while Mrs. Teodoro looked for my index card. What if I didn't pass? What if I passed and she asked me difficult questions in the interview? What if she asked me to recite a poem and I didn't know any in English? Or sing perhaps? My fears were unfounded though. I didn't pass. (I felt so terrible.) I was on the waiting list though, like number 134 or something (they accepted 120 students for the freshman class). Quite close. Mrs. Teodoro said that I probably would get in because they usually have more than 20 who decline acceptance. She said to come during last day of registration and check.
Last day of registration, I went back to UP High. I had to. I didn't pass the second screening for Philippine Science High either. I had no choice but to enrol in UP. Either that or Ramon Magsaysay High School in Cubao (as my brothers teased me). I found out I was in though. I didn't even have to hustle as others did. (It turned out it didn't matter, because as a child of UP personnel, I was in, as a matter of courtesy, and the test was a just a formality. Or so it seemed). I was assigned to section 1-D.
Section 1-D was a racuous bunch - composed mostly of people who knew each other from UP Elem and were neighborhood kids in Area 1, 2 or 3. Karl Lesaca. Noel Lazaro. Boy Lometillo. Alex Albao. Edward Abriol-Santos. I don't have to say anything about them don't I? It was chaos when there weren't any teachers in the room. Or even with a teacher in the room. The stereotypical high school class - people talking, chewing gum, paper air planes flying ... as I heard Noel Lazaro distinctly say ... "Piyesta na naman!"
I was a shy kid in first year - well - first of all, I was little - the smallest in class I think, I was slight, and I had a Visayan accent - which alone was enough reason to be ridiculed. I became so insecure with my speech that I didn't speak for awhile in class recitations. In spite of this though, I bonded immediately with Dodong Luna and Stella del Castillo on one hand and on the other with Cas Flores and for awhile with Ildefonso Carado (whom I met the first day in the multi assembly). Stella and Dodong was in my English group, I believe, and both were really outspoken. We had to do some report - so Stella became our spokesman. It dreaded it because when it was my turn to speak - as I said, I spoke with a decidedly Visayan accent (which I didn't know by that time of course), people were laughing at me.
It was torture.
But short-lived. Two or three weeks later, a few of us were 'promoted' to 1-B. Didn't know why. It was even scarier for me in 1-B - as people there were super duper intelligent and everyone spoke English like natives. My provincial training was no match for them (nor was my Visayan accent). I excelled in Pilipino though (under Mrs. Manacsa) inspite of being Visayan, and it clearly became my favorite subject (reading Pilipino komiks and going to Tagalog movies back in the province really helped, although I didn't dare to mention that I did because these activities were considered bakya) along with Practical Arts under Mr. Villanueva where I excelled in drawing and lettering. Health I loathed, not because I didn't understand Health nor that I was not healty enough. The teacher, Miss Baltazar was absolutely prejudiced and had clear favorites in class (Eddie Santos and Corinna Salgado). I couldn't get a good grade in recitation even when my answers were similar to Eddie's or in quizzes no matter what. When it was time for us to give oral reports, she basically just raved over Eddie whom she assigned to deliver first, especially that Eddie spoke flawless English. It was so obvious. She was a little bit disappointed with Corinna though (who she saved for last) because she was indicisive in her delivery.
But inspite of Miss Baltazar, she with the thick make up and pencilled eyebrows, 1-B was fun. Miss Eleanor Hermosa, our homeroom adviser and English teacher was very innovative and caring. She had us bring in baby pictures and posted them up on the bulletin board (mine was the most popular, I must say). She had us do critiques on art work (come on, we were first year, for Christ's sake - I did one on an Amorsolo painting which merited a B+!) and oral book reports on classical literature (I did Gulliver's Travels which was very difficult to understand - especially the politics of it). Then we had a field trip to a movie - Wuthering Heights in Quezon Theater. It must have been a nightmare ushering us to a movie. And we had a swimming pool party at Sammy Aherrera's home in Greenhills. I thought that was the coolest experience of all, although cool was not in my vocabulary then (or maybe it was). I knew how to swim (ah, the swimming hole in the river of my youth) while others were just learning. And the people in 1-B were really nice, come to think of it - Je-el C., Ruth B., Peachy C. (I think), Mo O., Tito Geotina, Jose Luna Castro, Egay Manaois, Gigi Buendia, to name a few who I remember. Too bad I don't have any pictures of this period. Maybe Sammy could dig out those his dad took during the swimming pool party. (Sammy, if you reading this, send me copies so I could post!)
Next semester was another upheaval. I was getting to be comfortable in my niche in 1-B when we got shuffled again. This time, I was assigned to I-112 under Miss de Villa. It was okay though - I got reunited with former classmates in 1-D and some of us were from 1-B so it wasn't a big readjustment that much. ALTHOUGH I could honestly say that those of us who came from 1-B felt like we were nalugi because most of the 1-B people were now in the star section, a new designation for the top 30 students who were lumped in I-208. The reshuffling in the middle of the year made us to to feel that we were not good enough and the subjects we were taking in I-112 were like remedial classes. It felt like it anyway.
Section I-112
I-112 was a blur. I do remember I got to hang out with Boboy Marasigan and some other kids like Mariano Abadilla, Glenn Ramirez and Zosimo Espanto, but especially Boboy. The highlight of this semester was our field trip to Baguio. During our free period (when we weren't being hauled off to see the sights), we went to the market on our own, then to Burnham Park and did the boat thing - this was when I got to know Raul Tapia who was not in my section at all (he was in 1-C I think, then in the star section). He went off with us to galivant. We were specifically told not to ride the horses, but ride we did - and the horse I was on - fell, and I promptly broke my arm. Oh well. I don't remember telling our teachers. Maybe we did.
Raul Tapia
Back in the lowlands in school a few weeks, months, whatever later, I got called to the principal's office for the first time in my life - and the first among the many times I got called in. Because Boboy kicked and broke an already broken window pane in the men's room in 2nd pav when he was practicing his karate moves and I was a witness. There was a huge sound of glass breaking that was heard all the way to 4th pav. Mrs. Roque (talk about luck, huh?) saw me running out of the men's room, so I was the one who was hauled off to the Mrs. Pineda's office like a scared cat - to explain (Come on little boy, come with me to the office). I told the truth. And Boboy had to pay a princely sum to replace the already broken glass.
I also remember PE class - I think it was this semester - when PE was track and field, and in the first and only meeting, the instructor who I think was Mr. Dagdag, asked us to run from the UP Oval to the UP golf course (at Butterfly restaurant) and back. When we came back to the oval about an hour later, many of us were exhausted and oxygen deprived, and Mr. Dagdag wasn't anywhere to be seen. For the finals, we were ask to run the oval under 4 minutes or some ridiculous short time. I barely made it.
Lastly (well, for now), I remember also that during the first year, we were given some kind of aptitude test toward sex. The people who gave the test were not from UPHIgh - probably some PhD candidate from the College of Education or something - they had these ancient bottles of pickled body parts which we were supposed to identify. The test I remember was in English and it was multiple choice. I do not think I got any of the answers. I mean, I didn't know the equivalent of titi (which was in the first jar, it seemed) in English then. And I don't think my classmates knew either. It was so stupid - how would we know - when we didn't even know the formal terms of these taboo parts in the vernacular? Maybe if they conducted the test in street Tagalog, I'm sure many of us would have aced the test. In my case, I would have done it in a jiffy if it were in Visayan.
After that, it was summer and I went home to Aklan to reunite with my provincial friends and resume my bucolic life, if only for a few weeks.
To be continued ... 2nd year!
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