Third year 1971-72
I wish I could remember third year. I do, but only a smidgen. And the events I did
remember
and wrote about, I lost. The file, that is. So this one is a reconstruction of my
third year retrospective journal. It's not as great as the original, but it will
suffice. If I find the file again, I will upload it, and take this one out. But this
is ok.
All I could say about third year is, it was a blur. My memories of this year seemed
to have blended with the fourth
year but I do remember some important events in our lives that year.
The country was in turmoil. Student activism was escalating and there were rumors that
communists were overtaking the country. That may have been the year when they caught
that shipment of arms in Palanan, Isabela. Culturally, bomba movies were still the
rage, even in first run movie theaters. Movies like The Language of Love, a
European import ran in Grand Theater in Cubao for months! I remember this very well
because I couldn't get into the theater at all - they were very strict. But I remember
Joe Malanyaon telling us that he saw it ---. He just arranged his hair like an afro
so he could look mature enough to go in. And now he is a doctor.
My third year, I was assigned to 3-412. The star section. My blossoming nerdiness finally bore fruit and was rewarded by being promoted to the star section. Yippee. 3-412 was under Charok, Mrs. Roque. Scary. But, to tell you the truth, that time, it was really an accomplishment. There were only three of us who rose up from the lower ranks - Patsy Alejandro, Erwin Dizon and me - all from 2-22. Patsy even cried of her accomplishment, I think. Miss Dana Manalad was very proud of that fact when I told her so.
It was another
adjustment period for me to be moved into a different environment - but since I knew most of the people in the class - many were
from 1-B during my first year, the adjustment was not that big a deal. Except that I
had to study more. Which I hated of course. I mean, in second year, I really did not
exert that much effort and I was getting good grades. In 3-412, I had to compete
to stay alive.
I missed my friends in 2-22. I lost a 2-22 friend due to my new found status - I became so mayabang na raw because I went up the ranks, that he refused to talk to me ever since. Actually, it stemmed from the fact that I didn't give them any tips for the first Biology exam - our class took ours earlier and they sort of expected me to leak questions to them. What are friends for. I didn't. I was too honest to do that. So one of them refused to speak to me after that. Even if the questions were different. Oh well, that's the price you have to pay for success I guess.
I bonded readily with Raul Tapia whom I knew from first year during the
Baguio trip and Jose Castro who was in 1-B three years before. I remember him to be a
very
good writer and crazy for the Carpenters
when we were in first year. He was still in
crazy about them during the third year. In fact told me of a dream he had about him
in the audience during a Carpenters concert.
While star section was generally serious, there were quite a few eccentrics in class
too. Ramon
Sicam and Senen Perlada were always singing and playing tricks. Their favorite then
was the hit song If by Bread. They sang it over and over again, accompanying themselves
with a guitar. They were good though. Now I can't shake that song off my head. I also remember we
were doing a report on health - this may have been 4th year for all I care - but I
distinctly remember that Senen reported on sexually transmitted diseases and he
described the transmission very explicitly - the teacher stopped him from going on
further. I thought that was hilarious.
I also remember - English class - Miss de la Cueva - 1 o'clock pm. She
was always late when it was raining. Why do you think we nicknamed her as you
know what? We could be cruel. One particular day, it was drizzling a little
bit, she was late as usual. There was a rule - not sure if it is written or
unwritten - but
the rule stated that if the teacher was 15 minutes late, then the class would be
dismissed. About ten minutes after 1 pm, she was still not in - so we locked the
doors of the classroom and kept very still inside. She came, tried to get in the
first door but couldn't. We heard her try the second door, but couldn't open it
as well.
She finally gave up. We didn't have class that afternoon, it goes without saying.
And we were supposed to be the star section, under Mrs. Roque! One more thing, we
used to ace Miss de la Cueva's tests which was multiple choice because we figured out
the pattern to the answers.
aabb bbaa abba baab ... or something symmetrical like that. I remember that there
was an inquisition about this, like she accused us of cheating or something. Of course
we told her. She said it was not intentional. Yeah right. Later, so much later when
I was teaching in college, I was almost tempted to do the same thing too ... I hate
correcting papers and having symmetrical answers made them easy to grade.
Home economics class was fun. For some reason Mrs. Roque, who was a known terror in school, mellowed a little bit during our year. She even told ribald jokes one time. Which was really funny because she told one when she was very mad at us - she heard someone telling jokes while she was conducting the class. So she went off to her famous lectures and said something like, I also know and understand jokes and can tell them myself. So she told the joke about a maid asking to make bati her senorito's eggs ... Que horror! From Mrs. Roque!
We
had monthly theme lunch parties in Home Economics - and we cooked the food ourselves.
I distinctly remember - for February - she wanted a Valentine's theme party - and
wanted everything heart-shaped. She stipulated that we have mango juice too.
Somebody commented from the
back, ooops that was me actually ... heart-shaped too. She didn't like that
at all.
Oh, and they instituted electives during the second semester. It was a new tack in our high
school curriculum. How fun! Everyone took
Advance Math and Calculus or something. Raul and I took typing. Eddie Santos and a
few others took
music. Guess who benefited most from the electives? Raul and I were typing term
papers the next year for a fee. Heh-heh.
And some form of student activism became accepted in school finally. That year, the
fate of the national
language would be decided in the constitutional convention at the Manila Hotel. We
went
to demonstrate in support of making Pilipino THE national language.
We made some placards to raise while we were in the gallery. I don't remember if we
did though. I think they did not discuss the fate of language at all. When we were
there, they were discussing divorce. Maybe we were late or something.
That was very brave though and we have to thank Bb. Jorda in encouraging and supporting us to participate. After that, 4 or 5 of us - including Richie, Gigi, Oliver, and Meldin (Boyet may have been with us too) went to Luneta to look at the sights. It was our first time in many years to be in Luneta and we had a great time.
Third year was also the time when I got called again to the principal's office. This
time it was about bomba movies.
Raul and I had seen a few soft-core movie at Circle Theater and told our classmates
about them. Of course if they wanted to see hard core ones, I casually told them
that they could see one with me as I've been regulary watching them.
So one Saturday afternoon after PMT, a bunch of us went to El Timon. I think only
Benny and Ed didn't go.
I forgot what movies were shown, but there was a singit involving condensed milk which
grossed a lot of people out.
This is so far I could go to describing it.
At anyrate, Monday or Tuesday the following
week, I got called to Mrs. Pineda's office. Somebody squealed that I brought my
classmates to see porn movies. Maybe some parents called. I don't know.
She said I polluted
the mind of innocent young boys. She never thought that I, with such an angelic face
could be such a devil. It was easy to get out of it though. I told her that it was
her fault.
She taught
us in social studies to be aware of the social conditions around us, and bomba movies
were one of those conditions. So we went to see what they were. I was excused. Heh-heh.
Oh year, and third year was the year that they finally decided that UP High and UP Prep will be merged into the UP Comprehensive High School. Of course, we were so against it, and did dg's (discussion groups) and demonstration against the merger. One of the reasons why we were against it was because it was a US-Marcos dictatorship plan to turn our school into a vocational and technical school to turn skilled graduates out that would be used for export, or for the export processing zones (to fill the needs for labor of industrialized nations) . Or something stupid like that. And we really believed that too.
Then of course, third year was the year we went to Fort Magsaysay. That was great. It was the first time I ever ate army rations.
Apart from these, I don't remember much anymore. If I do though, I will put them to paper and post it here.