San Roque Elementary School: Where Life Began

Pepe en Pilar, Magallanes, Rizal,and the 13 Martyrs ,among others, were first introduced to me at San Roque Elementary School. And yes,Manuel's Kiosk, Laureano's, Aroma, Pagoda, and Cine Perla, all intriguing places for a curious 7 year-old from the sticks. This page is dedicated to us, pupils of San Roque, who care to reminisce and share with everyone our memories of the more innocent times, the times before high school awakened our minds and hearts to life's harsher realities!

About Me

Name: Uncle Pung

Location: Ewa Beach, Hawaii

Born during a thunderstorm, an omen of things to come. Started school at San Roque Elementary, 1961. With no benefit of kindergarten, took a while to learn to write my name. Second day of school, I asked my Mama to write my name on a piece of paper, turned it in the next day as my own writing. Bad move! Ginang Guiang called me in front of class and gave me a royal ass-chewing. Six years later, I graduated on top of my class. How ya figure? CNHS, 1967 - my first year of high school. Jukeboxes blaring from every corner, right outside of our Ricarte Building classroom. This was the good thing. The bad things, the temptations (to which I succumbed early and eagerly) were: beto-beto, bilyar, Newports, San Miguel. Yet, in retrospect, 1967 was my best year in the classroom. The next 3 years were a blur, although I recall falling in love for the first time before I graduated in 1971. In November 1972, my family moved to Hawaii. A little over a month later, I was a Navy seaman recruit in San Diego, Ca. In 1982, I met Agnes Doldolea, the woman who will be my wife and the mother of our 3 beautiful daughters: Aimee, Alyssa, and Angelica.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Unang Baitang (Grade One)

Not that easy to recall things that happened on the first-ever day of school. For me, that was forty-seven years ago. Susmaryosep! More than anything, it means que viejo ya yo! I was a skinny, quiet, painfully shy nerd who knew only one other boy in that classroom, Jun Tirona. Everybody else seemed to know each other from kindergarten, which I had not had the luxury to attend. But if there's one thing that has stood out in this boy's mind over the years, it is: sitting next to the prettiest and friendliest girl, Irma Sanding, the first official crush of my life. Irma, ever bubbly and ever smiling, was a niece of my older brother Jolly's teacher, their classroom being next door. She was instantly popular, certainly with me and Jun, which caused me to shrink even further into oblivion sitting next to her in our little "pupitre". I have gone on to have many more crushes since Grade One, pero no yo de olvida mi primero crush.

Labels: First Day