Growing up in 1940s Manila (Part One)

Remembering memories of a bygone era

- WALA LANG DR. JAIME C. LAVA

atay's reaction was quick. Just days after Pearl Harbor and Manila were bombed in December 1941, Tia Julî, an almost three-year-old me, and Nanay's treasured 10-piece Bilibidmade sala set, were dispatched to Barrio Dampól in Pláridel, Bulacán. We were evacuated to safety with Tia Pilar, her husband Tio Asiong, and their nine children, my cousins.

Ours was one of two two-story houses lining Karapatán. To the left were relatives Tia Hilda and Tio Teriò, and to the right, Jockey Biason and his wife Aling Kayang. Relojero Mang Selo and Aling Nena lived directly across in a greenhouse with matching roll-up bamboo blinds.

Manila was not the congested place it is now. The population was less than a million, and Metro Manila had something like 1.2 million vs. today's 20+ million.

In the narrow space on both sides of our house were what to me were thick and towering jungles of rosal, sampaguita, and sinamumo bushes. Outside stairs led up to a balcony that opened to the sala. The sala was empty save for a piano and a radio. All else was in Tio Asiong’s kamalig, which made it easier at night, because that was where we all slept, under mosquito nets and on mats spread on the floor. Thanks to that, I can still sleep anywhere, in any position, and almost instantly.