When I was a kid in the Dorchester section of Boston there was a horse and wagon that came around all summer and sold fruit and vegetables in the neighborhood, and the guy was called a huckster (or Hawker), also there was the Hoodsies truck (Or the Good Humor man) that sold Ice Cream, to us kids with its bells sounding its arrival every day, and us trying to come up with the dime required to get one.
In my purok in Roosevelt, Bataan every week day we have a different type vendor come around. First you have the folks on foot selling furniture, on the peso down the chase is on program. Here you can purchase any type of item you want such as dressers, beds table and chairs and other such items right from the comfort of your gate. Then they will come by every week and collect the money until the item is paid off, or the customer moves in the dead of night.
Which brings up something else I’ve noticed; if you see a Trike or Jeepney overloaded with household effects in the day time, that person is moving in. If you see the same after dark, that person is skipping out and you’ll never see them again.
The first and most important vendor of the day is the kid selling the Hot Pan de Sal (Or Pan de Sol) at 5am every morning; my ear is attuned to listen for his cry in the darkness, waiting for my first bite with my first coffee of the day.
The next group are the fresh meat and vegetable sales vendors, they show up a little before lunch so you can prepare lunch, unless you go to the very sanitary makeshift vendors set up on the street and buy the prepared food sitting in those 7 or 8 pots that everyone has lifted the lid to look inside to see the foods.
Next is the kid with the squeeze horn selling “Sticky Rice“which is a sweet rice concoction, that kids seem to love? I had to try it just once, but I didn’t fall in love with it. I’ll assume it’s an acquired taste.
Now during the day you’ll get a different group, the collectors, the pawn folks and travelling sales people.
The collectors are asking donations for people in the hospital, a person whom has passed off this mortal core and need help getting to their afterlife. These collectors are required to have a letter dated and signed by “YOUR” Barangay Kaptian; some will have a letter signed by their Kaptian who is 50 kilometres away and signed a few months ago. So read and look for those two important items at least.
The Pawning folks; will bring you about anything, working or not and try to get you to lend (give) them money, the odds are likely that will be the last time you’ll ever see them, and you’ll have a shed full of worthless stuff that even Mike and Frank from the “Pickers” will turn up their nose at. Here’s a pawn that happened to me 8 or 9 years ago. The guy brings me a 36 inch TV, still in the box, I tested it and it was new and worked fine. He needed 5,000.00 pesos, and I’d seen the same TV on base selling for 15,000.00 pesos. I gave him the money, One year with no payment from him, he knocks on the gate and for 5,000 pesos MORE I can buy the TV. I was pretty sure that I had already done that last year. I explained I was not in the market, but for 5,000 pesos he could have his TV back. I still have the TV out in my Man Cave and it still works. I’ll assume it’s mine.
Now the travelling sales people, first and foremost they will tell you a lie that they are there from the government (Note the clipboard) and they are required to check you gas connection, water purity, and fire safety, plus a myriad of other excuses to get their foot in the door. I’ve found the best way to deal with them was to just ask what it is they are selling. Then proceed from there.
Now we’ve gone full circle, and it’s close to the end of the day and now will appear the ubiquitous “Ice Cream Vendor” he maybe on foot, with his duct taped cooler, or on a special built Trike with an umbrella, but appear they will, the only difference now and fifty years ago is now I’m the one hit up for that most Important dime (Or Peso). Remembering back to how I felt on those hot summer Boston afternoons, I’m a sucker, and the kids know it. Like Pavlov’s dog I am trained to answer to those bells. My Grandson, “the Lil Dude” has seen to that. Plus the neighborhood kids know I’m an easy touch.
I almost forgot the “Sharpener Dude” with his wheel attached to an old bicycle sitting there sharpening anything you have. I open my gate and let him setup in my carport out of the sun or rain and the street comes to him. This is what we called back in those Hippy Dippy days as a “Happening” The ladies will commence to yacking and the guys and I will have a beer or two. “The Sharpener Dude” is my favourite vendor of them all. But we only see him once a month.
one of the best articles i have ever read……takes me back to the 1950s and a lot of other stuff i never heard of….thanks paul
Donna;
I feel like Mr. Peabody and Sherman using the Wayback Machine to transport you to the 50’s.
I’m pleased that you enjoyed it that much, thank you for your kind comment
one of the best articles i have ever read……takes me back to the 1950s and a lot of other stuff i never heard of….thanks paul
Donna;
I do that all the time, but you’re still very welcome!
I too have various vendors hitting me up every day. In early morning its a bread vendor and before he can complete his transaction with me there is a fish vendor in front of my house waiting to sell me either fresh? or dried fish. About 2 hours later it is the Ice cream dude. He has not figured out yet that he is coming at the wrong time of day since it is not that hot yet and all of the kids have left for school! I get an occasion al furniture vender selling either plastic chairs or bamboo benches Then there are the parents of school children wanting donations for their child for Mr?miss Nutrition competition at School or for Choir boy uniforms. I find it amusing to watch but I too am a softie most of the time!
Joe;
They could be the same vendors as mine, as they do get around. Now I know why I put my foot down on my wife wanting a Sari-sari Store, I’d never get a nap hearing vendors and knock-knock all day.
Now if the would only bring ice cold SMB door to door, you would be all set
They do here where I live Dirk, but for some reason not in the early morning. LOL
Joe;
The driver was up all night making deliveries.
Dirk;
Ah but they do, with one text msg, a Trike will show up within 30 minutes with as many cases as you want and no delivery charge. We suffer a lot here but muddle through as we must chill it down ourselves, but that’s why I always order it with that time factored in.
Paul, I must have had an underprivledged chile hood all we had was the ice cream man. But I remember all the vendors in Germany when I was there and we had a beer man that would take away the empties and leave you full ones. sure beat carrying up those stairs. Thanks for the memories and I now have one more thing to look forward to when we make the move. Buy the way we will be in Subic from the 13 th to the 20th. Hopr we can meet up and have lunch or something.
Steve;
Germany and the Philippines have the same service; they also cart away the empties for me here. Otherwise I would have be able to build a wall the size of the one in China that could be seen from space. Let me know when and if we’re free we’ll get together.
Paul, i am pretty much free the entire time so whenever is good for you.
i can give you my phone number and you can call me
steve
Steve;
You’re the guy with a schedule, I’m the will O’- the wisp with nothing to do but eat lunches and drink a cocktail or two. I sent you an e-mail to explain.
I grew up by a highway in the country. We didn’t have the vendors coming around. They did have them in town. I once worked with an older fellow who’s first job was selling ice in town from a mule drawn wagon. And my first job was carrying the vacuum tube box for the TV repairman who made house calls to fix your tv.
Don’t know if you got my e-mail. Marlyn & I will also be in your area on Tuesday the 17th. Maybe a few of us can get together.
Take care,
Pete
Hi Pete;
First I just received your e-mail this morning and sent you an answer.
Heck if you grew up in the country next to the main drag, you should have had a vegetable stand selling to your neighbors and saving them a trip to town.(lol)
My Dad used to send me to the super market to test the tubes on the TV and buy any replacements needed. He would only call the Philco guy when something major went wrong. But that was before we started taking our old electronics to the land fill and just buying a new one.
We sure have lots of folks coming by with everything under the sun for sale. Try to keep the gate closed. That pretty much tells them NO SALE TODAY! 🙂
Gary;
After thirty minutes of them shouting “KNOCK-KNOCK, at the gate, I give up and go outside. Unless Mayang is home then it’ becomes her job.
It sounds like you need to add a few pugs to your dog army. We have four now so we are completely protected against any unwanted entry.
Tom;
Their not getting in, the dog army will see to that, but they also let me know thy are there.
this past Sunday, we were having drinks out in Olangapo, kid selling peanuts honking his damn horn for ten minutes. We told him to stop as we were the only ones there and didnt want any peanuts but kept on going at it. so the old guy grabs the horn and tosses it into the ditch. the kid was pissed but just wouldn’t get a clue.
Don;
Maybe you guys should have bought the peanuts and I’ll wager the kid would have been on his way.
I think boiled peanuts in the shell, if that’s what the kid was selling, go great with ice-cold SMB, don’t you, Paul? Other than pulutan, I mean. 🙂
John;
Boiled peanuts and beer? That’s a taste sensation, and you don’t even have to walk to get them. Luxury, pure luxury!!!
No wonder when I see pics of houses there they have walls and gates. If all those vendors showed up around the same time of the day you could easily have a flea market right in your own front yard. Those collectors you mention remind me of my visit last year. I was at an outdoor table with local friends at a popular coffee shop for a couple of hours. On three occasions what appeared to be teenagers, one at a time would come to our table, show some kind of laminated ID badge and start their verbal pitch. I just sat there silent and let my friends shoo the person away. This gives me an idea if that happens again, I’ll reverse the pitch and I will ask them if they care to make a donation to either of the two places in Iligan that I make donations to, the University or the City Jail and see what kind of reaction that brings.
In the memories department, once again Paul you have brought back some good ones. In our neighborhood we had deliveries from Dugans Bakery, Emmadine Farms Milk ( in real glass quart bottles with the cream at the top ) and you would give them the empty bottles when the new ones were delivered. Those trucks they used to drive have become real collectors items in recent years. That chocolate covered ice cream on a stick painted on the sides of the Good Humor truck certainly was a visual stimulus for the taste buds. Just like Froggy and his magic twanger, those Good Humor TV adds and the jingle as seen in Magnificent Monochrome on TV back then, still survive on Youtube !
Bob (NY)
Six of us sailors were going into a sandwich shop in San Francisco, two pan handlers were working the door. I was in my work cloths and looked a tad grungy so as we approached I ask one if he could spare two bucks to help me pay for lunch, He gave it to me; on the way out I slipped him a five and said thanks. My buddies talked about that for weeks.
My uncle drove a milk truck (Uniform and all) in the summer he’d let us ride along and help him deliver. I’d forget about the bread truck!
Paul, my eldest son wanted to be a milk truck driver when he was in kindergarten. One day, I told him the story about the milk truck driver and lonely housewives along the route. He didn’t talk about beoming a milkman since then, and became, instead today, an executive at Northrop Grumman. LOL
John;
And to this day while sitting in his office at Northrop Grumman with his feet on the desk daydreaming about that lonesome housewife on that imaginary milk route, while pondering the pressures of his job. And then he’ll think; “I forgive you Dad!”
Bob,
I was a kid in New York and the thing that I really missed was Devil Dogs.
Tom;
Drake Bakeries made the wonderful Devil Dog, in Boston, they used to fall off the back of the truck in the Super Market parking lot!
Hi Paul – I like the vendors, it is a good part of the culture here. However I did have a guy the other day ask me for a large amount of money with no letter, but claiming to have one. I could only think to say “I hear there are remedies for financial assistance for medical at the provincial hospital and with local authorities and quickly departed. I am not sharp enough to know if they are serious or not.
Brenton;
If he had no letter to show, then it was Bulla-bulla, but your response was good. I’ve had a lot of fun with vendors. I have an 11 X 20 foot tent that my neighbors borrow for funerals and weddings. I still have all the parts as I help set it up and take it down. So I’m sure the collectors are real in my area. But there is that few…
Hi Paul and a great article…..I have not spent a lot of time at our house , be because we were staying in hotels and doing upgrades and repairs when we are in the Phil. I would notice some of the street vendors from time to time but did not pay much attention to them. I guess when we settle in our house permanently we will enjoy seeing the vendors….like you? I always know when the ice cream guy pedals by because he always plays the same tune on his speakers (really loud) just like in the US. He has not changed his music in over 7-8 yrs.
Dave;
If you’ve installed a door bell, uninstall it first thing; next tell your friends to text when they are coming and that will cut down on being bothered. I can now sleep through someone yelling Knock-knock at my gate.
As to the song on the Ice Cream vendor, I believe it’s a worldwide hit tune!
Ah, yes, those travelling vendors in Salaza, of course, I remember them. They go door to door only if you are a suki (repeat customer); otherwise, they set up shop along the main drag next to a sari-sari store, like the fish vendors who come to the barrio in the afternoon with the day’s catch from the neighboring fishing town of Masinloc. In the morning, we had fresh carabao milk delivered to our house in recycled beer bottles topped off with banana leaves, The kid with the still hot from the oven pandesal comes from Masinloc as well via the Victory Liner around 5AM. I enjoyed dipping them in coffee.
Then, during my last visit to the Philippines, there was this lady who traveled by bus all the way from Pampanga selling a MIRROR the size of the ordinary bedroom dresser at mid-day when all of Salaza stood still and quiet because of the heat. She was out there walking down the dusty road, carrying the heavy mirror wrapped in cloth. It was a weird sight, I mean, to see an ambulant vendor who traveled by bus from Pampanga all the way to a small barrio in Zambales to sell a mirror? What I saw on that particular day, however, was not just an ordinary mirror, but an entire nation’s mirror of poverty. There was no hesitation in my part. In my own small way, I did what I felt was the right thing to do.
John;
There is not much you cannot purchase from the comfort of your front gate. Why go to town at all? Mayang is always out front bartering with some fish or vegetable vendor.
But”The Lady of the Mirror” is a first for me. She sounds like a character out a Knight of the Roundtable novel. The bus from Pampanga goes right by the end of my road; I’ll keep a light on!
Paul,
Where we are staying we generally don’t get any vendors selling things. We just go to the market down the street. Anne is great at trying to save a peso. We are in Bangkok now and Anne was not happy with me because she thought I didn’t barter low enough for a t-shirt lol
Randy;
You’re in Bangkok and it’s T-Shirts she’s worried about? Bless her heart! Don’t forget to take a boat ride through the floating market while you’re there, it’s fun.
You need not worry the word will get out that a Kano lives close by, then the vendors will come!
When we were in Bangkok last year I was happy to find good hot dogs. Brought home several packs in my luggage from 7-11. In five years I haven’t found a good hot dog here so I was in heaven. You will have Okay how much you pay ringing in your ears if you go to the night market. It is a nice place. I am happy for the experience.
Tom;
In Subic we can buy Ball Park dogs and a few other good non red dye number 5 dogs. But getting a fresh bun seems to be the main problem.
“I’ll keep a light on!”
Do let us know should the mirror lady from Pampanga be drawn to the beacon of light at your doorstep like a wandering ship at sea on a stormy night, Paul. Please be kind to her as I know you would. LOL
John;
I’ll invite her in and introduce here to Mayang’s good friend “The White Lady”
Paul,
Anne was disappointed we couldn’t go to the floating market, they only do it on weekends now and we are only here for a few days.
Randy;
That’s a shame as it is quite a take in, and well worth the trip, but there is always next time.
Ambulant vendors
Jon B
When I read your comment I was wondering why someone would just type in Ambulant: Vendor and nothing else, was there a secret message hidden in there, do I require a decoder ring to sort it out? Then I thought, it could well be the spelling police. But I’d not misspelled any words, so then I must have used a word in error. And this was the case!
Ambulant: Traveling moving around from place to place
Ambient: In the immediate surrounding area:
So the vendor was Ambulant as they had reached my house but after they got there they became Ambient.
But thank you for pointing that out. But with my error, comes a fascinating result, if you Google Ambient Vendor my article pops up in position number one.
Where did you tie up that Sloop???
“So the vendor was Ambulant as they had reached my house but after they got there they became Ambient.”
Hahahaha! Paul, this is why you are one of my favorite contributors here!
Jon B
Jon B;
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! (But I am glad I didn’t spell either word wrong or I’d slap my Spell Check!
Your article pops up No. 64 on my Australian Google Paul. Once again, I am educated though…I didn’t know the polite phrase for Hawkers before!
Jim;
That means that in Australia they also thought it was Ambient Vendors like I did, that proves the theory about great minds…
Thanks for another fun read.
John;
You are most welcome
John;
You are most welcome.
Dear WordPress;
Why are you messing with mw?
Hi paul
Would you recommend subic area as a retirement place for a American/Philippino and his American wife? We r 4 years away from retiring and want a slower pace and affordable living. We are planning on checking out subic in early December. Any advice would be appreciated
Diane & james
Diane;
Yes I would but then I’m living here aren’t I? There is plenty to do here with a large social atmosphere represented well by both Filipino and Kano’s. I live less that 25 minutes from the Barrio and Subic, and it doesn’t get much more relaxing than my area here in Bataan. Driving the other way out of Olongapo towards Eba (The Capital of Zambales) is flat pastoral land with mild hills and rice fields, also very peaceful.
My only advice is to continue with your plan to visit the area and see it yourself. As for cost of living remember “If you want low priced eggs, live in the country” The closer you get to downtown Olongapo the higher the cost of living.
The best to both of you!