I’ve been growing up in the province. Studied my grade school there, studied my high school days in the city, but usually I went home by the end of the week. During weekends I stayed in the farm helping my parents taking care of the animals and our coconuts and corn fields. In the province back in the day we don’t even have electricity there. When cooking food we used charcoal or the firewood. We had a dirty kitchen or we also used the oven type thing (pugon). It built like the oven for the pizza and on top with the rings in different sizes to fit the sizes of the pan your cooking with. With that you used the firewood to cook. I mostly like the charcoal for cooking its more clean on the outside of the pan. The downside to it, it cooked really slow. If your not in a hurry cooking with charcoal is better. During school days you have to get up early so that you can start the cooking early. The good thing for us, being my parents having acres of coconut plantation, we had plenty of charcoal in storage. We also had lots of fires woods. Our tenants usually came with a kariton (cart) full of fire woods.
When ironing clothes we used the old kind, where you just put the hot charcoal inside and just keep loading more charcoal when needed. Its heavy to handletoo. I think back in the day, some iron might be made of cast iron. Gosh, I wonder how much the weight of the thing would be? It’s already heavy right now that its not made with cast iron. When we used it before when I was in the farm when ironing our clothes my sisters would always put banana leaves underneath the iron for resting in between uses. It makes the clothes smell good like earthy, full of nature. Hey, only people that used it understands what I’m saying. The city people would not know what I was talking about, I think.
Feyma’s Childhood house in Patag, Sarangani – I’ve shown this video here before, but it ties in nicely with this article so I included it here.
Going from one place to the other we used kariton pulled by the carabao, or rides on our horses. My dad usually walked from our house to the next town to catch the jeepney for the city. Its a few miles of walk. He was not really into riding horses or the kariton. That’s one thing I was dreading before when my parents wanted to visit our other farm to see what are tenants were doing with the land. I hardly go with them, they will just walk to go there. Being young, I’m a bit lazy in walking especially for a long distance walk. At least its not just me whose lazy, my cousins too. Really me and my cousins would go to our tenants tag along our horses. It’s always a blast going to our tenants farm. We had lots of fruit trees there. We really indulged ourselves there with so many different kinds of fruits. Wow, just by thinking of the fresh fruits makes my mouth water. Just sad though because our tenants before are already dead and the one that’s left behind now were the grand kids or the relatives. They didn’t take care of the land the way our old tenants used to do.
We just are a little bit more lucky than some other kids in our neighborhood. Some of them especially the natives there like the Bla’an, they lived a bit far from us and on the hills. They have to get the water for drinking down below. They could really climb those hills with no problem. Well, being they would walk twice during weekdays for school in the morning and afternoon. Mostly during weekend they will be in town to sell some of their products. They really are fast in walking up and down the hill. A lot of the kids will be carrying a jug or two of water after school. Usually my classmates before, coming early in the morning for school they will bring with them the jugs and leave it at the people that had pumps for water for their drink. After school they would get the jug and fill it up with water and take it home with them. Can you imagine the weight of those jugs that they’re carrying ? The water and the back pack full of school books and papers. You know what I never heard my classmates complain before. To be honest some of those classmates and schoolmates of mine were successful. They became teachers and others became nurses. Some of the teachers now back in the province teaching in the school where I attended grade school and others teaching in the neighboring town and they are happily married, others went abroad. Of course the majority of them were married young and have kids. Back to the cycle again.
A few years back I went to my elementary school where I graduated my grade school years. My classmate was the principal, and at the time asked me to give a speech since I just get back from the States. He wanted me to encourag those kids. During those times I met up again with some of my other classmates and schoolmates during grade school. I’m happy that some of them were teachers there and others worked at some higher level in some other school district.
Sometimes me and my siblings were talking about our life in the province. It amazes us though. Even though we have no electricity there and life was just so simple there but still we managed to make our life a little better. Same with our other neighbors. Nowadays, our town already had the electricity and the means to go to the other town with jeepney or motorcycle. But I felt like the neighborhood is not as good when I was growing up. We, the older generations felt that the new generations didn’t really care enough now for the town. They just want to be lazy and have fun. I’m still hoping that my town will improve for the years to come.
Cheers!
Hi Feyma: Excellent article. It brings memories of my elementary years in Ozamiz City, Mindanao. This city was then small and clean with four universities. We walked everywhere. Although our house had electricity and running water, I remembered the dirty kitchen with the ringed stove and the charcoal burner. I also remembered the iron that was loaded with the charcoal from the hinged top.
Today, my older brother (who is a part-time resident in the Philippines) said that Ozamiz City is very crowded and dirty. Ah… the good old days when life was simple. Thanks for sharing your story. Sincerely.
Hi Roselyn – Thank you. I’m glad I made you think back of your grade school days. I’ve been to Ozamiz when I was young. Some of my cousins still lives there at the moment. Gosh never been to Ozamiz in a long time. Are you still visiting Ozamiz when you visit the Philippines?
Happy that you liked my post. Good to see you here.
Take care!
Feyma
Thanks so much for telling about your childhood on your farm. Very interesting. At least you could get all your fruits and vegetables fresh. Indeed life was much simpler than. You just wonder sometimes how you actually survived without all the modern conveniences that we have today. Have a nice day Mrs Feyma.
Hi Feyma: I have not been in Ozamiz since we left the Philippines. That was 42 years ago. I would like to see it in my next visit. I was born in Banadero, Ozamiz. My parents taught at Misamis University. It was the only place in my life that I felt I belonged. Thanks a whole lot for the article. It brought good memories.
Dear Feyma,
What a wonderful yet simple childhood days! I come from the province as well and I loved it! Eventhough I spent my teenage years in the city and spent decades abroad,what make me so blessed and happy is when I look back and see where I come from! Life in the province is yet a wonderful one!!!
Keep being the Beauty Queen!
Hi Maria Luisa Villaflor – The memories and the experiences were really priceless. I will not trade that for anything. A good story to tell my kids sometimes. 🙂
Thank you so much for stopping by. Keep reading.
Take care!
Hi Feyma
One time when i was in Davao we had a brown out , my wife said thats ok hubby we will cook in charcoal tonight. I was very curious as i have never seen this done before so out come the charcoal cooker and on went the pork chops. I was fascinated to compare the taste, well i was amazed, i asked if we could do this more often, says it all , just loved my dinner that night.
Hi David L. Smith – Halleluiah for the charcoal then, it came handy for you guys. At least you got dinner that night. 🙂
Good to see you here.
Cheers!
Hi Feyma,
I like your article. Like you, I also grow up in the farm. My grandmother taught me all about farming. I know how to plow the field. Plant crops and fruit trees.Learn cooking using fire woods and also do my own laundry. Yes, I remember when ironing my clothes. The dried banana leaves is an accessory to the flat iron.It make more easy to push the iron as it just slide so smoothly. I live in barangay Tuganay and spent my elementary
days in Ising, now Carmen. I also finish my high school in Panabo. The place was not a city yet.
Hi Kuya Robert – I remember now Ate Susie mentioned that to me that you came from the Panabo area. Never knew that you do all the farming stuff. I guess growing up in the farm, you have to learned all the farm chores.
I think Bob and I been to the place you’ve mention Carmen. Do you still own a land there? Do you still visit the area when your here in the Philippines?
Take care Kuya Robert and hi to Ate Susie for me.
Hi Ms Feyma – what I like being in the province.. you can have fresh fruits grabbed from the trees! And pugon cooked bread tasted yummy. I’ve never lived in the province.. but I remember during a vacation, seeing farms and carabaos, swimming in the river. Definitely something different.
Cool photo! You were crowned Ms. Mutya. 🙂
Hi sugar – Can’t argue on that…. Spot on…
Ha ha ha… That photo was a contest for the Boys and Girls Scout… I guess my parents put most of the money. The school get half of the money raised. It was a heated contest. That’s another post for me to do. Thinking about it makes me have a goosebump.
Thank you sugar for stopping by. Nice to see you here.
Take care!
wow, small world really…..i saw my friends frannie and gerly zuzon in here…at Gumasa escapade video….i luv it!!!! happy to see them having some fun with the family. been spending time in gumasa in my childhood when nobody seems to know the place yet….
Hi coi barcelona palmieri – Yes what a small world. Same with you I’ve been to Gumasa before it was developed. Nowadays too many people spent the whole night there. Lots of new resorts are developing right now. More in the future. We knew somebody that owned a nice house on the way there. Are you still visiting GenSan and Sarangani Province?
Good to see you here. I’m glad you saw some of your friends here.
Take care!
Talking about those “old days” brings back a lot of memories. For the heavy cast iron “Iron” which uses charcoal, don’t forget that after each use and before storing it away – it has to be waxed (while hot) with a white candle – in order to seal it with a wax film – to avoid rust/oxidation, and then wiped off, during the next use. Since there was not steamer on the iron, we had to manually wisk/sprinkle water on the clothese, the curl them up before ironing, and then wipe them with a damp piece of cloth during ironing.
How about the days when the wooden floors need to be cleaned (with no vaccuum cleaners yet). They have to be scrubbed with upside-down hal-coconut shell bristle using your feet. Then wax is applied to the floors, then wax again to finish it.
How about the advent of the kerosene stove, where you use a manual pump on the side to compress the air, to make the cooking flame continue? Or the compressed air, kerosene fueled “Coleman Lamps” where you need to change the filter that gets consumed after several uses?
This reminded me so much of growing up on the family farm in upstate New York. We had a cast iron kitchen stove that we used to cook with word, and we also had a cast iron; iron that we heated up on the wood stove to use it… i for sure miss the closeness of family life, but waking up at 3:30 in the morning and eating dinner at 10:00pm is something i don’t miss… LOL
Feyma,
You could have taken that story right from my childhood growing up in Indian Creek, Alabama. I was in 3rd grade when we moved there. I was used to running water and electric in the house. When we moved to this spot we had neither. This was in the later 70’s in the States! But it is one of my most cherished memories of my childhood just like yours is I am sure! I guess that is why I like the province life even though we are more up-to-date now!
Hi Steve Maust – Good memories you had there too. Something to share with the kids later. To be honest I never thought the States was like that in the 70’s. I was thinking in the 50’s. Oh well, some place was just not developed yet in that era.
Thank you so much for sharing. Good to see you here.
Take care!
Hi,
I like your article, as many have said it brings back old and simple childhood memories….how time flies isnt it…..I was born in the 80s and in our province in Luzon when I was young we didnt have running water. We had a pitcher pump in our house. But the drinking water was fetched a block away as the well there was deeper and the water had this somewhat sweet after taste. No brand of mineral and bottled water would ever matched that taste……Your article brought back nice memories, had fun fetching water with my neighbors each of us carrying our plastic gallons…sometimes we would race to get there during sunset after we got home from school…..sometimes the moon light would be so bright….cool breeze on our sweaty faces……Life was so simple….your article made me nostalgic…….:) And youre right, no amount of high tech gadgets and modern style of living will ever match up those simple things back then…..
Hi Liz – I’m glad you liked my post and it brought good memories to you. Those experiences really makes us who we are today. I’m sure all of us would never want to trade all the experiences for anything. It’s totally priceless….
I really thank you for sharing your memories. Highly appreciated here.
Take care!
Hello Feyma.
I showed it my wife Audrey. First she said? OMG! There ware rich! 🙂 Audrey didn’t have even shoes to get to school.
I grow up in Mannheim, Germany. Born in a rental-apartment what was older than Canada. 🙂
We did not have a bathroom and the toilet was on the outside. I was always scared to go there with all this spiders and so on. :-/ I lived there 18 years until the “ARMY” called me. Grown up in a big city, never seen a big crops field only “concrete-fields”, I liked to sleep in the forest and I truly enjoyed the showers in the barracks there! I have not one picture from my youth. We didn’t had a camera. 🙁 But sometimes on http://www.stayfriends.com – some of my classmates posting pictures and I remember the “good old times”. But hey. I had my soccer ball! What an easy childhood we had. Now the kids don’t no what to do with them selves. And they have 100 of gadgets! 😉
Best regards