Muddy Pools

I never liked dolls when I was little. Unlike the modern kids of those times, I never wanted toy kitchens, plastic kettles and plastic veggies. But I liked cooking ! Sautéing and steaming were my favorite activities as the world’s youngest chef. And because I did, I would steam or sauté everything in site. I fried the jackfruit that my grandma brought home from a friend's house and steamed the green mangoes my brother stole from my neighbor's backyard. I even sautéed dragonflies and flowers, mosses and snails all together. I did not eat them but I was curious to see what happens to my ingredients in my little earthen saucepan all the time. I don't remember how they smelled but after I thought they were cooked, I served them to my Uncle's guinea pigs. In the morning I would wait for Marlo (my 9-year-old undertaker cousin) who would build guinea pig caskets for the ones that died of food poisoning. They had hundreds of guinea pigs, so it did not matter much to them when they lost one each and everyday while my cooking career was at its peak. Of course his parents wouldn't know why they died.

He would recruit every single cousin of ours to join the mini funeral and there would be the "criers" too (usually Richel, Jaquie, Michelle, myself and Marjorie). Each of us brought flowers. And those flowers usually had "mommy tails" because the moment we picked them from the gardens, our moms would be right at our backs with leather belts or native brooms. After we got our sentence, the little criers became real wailers.

I remember playing "burglars" with my cousins too. With this game (which we were seriously into during that time) Eugene, Marlo and Erlindo were the masterminds. Our target- the small variety store in front of our house!

We were never given much money during those days. Its either, our parents did not have one to give us or they didn't like the stuff we traded for the 5 cents. Jeez! We all liked plastic balloons and powdered chocolates and oranges. The plastic balloons were the jellylike thingy stuffed in small aluminum tubes that we squeezed unto the edge of a small straw and blew to make plastic bubbles. They cost 5 cents that time (sooo expensive) and we usually ended up with just one tube each. But we always wanted more, thus the birth of the "burglar" idea.

The plan was, I go in the store and talk to Manang Linda (the storekeeper). She would always be in the kitchen cooking dinner by 2pm and we knew she always followed her routine so we were sure that there wouldn't be anybody in her store by that time. I would go straight in and pretend to drop plenty of coins into her wooden coin box. She would come in rushing to ask how much I placed in the box but before she did I would already throw all the plastic balloon tubes out of the window. Marlo and Eugene would be in the other side waiting to collect the loot.

“I placed four 25 cents in, Manang Linda. That’s 1 peso”. Then she would ask me what I wanted for it.

I walked out of the store with a big grin on my face and a hand full of sugar-coated candies. I also had 2 cherry gumballs that all my girl cousins and I used to color our lips with. As I joined the members of the operation, I think I felt proud that I was able to do my part well. I console myself now by thinking that I must have possessed the Robinhood characteristic during that time.

I had so much fun as a child and so many memories I won’t forget. I wish sometimes I was back in the past when nothing mattered to me but playing all through the day. I learned a lot while playing and I wish my daughter has the same chance to discover things while playing just as I did. I definitely insist that she does not need to sauté or steam or even do the role of Catherine Zeta Jones in her movie “Entrapment” to learn what I have learned. Shish! With today’s technology, I don’t think my childhood idea of fun will produce the same outcome these days. Whew, now I’ll need to find out what exactly my daughter is doing.