The word Dinalupihan probably came from alupihan which means centipede. My mother came from Dinalupihan, Bataan and so does her family. We spent the summer there staying at my Lola Abe's (Lola Menay's younger sister) house. Lola Abe was married to Lolo Ipe, a rice farmer and they have three children: Tiyong Nico, Tiyang Petang and Tiyong Entoy. They lived in a nice airy house with a large backyard. Nico likes to plant fruit trees everywhere. In the back is a large santol tree whose fruit just fall down and we picked it up to eat. There is camias, abocado, sinigwelas, aratilis, kamatchili and others. I spent joyous time in the summer there. The women seemed to get busy from dawn to dusk cooking and cleaning. Right after almusal (breakfast) they have to start preparing for tanghalian (lunch) and right after that is hapunan (supper). They have a long dining table with a large nipa hut window. They have several maids but Lola Menay always lend a helping hand. My mother too sometimes. They have a food cabinet with legs standing on water to prevent ants from coming in. In thos days people don't have refrigerators.
Six O'clock Orasyon
When the church bells ring at six o'clock, this is orasyon and time to say the daily prayers. We all would kneel in front of the image of Jesus in one of the large rooms and say the prayer for 15 minutes or so. Then its supper time. They do not have electricity initially and used kerosene lamps. At first there is no toilet in the house. The outhouse is back in the backyard secluded in a corner. Woe into anybody who needs to use the toilet at night. There were many stores of strange things happening there and usual Filipino tales of aswang, kapre, mananangal scared the bejesus of me. The outhouse is on stilts with a hole where one squats. Down below is a hole where all the stuff come down. It's smelly, dirty and scary to go there.
Pumping Water is Fun
Under the house is a faucet where laundry and bath take place. The water is very cold. Directly from this is a manually operated water pump. I like to prime this pump and pump away to fill the huge earthen jar they use for water. There is no running water. The floor is made of bamboo cut into 2 inches strips. The wall is made of bamboo leaves and that is why its so airy.
Kamalig (Rice Bin)
One day I was curious about a large room under the house. I managed to open the door. I saw these huge huge container made of rattan with a large cover. It is about 12 feet long and 5 inches deep. I opened one and saw palay (rice with hull)inside. They call this kamalig where they dry out the rice before processing it. I climbed up and laid down the kamalig. It feels nice and soft as if you are in the water but floating. I started playing around there going in and out of the rice. Then somebody saw me. They came and told me to get out quickly. Not only am I dirtying the rice but rats infest it. If there are rats, rice snakes are around. I was lucky not to get bitten because they are poisonous.
I Get In Free at the Movie Theater
The local movie theater is owned by a grandmother. I never knew how she became a grandmother but she is. If I want to get in I just find her and kiss her hand. And she motioned me that I can go inside for free. The theater is big but old and not so confortable. There are no chairs but a long bench with plenty of surot (bed bugs). They show Tagalog movies which I am not particularly fond of. There are two other movie theaters in the town. I went to both of them and they show English movies.
Kebong-kebong
I can play with kebong-kebong for hours. What are they? I go down into the backyard. The soil is sandy. If you look closely you will find small round indentation on the sand. You then get an ant and drop it in the hole. Right before your eyes that ant will completely disappear. Gone! And you repeat the process. What is in that hole is a kebong-kebong. Later I found out it is called ant lion. To catch it, you just scoop a handful of sand where the indentation is. Then drop the sand and the ant lion will reveal himself. Looking closely this creature is pretty ugly. Sometimes I tie the ant with a piece of string and let him down the hole. The ant lion grabs the ant and I grab the ant lion.
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| Ant Lion holes |
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| Ugly Ant Lion |
GrandUncle’s Death in Dinalupihan
People were milling around. I only recognized my uncle Tiyong Ser. I was so short that I could not see above the coffin but I wanted to take a look. I ask Tiyong Ser to pull me up. He did. The man on the coffin has a white bandage tied from the top of his head down to his chin wrapping his head. I don’t know what is the purpose of this. There is a hole in his face and traces of blood, still red. It was quite traumatic to see a dead person. I do not recognize the man who was in his sixties. Later on, I learned that he was the husband of Lola Tansing who is the older sister of my real grandmother Lola Menay. His name is Lacquian. Him and Tansing are well to do couple and owned lands around Bataan. The lands are used for planting rice. Called a haciendero, Lacquian was gunned down by two brothers over some altercation. My father who was the provincial engineer happened to be driving by and somebody told him that his uncle-in-law is laying on the road writhing from gun shots. Lacquian was shot dead on the road. Lacquian’s brother made sure that the two farmer brothers were apprehended, taken to court, and jailed for the murder they did.
Be’s comment: As far as I know the killing was by his tenants. If there was any connection with the "huks" it's not known. Manuel Lacquian was a strict landowner. His brother, Fausto Lacquian was a lawyer and took the case. Manuel also had an illegitimate son, "Manuel, Jr." with their maid. When Tansing (Constancia) died, there was a big squabble regarding the couple's properties since no direct heir(s). Until now some of the properties are still not settled on who gets what. Pol, tanks for this initiative. I'll contribute whenever I can gather together my thoughts.
Not too long after that, Lola Tansing died of stroke. We were still living in Washington and Tiyong Nico came from Dinalupihan with the news that Lola Tansing died. We did not attend but probably my mother and Lola Menay did.
A rare picture taken in Dinalupihan, Bataan. Sitting on the left is Fred, Thelma on the cart and Pol standing on the right. Behind Fred is Jaime Hipolito is a boyhood friend and distant relative. Notice that Fred and I are wearing suspenders. This picture must be taken in Lola Abe’s large backyard in the early ‘50s. Notice Fred has a smirk and Pol looks like he is about to cry. I think Fred said something scary. He used to do that to me and to Thelma. Jaime joined the US Navy. I saw him in Hawaii and he later retired in Cavite.
Got Lost In The Boonies
In one of the summer vacations there, there was a town parade related to the town’s fiesta. We were lined up with my mother, Lola Menay and others to watch the caratela go by. By the end of the parade I saw my mother on one of the caratela. So I leap down from the fence and ran to her. I must be distracted by the crowd because the next thing I knew the caratela where my mother was is gone. And the end of the parade just passed by. And the people watching including my group is gone! I was in unfamiliar territory because this street is behind Lola Abe’s house. And I was only seven years old. I found myself alone in the middle of the street. In panic I started running in one direction, then turning around the ran in the opposite direction. All the time I was crying. I reached the end of the long road and beyond that was nothing but ricefields. I was now in full panic mode and crying hard. A man found me and after asking my name and the name of my relatives, he took me to the Three Sister’s Restaurant (owned by three of my grandmothers). There were several people there all looking for me.
Comments:
Carmelita: It's really a scary experience to get lost but I think one time in our life all of us had to go thru that ordeal.
Omar: Nice story, Dad. Here are some questions: what town is this? what is a caratela? Besides that, I never knew that there was a restaurant in the family. What was that about?
Pol: The Three Sisters Restaurant was owned by lola Gaya, lola Bina and lola Lumen. There were sisters of lolo Gerardo. All of them are children of Inkong Talyo who is the brother of Inkong Nonoy. Nonoy is the father of lola Menay. A caretela is a horse drawn buggy sometimes called a calesa also.
The Three Sister Restaurant is owned by 3 grandmothers. But they are maybe second grandmas? Lola Menay used to have a karenderia during WWII. Karenderia is like a restaurant but smaller and more informal. It is usually turo-turo or you just point to the food and sit down. Thelma: I remember this 3 sisters restaurant at the middle of the town of Dinalupihan. Lola Gaya (Ligaya) was my godmother so I stayed there lots of time where I was served goodies (which I liked!). This happened during circa '50's and 60's. Lola Menay’s karenderia was actually owned by Lola Tansing and Lola Menay was the sort of “manager”. Ma Nelly would go there and helped out after her school work as a teacher. Pa used to hang out there and had a beer. This place was actually a bar. Ma and Pa met there. Now we know why he was in the bar when he was not a drinker. When the first Japanese invasion/bombings of Bataan happened, Pa was called to duty for re-construction of bridges. He wanted Ma and he to get married underneath some house stairs in the presence of the Justice of the Peace. That must be July 18th 1942 (not sure). It was chaos because Lola Menay never like Pa because he was so quiet and reserved. Ma told me lots of war stories and I’ll write/tell them whenever I get the urge to jiggle my memory.
Christmas in the Province
Sometimes we go to Dinalupihan for the Christmas Holiday. This is fun. I can go to relatives and they give me money because it is Christmas. The money is mostly a quarter but it accumulate after many visits. You just come over their house, kiss their hand and they hand you a coin. You then go your merry way. Even non-relatives may give you money if you are lucky.
When I was almost graduating from college I went to Dinalupihan with Jaime Sicat. Jaime is a close friend. It was just the two of us. We stayed at Lola Abe's house. Lolo Ipe passed away several years ago. We were having fun. We go to the bowling place, drink beer and play some more. I bought a cartoon of Chesterfield cigarettes which really tasted so good.
One night we were invited to a party. So Jaime and I went. It was in the back of a house facing open rice fields. It was December so the wind is quite cold. There were many party goers there mostly college students like us. They started dancing. I had my eye on this pretty lass so I walked up to her and asked her to dance with me. I was doing good and she was quite pretty. Then she said something about how is Ate Nelly? It turned out that she is a cousin (maybe distant) so I have to backtrack a bit. Hindi katalo meaning stay away from cousins.
