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Before ready-made pants, there was your neighborhood "sastre" or tailor. Ours was a small shop a few yards from our house called "Leoder's." All my pants during my high school years were made there. And since that was during the early 70's, they were mostly made out of double knit, gabardine, or ITM. So you had to have them "perma-pressed". Remember that one? Shops had signs on them – "We do Perma Press." And usually for P 3.00 per pair of pants. For the uninitiated, it's a process where a really, really sharp crease is permanently pressed on your double knits. The sharper, the better. And voila! Your pair is permanently ironed! Levi's had a similar thing called "Sta-Press."
My high school being UE Caloocan, all my trousers were blue. Always blue. "Come on, mom, can I get another color for Christmas?" "Of course not, this way you can also use them for school." Always blue. And oh yes, my grade school years at St. Joseph Academy (La Consolacion School, later on) were of white t-shirts/polo and blue (sheesh) pants. My tailor then was a small shop at A. Mabini called "Marmatic." Charming name. But yep, always blue. And you have to buy clothing materials at Divisoria. Always Divisoria.
1973. Levi Strauss opened shop in the Philippines. Now available at Manila COD. Had to pester my pop for a pair. Good thing my brother joined in the chorus. And so off we merrily went to Cubao. And off my father's profane mouth went when he saw the price. "P75 para sa isang maong?!?" Eh nung panahon namin mga kaminero lang ang naka-maong ah!" What the hell is a "kaminero?" Luckily for us though, there was a Levi's "factory seconds" bin for P35 a pair. My first pair of Levi's at last, with a huge "SECOND" emblazoned on the label patch at the back. Who cares? I loved that pair. It was so hard and tough that it made a swishing sound when you walked by. I mean, even if you fainted, you won't fall down. It will hold you up! I had that with me untill well within my college days.
And then came Wrangler. Theirs sold at P 90 per pair. Danny one-upped me again when I saw him wearing one. "My sister bought it for me," he said. Damn! Wish I had a sister like that. Anyway, from then on, there came a flood of jeans with labels like "Wynner" and "Walk Tall" etc. And the neighborhood tailors went ouf of business.
Oh yeah, during my HS senior year there came "Bang Bang" and "Faded Glory." They were denim jeans flared to the max with a bullet proof metal plate at the back designed to save you in case you get shot in the ass. I never wore one.
And I had to slip this in…Arnold Gamboa and his square pants. Tee hee. Henry Roxas wore one.
Like most families on the east side of Metro Manila, our house went underwater last September 26. This was the worst natural disaster I have ever experienced directly. I am not going to write about that day though.
The earliest typhoon I could remember is “Dading” in 1964. I was four and I distinctly remember the howling of the wind the night it hit the city. I was in my bed and looking up the ceiling wondering what the noise was all about. I remember my parents getting real worried as the storm approached. There was no power for several days.
The many write-ups about Ondoy’s onlaught last Sept. 26 brought to mind another incident. Ondoy, they said, broke a record in terms of rainfall, surpassing a 1967 downpour that flooded most of the Greater Manila area, as it was called then. Yup, 1967. I remember our house getting flooded. We had to move via a stepping stone of dining chairs as the floodwater, no more than a foot high though, inundated the first floor of our house. My dad was furious as we just bought a new refrigerator then. Luckily though, it wasn’t damaged.
The all-time most destructive typhoon, in terms of wind strength, was Yoling in 1970. Code named internationally as “Patsy”, the typhoon struck mid-November, just a week after my lola died. On the way to Holy Cross Memorial Park the day after Yoling hit, there was nary a house with an intact roof along Baesa in Quezon City. It was utter devastation. Power was off for two maybe three weeks.
Almost forgot, the earthquake that toppled the Ruby Tower in Manila – August 2, 1968. I was 8 and in a daze when my mom woke me up 2 maybe 3 am with the whole house shaking. I wasn’t really scared, I was just figuring out what was happening. I remember the live TV feed from the felled buildings. My father, who’s never the religious guy, went to church with us in tow the Sunday after that.
Here’s something not most people remember. April 7, 1970, 1:34 pm, an intensity 7 earthquake hit the metropolis. It was terrifying in that it was the first earthquake I’ve experienced wide awake. My brother and I were watching an old Tagalog movie on Channel 5. When Van de Leon slapped Lolita Rodriguez and she fell to the floor, the tremor struck. Everything around us went shaking wildly and I held on to my brother like mad. Though damage and casualties were few, it prompted a movie producer to make a movie, “Intensity 70”, with Novo Bono Jr. and Sahlee Quizon, if I’m not mistaken.
There was a scene in “All the President’s Men” where Jason Robards playing Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post was brainstorming with his staff on what news items should be included in an issue of the paper. One quipped “31 days of continuous rains in the Phillipines attributed to the theft of the statue of the child Jesus.” Let me tell you something, Ondoy was a picnic compared to those 31 days in July-August of 1972.
The 30+ day downpour started, and I cannot forget this, on my birthday July 18. It was fairly overcast that morning and so right after classes, my brother treated me to a movie in Avenida. We saw John Wayne’s “The Green Berets.” That afternoon, when we left the theater, it started. It was the proverbial “cats and dogs” kind of rain. And there was no let-up until a month later. Imagine if that will happen today.
Past Tense 