SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN . . .
February 4, 2009
[ Notes from YLB : even as we are still trying to make tagpi-tagpi together a coherent, thematic reply to the awesome replies of SNEG brothers "Batman" & "Robin" (Heath Ledger na lang ako), here comes this wonderful sliver of news that . . . yes! Separated-at- birth bro SIMON.S has been located, thanks to Google! Maps and haystack-sifting needle-lifting Larry-Alcala- defying skills of KUYASONNY . . . this probably breaks the current record of 28-29 years for the last batchmate located, re time spent away from the rest of the batch. Frankly, kakainggit yung "Guess Who" contest ni DOCGERRY, just to keep up Ive thought of mine own batch brainbuster, which even as we speak will most likely appear at the end of this post ]
Dear batchmates, batch and kabatch:
IF YOU EVER want to see how a particular community or culture reacts to or tolerates kids, formally or candidly, among the best gauges or measuring tapes, so to speak, are a fast food place (like a McDo's), a moviehouse, and inside a passenger airplane.
Anyone can bring kidz to a foodcourt, especially one in malls where entrance/exits are porous and no one really cares who comes in and stays. But you'd be surprised how many parents use these places as extensions of their homes. Really, we're not wet blankets and enjoy watching kids, especially toddlers, discovering the world around them, but some parents just start devouring their meals and let the offspring loose without regard to where they might wander to. Some couples bring as much as three or four kids, allow them to run free as they please as long as the food is consumed while hot.
We're not sure if Asians are the ones who do this oftenest, but Pinoys, Chinese, Vietnamese, and hindus all do this from time to time. usually it's alright but when the kids are the type who run around like they're trying to burn off excess energy, the natural result is the food court becomes a playground. Funny, its usually the same parents who leave their very small kidz at the McDo playground, as well, ignore them almost the whole time theyre there, and return to collect the child / children only when the latter are already bawling.
Most of the time, other diners just let these young'uns walk around, but we can't help but get concerned if they wander too far off or fall prey to unscrupulous characters which, as we all know, just salivate at the prospect of situations like these, after which unsavory scenarios unfold.
we don't know why, but almost the whole time we were a kid, before, during and after Hogwartz, probably because wandering around was frowned upon, every time our folks brought us out to eat, whether to Panciteria Moderna (on Ongpin), Max's (near TM Kalaw), Lido's or Milky Way, we were always expected to stay in our seats long after dinner, listen to our elders kwento and make conversation ourselves. During the odd handa prepared in school by a very thoughtful parent of batchmate, we usually kept to our seats while the cake and ice cream was being distributed, and even sang happy birthday to the sneering celebrant, who probably didnt even want to be serenaded . Was it JAMESDY'S mom who brought snacks during his birthday and made sure all of us had some? Im almost sure FIDEL E.'s mama Tsai Lao Shi also brought treats on her son's behalf, of course her proximity made it easier for her to do so.
But going back to testing people's tolerance to parents bringing unruly kids with them, isnt it sometimes amazing how clueless people get when they bring their kidz with them to the sinehan? Like, not only will the rest of the viewers not be able to understand the movie, much less enjoy it, the parents themselves will get so occupied shushing, going after, and bringing out the kidz for bathroom breaks that a peaceful, enjoyable night of panunood becomes practically impossible. Makes you wonder why the folks brought the kids out, especially kung hindi naman kids movie, which is more often than you may think.
On the reverse side of the coin, we remember ultra-nerdy kids trying to act cool and appease the sci-fi fanaticism in them, imploring the usher to let them in kahit walang ID. We refer to none other than YLB and DOCGERALD who tried to watch "Demon Seed" on that moviehouse near the corner of CM Recto and Rizal Avenue ( forget the name of the place na ) one humid Thursday just about 30 schoolyears ago. Other than the fact that it was "For Adults Only," we didnt understand why we werent allowed to watch it, well forgive us for being naive. Still remember that DrG? Can u tell if KUYASONNY was with us? If we recall right, we were able to see "Logan's Run" naman, another sci-fi classic. Grabe, those were the days.
But the best example of discerning how groups of people react to out-of-d-ordinary behavior of kids not their own, one only has to experience a longer-than- average flight that has infants, very young kids, and hyperactive pre-teens all forming part of the mindless, chaotic tableau. To qualify, the out of the ordinary behavior pertains to anything adults wouldnt do (which begs the question: why the need to define such behavior then? ewan ko po ) , kids have to be unrelated to you, and the flight has to be six hours or longer.
Again, we are parents ourselves, exercise remarkably sustained tolerance for kids, especially the ones who are bibo and charming, and are as understanding as the next person, but we are as human as anyone else.
With that said, can you imagine, for the majority of the flight, two babies wailing, crying themselves to a coma, and screaming at the top of their lungs at nothing, nothing at all, despite all efforts to feed, lull them to sleep, distract them with stories, etc? They must have taken turns, cuz the first crying fit took place soon after takeoff, the 2nd sometime during the 3rd or 4th hour of the flight, and the last crying episode took place an hour or two before landing. Me encore and repeat performances pa. Which was why it became clear to us why some parents bring along cold and cough remedies that sometimes come in handy in giving infants (as well as the rest of the passengers) beddy bye time.
The only childhood memories we have salvaged in air travel was looking out the window almost throughout the duration of the trip, devouring every little bit of the airline dinner, and the grinding of our teeth as we tried to sleep seated, for the first time. Needless to say, we were animatedly quiet the whole trip, a less-than-2- hour sojourn to Hongkong. No crying fits, no co-passengers that we drove crazy.
Which reminds us: the passengers were remarkably tolerant of the kids crying, running around and jamming up the line to the toilet, which spoke volumes about how level-headed everybody was, remember this was a loooong flight where everyone was cooped up in less than a few square meters of cramped space, not to mention the intermittent pockets of turbulence and stuffy air all around.
It was then that we realized you dont have to be a parent or close to kids to tolerate and bear their most unsufferable behavior: for all their craziness, kids provide us a mirror with which to view ourselves, when we were our most curious, charming irrepressible selves, ready to take on the world and eager to learn whatever it offered to teach us.
* * *
Guess Who Pa Rin: We've always marveled at how we've had alter-egos in the form of Chinese names throughout Hogwarts: it was our second name, our call signs during Chinese period, our aliases other times, and the words we resorted to in Ta Khai when we ran out of imagination, during Chinese calligraphy. We remember a few Chinese names, see if you remember who owns them? (we include clues where available; everything is in Pinyin for consistency' s sake )
"Zhuang Jia Lin" - she is thrown a homecoming bash by batchmates back home as shown in a few of the website pics, was a Chinese singing talent, had lots of sisters in school as well.
"Shi Wei Wei" - this is a giveaway as the name has been mentioned more than once in the e-group. Also a songbird.
"Huang Tian Jing" - hard to give clues as this guy is quite popular, lets just say he was Big Man on Campus
"Zheng Fu Ming" - He was tops in positions of leadership, responsibility, academics, even athletics, extra-curriculars. . .lahat na ata eh. Was in one of the pics of DocGerry's album.
"Zhuang Yu Xia" - I think the middle word means "jade" but Im not sure, she has blossomed into a striking beauty these last few years, like us was in Sec A throughout most of elementary, I saw her figure prominently in the 25th Anniv Reunion video. THAT should be a substantial clue.
oh yan, andami ko nang clues. . . sana you can come up with your own (names) na rin?
Thanks for the memories !
YLB
NOel