In the Philippines, where the temperature can go as high as 38 degrees Celsius, people have only one goal in the summer months of March to May: cool down. Back in the ‘80s, the lucky ones got to spend a week in what is considered the Summer Capital, Baguio City, or a few days in the 2nd Summer Capital, Tagaytay City. Some went to their respective provinces, which may or may not be much cooler than Manila but at least guaranteed new surroundings to explore and the presence of relatives to entertain bored city folk.

The rest of us, however, had to stay in Manila to endure the heat and entertain ourselves.

In a time where cable TV, Playstation and the Internet were unheard of, this was easier said than done.

Metro Manila Info

Population: 1,654,761 (city); 9,454,040 (metropolitan area).
Ethnic mix: 91.5% Christian Malay, 4% Muslim Malay, 1.5% Chinese, others 3%.
Time zone: GMT + 8 (GMT + 9 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).
Average January temp: 25°C (77°F).
Average July temp: 28°C (82.5°F).
Annual rainfall: 2030mm (80 inches).
SOURCE: Tiscali Travel

After a breakfast of pandesal and Milo or Ovaltine, my day would officially begin with a viewing of Batibot, a popular educational children’s show, the Sesame Street of the Philippines if you will; although we did get Sesame Street in Manila. Then, it was out of the house to play with other kids, if there were still any left in the neighborhood, that is.

I learned my Filipino games in the summer. Usually a grown up, my mother or some older cousins, would teach us the rules and leave us to it so that we would, in turn, stay out of their hair. There was Langit-Lupa, literally Heaven-Hell, which was like tag but where players were safe from the “It” if they were in an elevated place or “Heaven”; Tumbang Preso, Kick the Can where players use their rubber slippers to knock the can over; Patintero, line tag with a surprisingly complicated set of rules depending on the “sophistication” of the players; and Piko, a cousin to the hopscotch. Other games were the Luksong Tinik, Monkey Monkey Annabel, and Agawang Base.

We spent hours under the sun playing those games. Playtime usually lasted ’til twilight, ending only because it was too dark to see the lines we drew on the streets with shards of broken terra cotta pots for Patintero. Rare was the summer where my knees or elbows went unscathed.

There were two interruptions to playtime, however. One was nap time and the other was snack time. All over the Philippines, mothers in the ’80s were begging, cajoling, and/or threatening their kids to go to sleep at 1 in the afternoon. Siesta was a habit Filipinos got from the Spanish and I took every chance I could get to escape it. For one thing, it was too hot to sleep. But mostly, I just wanted to play.

I’m sure everyone in my generation has heard the story of the tricycle driver/fishball vendor/taho vendor who kidnapped bad children who didn’t take a nap in the afternoon. Adults will say anything to make you go to sleep at 1. I used to pretend to be asleep then sneak out of the house the minute my mother finally dozed off. Of course, sneaking out meant staying quiet or risk getting caught and that meant no Agawan Base, Tumbang Preso or any of the other games.

Good thing our house at the time had a lot of fruit-bearing trees. As an alternate (much quieter) activity, my friends would climb the guava, makopa and star apple trees in our backyard while I caught everything down below with my shirt.

As for the second interruption to playtime: snack time. There were treats available only in the summer which made the heat just a little more bearable. The word for snacks taken in the afternoon is “merienda,” and for merienda, one could always count on the neighbors to sell halo-halo and ice candy.

Put kaong, nata de coco, jackfruit, slices of banana and sweet potato, monggo beans, gelatin, yam, rice crispies and leche flan in a glass, top it with shaved ice, add sugar and condensed milk and voila! You’ve got halo-halo! Ice cream on top optional.

There’s always one house in every street selling it. And even if the one in my street was a bit stingy on the sweeteners, my mom would just add sugar and condensed milk and it would be as good as Little Quiapo’s (a popular resto famous for its halo-halo).

Ice candy is really just frozen juice in a long plastic, the end of which children nibble on to suck the ice candy. If every street has a house with a halo-halo sign, ice candy signs sightings come to about five per block. It’s cheap, it’s easy to make, and kids spend all their summer allowance on it. I asked my mom a couple of times to make them so I could put up an “Ice Candy for Sale” sign on our gate as well, but my brother and I just ended up eating everything ourselves.

Good times, those.

Sometime around May, if my brother and I had been good all throughout the summer (which means they thought we took all those naps we were supposed to take), we would be rewarded by a trip out of town for a swim or some cool mountain breeze. Sometimes it would be Laguna, for a dip in swimming pool or hot spring, sometimes we would head to the beaches in Batangas, Subic, Cavite, Bataan, La Union or Pangasinan, and sometimes our trip would take us to cool Tagaytay. Always we would make it just before school began again with the accompanying rains, and even a typhoon or two thrown in for good measure.

I used to envy my classmates when we were asked to write about how we spent our summer vacations. I used to think my summers weren’t nearly as exciting or exotic as theirs. When I think about it now, those were probably some of the best days of my childhood. Lazy days where I was free to simply be a kid, and where the pressures that come with growing up seemed far away.

Mela is a Halfway Staff Writer

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