This is my first try to put up a BLOG and I suppose that I could entice a lot of netizens to view and read my postings which would center on FAMILY, FRIENDS and FUN. I would deliberately avoid matters such as POLITICS and the current state of affairs of our country, the Philippines (i.e. the monstrous traffic, the ubiquitous criminality, the “pork barrel” scam, etc.) just as not to add any further “stressors” and other causes of stress unto the viewing/reading public. I was enticed to put up this BLOG by my sister-in-law Amy Gillera-Young and my UP Law classmate, who is now based in Michigan, USA — Jose Camano, after I was cautioned, having recently become an FB follower, that FB messages should be short; longer ones…”well, you have to put up a BLOG”.
I chose the title RUMINATIONS AND PEREGRINATIONS with an acronym that spells “RP” so that one way or the other, I could identify still with my nationalistic fervor for our country the Philippines. Well, the Aquino administration however has adopted a new acronym after realizing perhaps that the acronym “RP” is a bit macabre ( as”RP” is more often associated with the popular tomb’s epitaph “REST IN PEACE“, thus adopting the supposedly more genial acronym “PH”). But with PH as acronym, I would be compelled to come up with an “acronym’ pun like PEREGRINATIONS AND HIBERNATIONS…and it sounds not so enticing particularly the HIBERNATION portion of the title…as HIBERNATION denotes dormancy.
Well…focusing now on the PEREGRINATION portion, I went on a trip to the USA in August of this year together with my Daddy Max, who is 93 years old and still is YOUNG and HEALTHY. A lot of people would mistake my Daddy Max as a mere SEXAGENARIAN as he still sports a heap of hair, walks sprightly and plays competitive badminton regularly. Our trip to the USA provided Daddy Max the chance to visit his father’s tomb at the Santa Clara Catholic Cemetery in California and to reunite with his half-sister, Auntie Aida Breslin-Young, whom she first met 77 years ago when Daddy Max strove to find and look for his biological father in Cebu City.
In July of 1922 when Daddy Max was born in Toledo City in Cebu, he was put up immediately by his biological mother, Lola Emilia Purisima, into some kind of informal adoption unto her distant relatives. The reason for this sort of knee-jerk reaction on the part of our biological grandmother was her fear that with her young age then, and not lucratively employed, she would not have the capacity to raise a child into this world.
Daddy Max’s foster parents who were inhabitants of Opon, Cebu now Lapu-Lapu City, who came to nurture us, me and my siblings, and treated us as their grandkids were however so caring and thoughtful. Indeed, despite the distance from Cebu to Manila, actually here in Quezon City, Lola Genia and Lolo Julio Mariñas would regularly send us foodstuffs via an inter-island boat from Cebu to Manila’s North Harbor, such as FISH, other kinds of native delicacies and at times, live hogs even.
Lola Genia and Lolo Julio kept on visiting us and would come frequently to our place here in Murphy, Cubao, Quezon City; despite the fact that when Daddy Max eventually learned that he is not their biological son, Daddy Max ran away, became a stow-away kid and never returned to their Opon, Cebu home. Consequently, Daddy Max went into working on odd jobs until Daddy Max became a shipping clerk of the Negros Navigation Company.
The circumstances which led to Daddy Max’s discovery that he was not Lola Genia’s child came about as Daddy Max would be wont to always ask Lola Genia as to why he sports fair-colored skin while his supposed siblings are all auburn-complexioned. Daddy Max eventually became a USAFFE soldier, a war hero and an unexpected US scholar to Fort Knox Armored Force School having topped the competitive exams, though reaching 2nd year high school only, to the consternation and vehement protests of college grad examinees who were also eyeing a trip to Fort Knox. All of these I will narrate in my sequel postings and more about family, friends, and fun.
