The Echoes of Our Youth

Senior year of high school is a busy time to be a teenager. It’s also full of events that are specifically designed to serve as capstones for our high school experience, like prom and graduation. As we reach the end of the year, these events will come on thick and fast. We find that these senior events are a lot of fun and a chance to end high school on a high note. However, we might also find ourselves worrying about whether we’re doing the right things to enjoy these events properly.   After all, we’re supposed to remember these milestones for the rest of our lives, right? The memories are treasures from high school. And remembering these events are alright.

Do your remember your first dining date at Urdu’s? That place is supposedly the “in thing” at the time. The location is precariously sits right next to Tarlac Cathedral, where most notable places like Norma’s Variety, Cervantes Press, Asiong’s Restaurant, Macapinlac shoes, the Post Office and the beautifully crafted Maria Clara Park  with its tall leaning statue of Francisco Makabulos, the known Tarlac hero.

And strolling down the street from the church, with its busy stores, F. Tanedo Street serves as the main market road for the- then Tarlac town which is now called City of Tarlac. It boasts its 400K population and is one of the bigger cities in the country.  
            Echoing the times of our youth in the city, Tarlac High School witnessed many first in our lives.

FelNor is the hangout of just everyone. Every after class, most students drop by for a drink or two or just simply sit in as place to chat and end the day’s often-told stories of the day and whine the latest from everyone. At noon, we troop to refresh “Sa Malamig”.  The provincial capitol which faces the Maria Christina Park is a haven for would-be boyfriend-girlfriend during our time. Just about everyone have enjoyed its well-cultured greeneries, the slopes and the hilly steps of the park. Parang Luneta ng Tarlac.

            Remember our motor pool classes? It’s the old tenement of machine workers converted into classrooms, where we had the Misses Navarros, Garcías, Cuchapins, Tabagos, Dizons, Flaminianos and the lot. We all had to go up and down the stairs just to catch up with our classes, despite the heave of dust and airy smell of burn tires in the neighborhood. While classes are ongoing, we hear all the motorcycles noise and the blowing horns of jeepneys and cars just a few feet away from the street in San Roque. Those school rooms after all were pieces of wooden fixtures to keep the second years students afloat. Tarlac High had three areas of classrooms. The main building for 4th and third years. The motor pool for the second years. And the grandstands for fist years withs sections cloistered up to 21 classes. Marami tayo noong first year. By fourth year, we are whittled down to 12 sections, almost half, after 4 years. By then we had our favorites: Cala, Mamawal, Cunanan, Manipon, Valete, Dizon and Melting Pot was the school organ. Remember?

And mostly, there are many “lasts” to remember—our last choral performance, our last class with a favorite teacher, our last exams, our last class meeting, our last time to mingle with classmates before our graduation. That includes our last get together with our classmates, the Ruby Reunion of July 14, 2012.

 These “lasts”, however, have been turned into so many memories captured in our androids and iPhones. They are so simple and easy to remember and recapture. While we never had the chance to recapture those sceneries of our youth, we can count those memorable places, getting nostalgic about our movies we sat at Del Ros, Remedios, Alice, Art and Aurora theaters, lest we forget about Bonnifer and Mayflower. While funeraria Enriquez became a meeting place for our departed classmates, we also had to get our socials at the old Tarlac Bowling Lanes along Mac Arthur highway, Cindy’s and Antigua. And then we had the plush Vilmar Hotel and Restaurant, Grandmas Hotel, Hongkong Inn Hotel (across Bayanihan Institute) where we could have visited if only, we had additional bucks in or pockets.

As we get to meet and share another precious moment in our Golden Reunion, let’s see how many faces and names you can remember among our classmates. It’s a tricky moment, but we are all still here.