Hello Steemians,

It's Joemz again! Just wanna share a bit of my life and my experiences during my childhood days. This could be a lengthy one but please bear with me. This won't waste your precious time!

Enjoy reading!

My Special Day

On a stormy evening, on the 14th day of August 1975, the first born of 11 siblings was born in a small nipa hut thru the help of a local midwife (hilot) via normal delivery. I was named after Saints Joseph, Mary (parents of Jesus) and Athanasius (Doctor of the Church, Father of Orthodoxy). I carried the name Joemar Atanacio from that time on.

My grandfather on a father-side was my frequent visitor for more than two weeks in a row until his death on 2nd day of September 1975. It was quite a tragic death since no other symptoms manifested aside from yellow coloring of his eyes and skin. Cause of death was a liver ailment, hepatitis B.

My Parents

My father is a fisherman up to the present. He became a barangay police officer before and now a deputized forest ranger of some kind. My mother was a Barangay Health Worker, Brgy. Secretary then a Barangay Kagawad (Council) member then a Catholic Catechist.

My Hometown

Our place, Bayani, Naujan, is situated at Naujan Lake, located in the northeastern corner of the province of Oriental Mindoro on Mindoro Island. It is the fifth largest freshwater lake in the Philippines and the main geographical feature of the Naujan Lake National Park.

This lake inhabits migratory birds, crane, tilapia, shrimps, varieties of gourami, catfish, mudfish, golden carp, freshwater crocodile: Mindoro Crocodile or Bukarot, and other species of birds and freshwater fishes.

Once in a while, my relatives would catch a Bukarot unintentionally and they will make it like a beef jerky and then they will give us the teeth to make as ornaments and amulets.

Unfortunately, Bukarot now is an endangered species and being protected in captivity.

My Childhood

My childhood was a colorful one and memorable.

I learned how to swim at an early age since our house is just 50meters away from the river that is connected to the lake. Creativity honed my early years since no gadgets yet that time unlike the children of today. Our modern technologies give luxurious way of living for the kids of this new generation. Online and computer games made kids to be lazy – lazy to go to school, study, read a book and help their mothers on chores. They are accustomed to technology improvements and advancements. Back then, because of limited resources or should I say because we can’t afford to buy toys in a huge toy store, we end up creating our own toys. We invented the stuffs we used for playtime, to keep our bored days happy.

We used to play toy guns out of banana and coconut leaves or sometimes young bamboo branch,

Riding a Raft

using banana tree trunks after the storm, Taguan or hide-and-seek during the night,

Tumbang-preso

or hitting-the-tin-can,

Luksong-baka

or jump-over-the-cow,

Luksong-tinik

or jump-over-the-thorns,

Trumpo

or top,

Tayakad

using bamboo branch or coconut shells,

Saranggola or guryon or papagayo

or kite flying that is being done as an annual event in my hometown's plaza during Easter Sunday

together with the # Moriones Festival,

Pukpok-palayok

or hitting the pot and

Pabitin

during Patron Saint's day,

Teks,

Pagulong

using old motorcycle or bicycle tires,

Patintero,

Holen

or marbles,

Piko,

Sipa

and many more.

Those games actually helped me what I am today and every child of my era. I have many friends because of the interactions made by the games itself. A child will learn to have teamwork, to decide by himself, to become independent and many other attributes that will help a child to shape his attitude and attributes.

Life then was really simple and those were the days I really miss!

But that’s life. We have to move on and we have to adapt with what the world is offering at the present moment but never forget the lessons of the past!