TSAPTER WAN, An A+ day
(This is the first of seven parts regarding my account of what went on. I am overwhelmed, to say the least, and I'm sure the others can fill in the details that I overlooked.)
It is now the day after the Great West Coast get-together. This morning, I finished downloading my van and washing all the coolers, tupperware and various food containers that we brought to the picnic. Over breakfast before going to church, my seven year old son, John was still excitedly talking about the foot-long trout that the guy next to him caught along the lake banks. It was indeed a fun day, and I’m sure all the other 40 to 50 K-listers family members and friends will agree with me.
The West Coast picnic started at 8:00 am with my arrival at the park to start setting up. ( I was suppose to be there by six, but you know, this is a Pinoy function so Pinoy time is the norm). :-) I had just finished hanging the banner when I saw a guy, wearing a K-listers Kool T-shirt, walking and looking around . I called out, “Alan!” I thought it was Alan Suarez who also said that he will be there by six o’clock. The guy yelled back, “Aku y Ariel.” It was Ariel Malig. Then it finally dawned on me, the realization that I didn’t know how any of the K-listers look like and neither did most of them, if not all, able to recognize the others.
I helped Ariel unload his stuff, and as we were struggling to light up the charcoal fire, a guy with a friendly smile showed up. He asked in Tagalog, “Anong Grupo ito?” Ariel and I answered in unison, “KAPAMPANGAN.” I thought there was even a hint of pride in our voices when we declared, “Kapampangan.” And so, we also helped Joe T. Gutierrez carry his goodies from the parking lot to our picnic area, all the while getting acquainted and getting introduced to Joe’s lovely wife Nimfa and son Joe Jr.
TSAPTER TU, An A+ day
Ariel and Joe started skewering the pork-on-a-sticks while I’m still trying to start the grill going. I was a little upset with myself for forgetting to bring the lighter fluid. It was at this point when a very dynamic guy arrived with his family. He boomed, “Alan,” as he extended his hand to us. I said, “It’s about time you got here, I’ve been here since six.” ;-) Alan and I finally got the two grills fired up and along with the portable one that Ariel brought with him, Tilapia, Bangus, Pork, Corn, and all kinds of delectables started sizzling.
We continuously fixed the place up, Joe and I relocated the banner between two great pine trees so it will be more visible to newcomers. Sarah, Alan’s very mahinhin (demure) wife and Nimfa were setting the table, while the two grillmeisters, Ariel and Alan were continuously wisecracking and got us laughing. I asked Patrick, Alan’s son, to help me with the name labels that I got from STAPLES per Dave Nepo’s suggestion. All the other K-listers started arriving with their families and friends. And everyone, including the babies had name labels on their chests.
One of the new arrivals was a young man with a fishing pole, I said “You must be Basilio dela Pena.” “Guess again,” said the sweet lady walking alongside him, “He’s my nephew,” she added. So I called out, “Christine?” And she nodded. It was Christine Jose, and her mom Imang Tinay was with her, too.
Another new arrival, a pretty young lady with her beau, approached me smiling as she probably saw my name label and recognized my name. I said, “Identify yourself.” And she cried “I’m Cher.” Cherry Lou Fernando introduced her fiancee, Oscar to us. I found out later during the day that Oscar is a K-lister too, albeit a lurker.
TSAPTER TRI, An A+ day.
Well, so far, I have not correctly identified a single person, but I will not be denied. Soon, I was looking at another new face, but wait a minute, the face did not look new at all. I saw the same facial features that I saw when I met Robert and Vic Sibal. I welcomed Val Sibal , who arrived with in-laws, baby strollers, and a very tasty dish that I have not eaten in many many years---PULUTOK.
I can’t remember whether it’s around this point or much earlier, but somebody could not restrain themselves anymore and wanted to start eating. Then we realized that there was no rice. NO RICE!!?? Pastor Joe got on the cell phone and called somebody, as this was short of an emergency. Before panic set in, my wife, Myra and my kids came to the rescue. They arrived with a big pot of steaming rice.
It was about 11:30 a.m, so, I started to give a speech. I paused for a moment to compose what I’m going to say, and ended up staring at all the food on the long picnic table. I took a deep breath to prepare to speak and ended up smelling the sweet aroma and my mouth watered. I looked around to address my audience and I glanced at Alan stroking his stomach, who a moment earlier said “Pakanan ta no deng anak, maranup na la ---Let’s feed the kids, they must be hungry already.” Well, the kids were already hungry and obviously, Alan too. I was going to give a welcoming speech and was planning to recite a narrative of how the picnic got to be, I was going to acknowledge all the K-listers, but instead, I settled for a brief, “Welcome, to the West Coast get-together, everybody. We will start with a short prayer (and I stressed SHORT), to be led by Pastor Joe.” Bro. Joe graciously led the invocation, and with that we started pigging out.
Shortly thereafter, A. Aida Aguas arrived with her kids, Joanna, Jerome, and James, bringing forth more great food, more rice(bless her), great ideas, great conversation, and a tape of K-songs. Between chewing and gulping down morsels of the best cuisine on earth, we surprisingly managed to have delightful conversations.
TSAPTER POR, An A+ day
I moved from sub-group to sub-group that developed within our picnic, trying to have a taste of every conversation, just like I tried to sample every one of the dishes in the party. But Alas, I couldn’t. Soon, my big stomach was even much bigger and other party activities demanded my attention away from the enlightening conversations.
There was a lot of discussion that could probably be good sources for K-list postings in months to come, so I won’t bother to discuss them in this posting. Besides, I will not have the full story anyways, as I was moving around from group to group, table to table, blanket-on-the-grass to another blanket-on-the-grass. Val had some interesting stories and K-insights, and while we were setting up the volleyball set earlier, I could hear Alan discussing his favorite topic---Health Care or the lack of it, it’s political and economic implications. A. Aida brought a copy of “Ing Susi,” the Kapampangan publication, and at one time she was showing some kind of “yearbook” with pictures of notable Kapampangans to my wife. Christine and Bro. Joe provided me with some background information regarding K-list postings before I joined in.
I enjoyed talking to the younger set. Imagine, a flower child of the sixties telling tall tales to the Generation-X set, and they were all buying it, listening and laughing at my jokes. :)) I thought I could give them some words of encouragement so they will succeed in their chosen professions--Cherry Lou who is a couple of years to becoming a doctor, Jerome who will graduate this year in Material Science Engineering, Joanna who already graduated and now works in a bank[?], Pastor Joe’s very pretty daughter(I can’t think of her name right now) who attends Chabot College, they all were fun to be with. Even the post Generation X’ers were fun. Joe Jr didn’t want a name label because he said his name is the same as his dad’s. :) And then there’s the cute babies, particularly Val’s, Alan’s kids and my kids. They played volleyball, badminton, they flew kites, and they played Bingo.
And what kind of games did the grown-ups play? GO TO THE NEXT CHAPTER
TSAPTER PAYB: An A+ day
And what kind of games did the grown-ups play at the picnic? Well, I challenged anybody in a game of “Tulak me ing ebun mu keng balasenas mu-- Push your egg with your eggplant.” In this game, an eggplant tied to a string is hanged almost touching the ground, between the legs of the participant, with the end of the string secured around the waist. An egg is placed on the ground in front of the player and with some pelvic movement, the player pushes the egg all the way across the finish line. The young men in the party were embarrassed to join, thinking it was a “nasty” game. I said it’s their minds that were nasty and I proceeded to win over Alan, who blamed his lost on his bad back. Ariel wanted to challenge me but the others despite their laughter begged us to stop this embarrassing swinging of our eggplants in a public place.
We had Halo-Halo, with real block ice and authentic ice shaver (pangudkud). What’s funny was we forgot to bring enough sugar. Lucky for us, we had enough sweeteners in the abundance of SANGKAP (ingredients) in the Halo-Halo. There was bukayung kamuti (sweetened yams), macapuno, scraped cantaloupes, and Ohhh, we topped the halo-halo with lots of heavenly Leche-plan; But the best Sangkap that made the halo-halo most special, is the friendship and the camaraderie that was very evident in this get-together.
Before the Halo-Halo, Christine had to leave because Imang Tinay was tired. We urged her to take a nap on one of the blankets that lay under the shade of the abundant pine trees. But with all the activity, the laughter, the games, and merriment going around, she insisted on going. And so we bid farewell to Christine & Co, and then Cherry and her Oscar also said Adios. Their excuse was they had to go to Daly City, then attend this show that incidentally was promoted by my little brother Felix. After the Halo-Halo, Val & Co. had to leave too. Then it was Alan & Company’s turn to leave.
TSAPTER SIKS, An A+ day
We also listened to a tape recording of K-songs. I was told that those soulful rendition of folk and love songs were by Marc and Dave Nepo’s dad. Bro. Joe and I tried to absorb the melody and find the chords with our guitars. I introduced a K-love song which I learned from the composer himself, my cousin from Magalang. Later, this developed into a full blown sing-along with A. Aida, Ariel, and our wives. Out came the JINGLES and songbooks. From “Atin Ku Pung Singsing,” “Ing Pangarap,”and “Aro Katimyas Na Nitang Dalaga,” we crossed culturally to Beatles, Cascades, Everly Brothers and Peter,Paul, and Mary songs. After each song, Joe, Ariel, and I would rate our rendition with a grade of F, C, C+, B minus, etc. We probably did mostly C+ with a few B minusses. I was straining with the harmony for the refrain of “Dream, Dream, Dream” when I glanced at my daughter, Kay who was shaking her head. It didn’t look like she was moving with the beat, then I remembered A. Aida’s son James’ reaction when his mom was dancing while we were singing---He covered his face and moved away. Our kids were getting embarrassed, which meant that we were really having fun. : ))
There was no real dancing, however. If Paul and Joy Tiglao had only made it, I bet we would have had an impromptu dance lesson. We missed all of you K-listers and I can assure you that you were all there with us in our conversations.
Well, all things must come to an end, it was about 6:00 pm, while I was in the middle of belting out “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” everybody decided that they’re satisfied, allright; either that or they’ve had enough of my singing, because this time I was really singing out loud. At any rate, it was time to go. We said goodbye to A. Aida & Co, Pastor Joe & Co, and Ariel.
TSAPTER SEBEN, DA KONKLUSYON: An A+ day
As we were getting ready to leave, my son complained that I have not yet taken him fishing. I looked around and the sun was still up. I thought I had been a little bit too self indulgent to forget about what I promised my only son, so I told my wife and my daughters to go on home---John and I will go fishing. Well, my youngest daughter Abi wanted to go fishing too, so she went with us. I watched as John gleefully casted and reeled with the fishing pole, as only a seven year old can, pausing every now and then when he thought he had felt a fish bite. It was really amusing to watch, considering that there was no bait at the end of the fishing line, but John could care less, he was having fun. Then, when he got tired, we took a long walk to the snack bar for some milk and orange juice.
As we were walking, we passed by two young lovers who were sprawled on their sleeping blanket by the lake, they were kissing passionately, seemingly impervious to everything else around them, until they heard mine and my kid’s voices. I pretended not to see them, I was admiring the scenery. The SCENERY, that’s when I realized that the K-listers didn’t even get to do this---not the kissing and the petting, silly, but enjoying the scenery and all the other activities that the park had to offer.
My kids and I sat close by the other fishermen along the lake shore, as we were finishing our drinks. A few minutes later, one of them reeled in a foot long trout, in addition to the three or four that he already have. My son and daughter screamed with delight. It was about 8:30 pm, the sun was down, we finished our refreshments and I told John and Abi, we had to go. While walking hand in hand to my van, my son said, “This is really neat, Dad.” I said, “Yeah, son, this is indeed NEAT.” John was commenting about the day’s events, but I was looking at a bigger picture---the success of the get-together and the bigger possibilities that awaits this Kapampangan group. I must admit, though................It had been an A+ day.
SEQUEL: West Coast Get-together, An A+ day
In addition to all the other things that I have previously reported, there were some that I forgot to mention. So, for the benefit of those who were not there, just try to imagine these details:
The banner: Eight feet long with Neon colored writing. In Mistral font, 6 inch high letters -- “Ume ko Queni, Kabalen” Underneath it, in 3 inch high letters of Arial font, all uppercase letters is “KAPAMPANGAN-L@SANPABLO.JUNE7.1997.PICNIC.ORG.
The picnic site: overlooking the lake, beneath the shade of many tall pine trees. The lake scenery was beautiful but we didn’t have the chance to go boating and explore the place out.
The food: Besides quality, there was quantity. In all my life, I’ve never been in one party where there was so many ripe mangos--I saw several boxes of them. There was so much food that what I ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the day after the picnic, was balutan (to-go) from the picnic. One good observation and comment was that at the Far East Get-Together our fellow K-listers ate Pizza (Armando’s Pizza), while we here in the states pigged out on Filipino food.
As expected, the unexpected happened. Here are some of Murphy’s manifestations:
I brought my camera and three rolls of film, but my camera battery went dead. Never got to shoot a single picture.. Sorry, Edwin C., A. Gina Gueco, Marivi M., and all the others who urged us to take lots of pics. Hopefully, the few that Christine and A. Aida took will come out alright · Christine brought a laptop computer but we didn’t use it. · I brought a portable propane stove, a coleman lantern, horseshoes, a cot, a chess/checkers set. Never got to use them. I brought a bubble maker so the little kids could make bubbles but I forgot to take it out of the box. · I forgot to bring cups for the Halo-Halo, good thing Nimfa Gutierrez brought enough cups, but we had to really conserve them and reuse them, Pinoy style. We brought salmon heads to cook sinigang with, but there was too much food, we never got to cook the sinigang. I stuck the salmon heads back in the freezer, I don’t know if they’re still good.
DI END!!!
COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS AND OTHER K-LISTERS
Date Created: June 9, 1997
last Updated: June 9, 1997