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From Down Under Cesar Reyes introduces....

                The  QPHS 69ers' Webmaster

                                               
                                             JOHNNY P. JARDIN

With a Santa cap on, he flashes his broad grin from the recent Christmas
family photo that sits in my study. His children and mine are all smiles in another picture that he has turned into a 2000 calendar. In the dining room hangs a wall clock,  a present from him from a few years back. Under a kitchen bench stands a rice dispenser he sent when rice dispensers were unheard of and unseen in Sydney. In the family room is an intercom unit that he thought would be handy in sending messages up to the girls.  In another room. . . and so on.

My home is full of reminders of a special friend, Johnny Paleracio Jardin,
the QPHS 69ers' Webmaster. While they say a lot about the guy, they
are not what make him special. Our friendship goes deeper than the
tangibles. It goes back to 1966 when he and I were in the second year of
high school - specifically, the school holidays following that academic
year.

Even then Johnny knew the value of time well-spent. Through his sister
Arsenia, he was able to secure a job for himself and for me at the local
engineering office, the motor pool. We were both very excited as we looked
forward to learning some motor mechanics. How disappointed we were when all
we got assigned to do was some filing and typing. Still, that was better
than being idle that summer. We were each paid about P70  a fortnight - not
much these days but a lot then, especially for  a 14-year old.

From then on, Johnny and I spent a lot of time together. Our hangout was the
home of another 69er, Fernando (Boy) Abcede in Lucena's Pantoc District where another 69er, Sig Atienza also lived.This made me coin RAJA (Reyes, Abcede, Jardin, Atienza) for the four of us. By the following school year, however, we became RAJAH - after being joined by Johram Hernandez also a 69er and a very good friend and neighbour in  Iyam. (Photo taken at the Abcede residence April 1, 1970).

This is a profile on Johnny but it might as well be the RAJAH's as the five of us practically grew up together. Making our music - with Johnny on the guitar, riding our bikes all over town, getting keen on girls, experimenting with cigarettes and alcohol, going to discos  and engaging in not-so-interesting stuff like doing the odd homework and cramming on examination days. How we managed to get our high school diploma still puzzles us. (Photo taken -  1972)

A phase of  high school that really had us preoccupied was the aspiration to be an officer of the Preparatory Military Training (PMT). For that we submitted to the seemingly endless humiliations of the Cadet Officers Candidate Corps (COCC) initiations and the rigorous training during the junior year. But it was all worth it at the end. Johnny became Deputy Corps Commander (2nd highest rank in the PMT) and the rest of the RAJAH held top posts, too. Did we all look smart in our PMT uniform!  We got to enjoy the company of the officers and other members of the WAS (Women's Auxiliary Service) after school and on joint-activities like bivouacs and the  PMT/WAS Ball. More importantly, the prestige and the training that came with the job somehow made us strive to be better individuals.

Life for the RAJAH remained more or less the same after high school. Except for Johram  who went to Manila, we stayed in Lucena and enrolled at the Luzonian University (now the Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation).Johnny took up Business Administration but left to join the U.S. Navy on November 6, 1972.

The day Johnny left was a gloomy one for the RAJAH - metaphorically and literally. For months, the country was buffeted by one typhoon after another. There was water everywhere - reminiscent of Noah's time. After years of irresponsible logging and clearing of forests, the country was flooded. The Philippine skies were laden with tears and so were we - inside. We were good at putting up fronts though. We joked about as we passed the hat. We chipped-in whatever money we had to send Johnny on his way.

Johnny - being Johnny - showed his appreciation and thanks for our friendship in a way only Johnny could. In July of 1974, Johnny's first visit to the Philippines after joining the Navy, we were all invited to join him in Olongapo, Zambales.  He invited the four of us (Fernando, Sig, Johram and myself) over to U.S. Naval Station Subic Bay .He made us experience what he had enjoyed for the last eighteen months - sparing us the mundane and the unsavoury. The four of us certainly had a taste of the good life. (Photo taken - July 1974... note flair pants)

Johnny and I went our separate ways as boys. When we met again we were grown- up men, each with our own family. Although he sent the occasional  postcard from whatever part of the world he was, it was not until November 1986 that we got together again. I was visiting my folks in New York when I made a  side trip to San Francisco to see him. He and his young family were then living in Vallejo, a suburb of the City by the Bay, San Francisco. It was a pleasure to meet his charming wife, Laura, the most gracious host whose culinary skills made me remark,  "You should open a restaurant." (Photo taken - Nov, 1986)

Johnny's meeting Laura is a fine example of kapalaran ko'y di  man hanapin, kusang lalapit, kung talagang akin. (My good fortune, I may not seek, will find its way to me if it's really mine.)  - although not instantly.  Johnny was home-based in San Diego, California onboard USS CLEVELAND (LPD-7) went on  emergency leave in April (1976) to attend his father's funeral. Back at U.S. Clark Air Force Base in Angeles City, Pampanga he  was getting ready to return to the U.S. when he ran out of money. Johnny rented a car at Special Services  to go to Subic Bay to get paid. At the Special Services counter was this fair, long-haired  beauty with a captivating smile, named Laura Nacpil.  Having been with the U.S. Navy for over three years, Johnny did not find it hard to make connections: name, address, phone number, etc.

Nothing much came of that incidental meeting though. It was only in the following year that our Don Juancho took the first few steps in establishing some sort of relationship. Prior to being stationed in Seoul, Korea (October 1976), he spent his recreation leave in the Philippines. He visited Laura on and off but stayed in Lucena most of the time. Still, Johnny must have started something brewing because halfway through his Korean tour in June of 1977, he went back to the Philippines - and married Laura! Johnny's tour of duty in Seoul ended in January of 1978. He made a side trip to the Philippines so Laura could travel with him to the U.S...destination U.S. Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, San Diego, California for a two-year shore duty.

 Vallejo, California in 1986 I met the three young children of Johnny and Laura. A fourth has been added since. They  are all grown-ups now and the family  resides in San Diego, California . The eldest, Kim, turned 21 last year (Oct. 6). After blowing the birthday candles, his immediate remark was: "Where's the beer?" Kim is in his 4th year of Computer Engineering at UC Davis. He plans to have his internship with Intel Corp. or any company offering a better "package".

 Marc, 17  and a junior in high school,  is pretty excited that he already has a driver's license. However, Dad and Mum  will have him drive only when he is in Senior High. Like his big brother, Marc also wants to study computer engineering in college.

The family's only princess is bespectacled Wendi, a high school sophomore in an honours class. A conscientious student with impressive study habits, she plans to take up medicine, hopefully, at UCSD or UCLA. Wendi loves school so much, she has been studying an extra subject every semester.

The youngest, Kevin is in 7th grade and will be a teenager come August 20, 2000. Laura writes: "...he gets taller everyday. He's even taller than his Dad now. He's in advance band (trumpet) and wants to continue playing in high school. He has been pestering John and me to buy him a silver trumpet. This must be a professional's trumpet as it costs a thousand bucks. Kevin may have to wait a while for that silver one..."

When the children were young, Laura was a full-time wife and mum. Johnny
would not have it otherwise. Once Marc drives on his own to give Wendi and
Kevin a ride to and from school, Laura hopes to join the workforce.

If there is one person in the QPHS 69 class  to create a web site, it is
Johnny. (My daughters calls him a computer nerd in an affectionate way.) So
it did not come as a surprise when I learned that, in fact, a class web site
has been constructed with him as Webmaster. Johnny has always been
keen on technology. During our Luzonian University days, he supported his
studies as a 35mm Projectionist in a movie theater; Long Life Theater to be exact. He enjoyed his work while we, the rest of the RAJAH and a few others enjoyed free sessions of R-rated movies late at night, after the general showing.

Does engineering a web site cut down on Johnny's time with his family? Does not, according to Laura. Actually she is happy that in his free time, he is involved with something that he really enjoys. Johnny has been working for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) www.saic.com since leaving the Navy in September of 1985. His company is under contract with Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) www.spawar.navy.mil in support of the U.S. Navy's Satellite Communications systems.

Now that he is pre-occupied with the web site - what pages/sections to
add, how to improve what is already there, etc. - he may have less time for
making CDs and computer-generated photo calendars. However, there is one
thing he will find time for - tending his baby coconuts. No longer babies by
this time, if they survived the California winter.

Johnny's interest in technology enabled him to specialize in computers and
electronics while in the Navy. His last duty station (Oct. 81 - Sep. 85) was USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) where Johnny was in-charge in the maintenance and operations of electronic data systems, navigations, combat systems and satellite communications' equipment of that ship. He seems to think that because he finds the technology so absorbing, it will have the same effect on his friends. Since our 1986 get-together, he has been wanting to send me this and that computer accessories and other related gadgets when it was still a long way before we eventually purchased one!

No wonder my home has Johnny P. Jardin reminders in nearly every room.

A note from JJ: Update on baby coconuts...the cold winter took JJ's "Quezon pride" away from his backyard. These little ones couldn't handle the cold weather and had slowly faded away. JJ will try to plant some baby cocos this summer.

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