Life after the War

When the ice plant returned to full operation under Mr Gurrea, my father built another hut. It was small and squat, just three or four steps from the ground. It had windows on three sides, with a door opening to the pantaw, that's where people wash themselves, their clothes, prepare food for cooking, and to one side would be the wood stove which was just a wooden platform packed with earth and where two sig-ang stood. The sig-ang holds the pot and could be made of clay or steel bars allowing enough space for firewood b elow. At night the stove was swept clean and it becomes the family cat's favorite bedroom If you didn't have matches you kept the embers glowing all through the night. If it died my mother would tell me to get fire from the De next door neighbor, the De los Reyes family. They put a glowing ember on a husk of coconut and I would run home as fast as I could so the ember wouldn't die.

The children of Marcel de los Reyes and his wife Maria were my first friends. They came from Zarraga. Marcel worked at Mr Gurrea's shop and was an expert on making ham. Sometimes he made his own ham at home. using a chimney for curing the ham It was a tedious process. A the Gurrea shop in Rizal there was a huge vat where the ham was partly cooked prior to smoking. For unknown reasons the vat tipped over and scalded Marcel. He survived but scars covered his body.

The eldest of the de los Reyes children was Ramon, followed by Rudy, Virginia, Recaredo, and a host of small brothers whose names all began with the letter R. My favorite friend was Rudy and I liked Recaredo or Caring too but we did not get along too well and fight. We played games with marbles, cards, rubber bands, and evaporated milk cans. We did all sorts of things with milk cans. We would flip them up and if it landed on its top of bottom you earned a point. or we stacked them and he who could stack them the highest was the winner. The smaller sized milk cans made perfect wheels for cars. During Christmas season, we made bamboo cannons and the cans served as ammunition. We formed two warring groups and bombarded each other with cans.

The favorite brands of evaporated milk was Alpine and Darigold. Sometimes the ice cream makers would throw away an unopened milk can. Quite a small hill of evaporated milk cans and coconut husks had formed at the back of the ice cream factory. The husks made excellent fuel once dried.

Enterprising people made things out of scraps. Bottles were made into cups, automotive tires were recycled into clogs (bakya) and garden pots. Shoe leather became stone holders for slingshots. Old clothes were made into dolls. Eventually the recycling stopped as cheap plastic toys and gadgets flooded the markets from Occupied Japan.