"a caterpillar doesn't just grow into a butterfly. a caterpillar must undergo metamorphosis, and a cocoon is where a caterpillar risks it all: enters total chaos, undergoes total rebuilding, and is born to a new way of living. only in taking the risk of entering that inert cocoon can the caterpillar go from dormancy to potency, from ugliness to beauty."

Saturday, July 22, 2006

i remember yesterday...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."

-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

...the world was so young...

during my last "out-of-town" trip, my friends and i recalled together over dinner the things that we grew up with in the 80's and the early 90's. i've decided to share a list of all that we managed to remember about those good ol' days in this post.

first, allow me to say this: considering that i've already read the "you were a kid in the 80's if..." email, i'm afraid that this post will just be regarded as one of those "gaya-gaya" posts. nevertheless, i'm gonna give this my best shot...

:: jolen, lastiko, and teks (marbles, rubberbands, small game cards) were the "in" things. if you had many of them in your hands and in your pockets (and whatever your storage space was), the better.

:: we played chinese garter by either jumping over it, jumping with it or doing the limbo. the other physical games were terabol slash jumping rope, patintero, bartolata, tumbang-preso, shatong, slipper game, japanese game slash paon-paon slash tag and base, langit-lupa (as in "langit, lupa, saan ka pababa?..."), shake-shake-shampoo, hide and seek, close-up seven up,... ah, too many to mention, really!

:: there was money to gain or lose in those coin games, hantak/taksi, which our parents discouraged us from playing.

:: "game and watch" and brick game were the gadgets for those whose parents could afford

:: pacman, battle city, super mario brothers, and ice breaker were the known computer games

:: we enjoyed magic straps, rainbow springs, and blowing plastic balloons.

:: haw flakes, bazooka joe and the fortune tickets, tarzan, boom-boom lollipops, big boy, cloud 9, big bang, tootsie roll, tabletas (tablet candies), tira-tira, and bobot (with freebie golden rings) were the yummy thingies. remember that "lipstick" came in the form of small red bubble gums? remember that transparent straw with very small spherical colored candies inside it and a flag on its one end?

:: chippy, chiz curls, cheez it, peewee, and richie were the popular junk foods. there were also yellow bags of "people power" curls and letter stickers, mocha pop, and hebe, too!

:: multi-colored suspenders, shoulder pads, curly hair and scary bangs were in. the basketball players had high socks and short shorts!

:: every purchase of colgate and ovaltine meant getting freebies: colgate had those robots which you could transform into alphabets with a few twists and turns, and small colorful tractors, bulldozers and dump trucks were the things to look forward to with every newly opened ovaltine pack. in addition, "pogs" went with coke. there was a "number fever" that became controversial and put a softdrink-bottling company in hot water, too.

:: saksak-puso and the lyrics of monkey, monkey, anabelle (and the likes) are now senseless... but remember the childhood fun they brought us?

remember this? monkey, monkey, anabelle. how many monkey did you see? one. two. three. a-riki-riki-tik and a blue black ship. pick pack boom. yes or no. y. e. s. alis.

how about this? bombero, bombero, may sunog. saan, saan? dapit sa pantalan is number one. one plus one wonderwoman. two plus two lapu-lapu. three plus three christmas tree. four plus four...

...and this? i went to the sea. i'm suma-sa-e. i'm suma-sa-o. alright everybody, tomorrow at the 4 o'clock.

(wahahahaha... my friends and i laughed so hard and went "ano daw??" when we got to this part because we all realized that the lyrics don't make sense.)

:: that's entertainment was still the talk of tinseltown. sheryl cruz-romnick sarmienta, manilyn reynes-janno gibbs and tina paner-chris villanueva were the hot tandems. there was young love, sweet love.

:: ninja turtles were cool and we had our local pandakekoks. we also had voltes v, he-man and the masters of the universe, thunder cats, shaider, and biokids along many others. there were lots of memorable tv commercials, too!

:: movies were mostly watched using the betamax (and the betamax tapes had to be rented).

i'm sure some things got missed out. if you know them, feel free to share (and add) them... that's what the comment box is also for.


post scripts:

(1) the standout recollection for me is "monkey, monkey, anabelle". after all, what in the world is a-riki-riki-tik? the lyrics really make me laugh.

(2) i've already blogged about the movies, dramas-on-radio, and tv shows that defined the 80's and early 90's. the article is here. standout tv commercials got mentioned here.

8 comments:

  1. Kauban man diay ta sa una ug term paper sa Social Studies 4th year highschool noh??? Wala lang remember lang nako! Charot!! Waaa .. mingaw na ko ug millionaire's game! HEHE!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. big macaleo first patter patter french fries. icy cola milkshake. cindy is pineapple pie. one two three four five six and a big pack boom.

    what's more - the lyrics vary for every place - iligan, cebu, cagayan de oro.

    20 years later... i had to find the real lyrics of this song. and i did finally. makatulog na ko. :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi pilar! hehe ang galeng completo na ata yan a. hehe i remember playing text yung maliliit na tagalog and text rin na malalaki.parang mas mahalaga pa yun kesa sa pera dati eh hehe tapos ang dami pa! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. haha... Just a few thoughts...

    On Songs
    The first thing that came across my mind upon reading your entry is that "hey... how come we have different lyrics". Here's a sampler:

    bombero, bombero may sunog
    saan saan
    sa post number one
    one plus one wonderwoman...

    It does not have to make sense. Even Nirvana popularized something that goes like

    A mulatto
    An albino
    A mosquito
    My libido

    The words don't add up to anything albeit they rhyme... ganun din naman ung "bombero, bombero".. not only does the end part of the line rhyme, it has a 3 - 4 or 3 - 3 pattern (syllabication), close to Nirvana's 4 - 4 pattern. I guess Kurt got his inspiration from us kids...

    On Games
    "Pogs" came to the scene a bit later... there were lots of market-induced crazed such as the brick game, yoyo and until-now-i-can't-understand tamagochi. There were clapping games - ung mga games that we use only hands with a repititive clapping pattern while chanting something like:

    Champoy, champoy echakalewe...
    Echakale-ba-bye (if u win)
    Echakale-choo-choo (if tied)
    Echakala-ampo (if u lost)

    or perhaps,

    shake mary shake shake shake


    On characters
    I just like to add Ultraman at lahat ng kamag-anak niya (Ultraman-pagi, ultraman-tika, etc...). Umiilaw kc ung nasa dibdib nya pag malapit na cyang matalo (think of a cell na nalolow-batt). Then suddenly, out of the blue titira cya ng ultra ray... that concludes another madramang episode ni Ultraman... huhuhu...

    On Wishing
    A large part of me wants to stay as a child forever... carefree, views everything (ok, almost) as possible and too many to mention... maybe we'll just have to be contented being child at heart... like Kurt Cobain... hehehe

    ReplyDelete
  5. hehehe. ako pud nagarecall sa akong childhood memories.

    and about manilyn reynes, hahaha, naa gud ko dog manilyn ang name.

    ReplyDelete
  6. patrick, yep!

    gwapo_na_baktin, the version that i know goes like this:
    mic mac oleo first. dragon in the third place. icy cola icy pop. cindy is maniola pop. one two three four and a big pack boom!

    rudy man, aba! friend, touched ako kasi nagparamdam ka...pero hanggang ngayon ba naman pinagpipilitan mong pilar ang pangalan ko? hehehe

    childAtHeart, thanks for the inputs... you're a big cobain fan?

    kars, hahaha, pati iro... that had me laughing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Whew, it has been over a month since I last checked cyberspace...

    Nope, I'm not a big Cobain fan... a fan pro not a big fan... Wish I could go back to Mindanao like u just did... It has been a year and half since I've last been to my hometown...

    ReplyDelete
  8. naka remember pud ko, when i was in high school lahat note book ko sheryl cruz ang cover. hehehe

    ReplyDelete

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