History of My Life - Part G: 6 - Across the Mountains & 7. Caddy & Bike

6. As a child I was full of imagination and ambitions or "dreams."  For lack of anything to do or play with because then we had no TV or radio set or even papers to read, I used to lie down under a tree, our Asimas tree, and watch the clouds.  I imagined a lot of things formed by the clouds above.  I used to see now and then a pair of KALI, or native hawks, gliding up and down or sometimes having a "dog-fight."  As they floated in the air across the mountains, I followed them, wondering what could be beyond those tall mountains.  And so my wish was to go beyond those physical barriers and see other places.

These dreams were later on realized when my uncle, Lt. Antonio Bravo, was stationed in Laoag, Ilocos Norte.  My mother visited him with us during our Christmas vacation.  There, for the first time in my life, did I have the best Christmas experience.  Before we went to sleep we were given big new stockings and hung them on nails on the wall.  We were told that Santa Claus will give us gifts as we sleep.

My younger brother and our young cousins about our age were excited to find out the following morning our socks full of apples, oranges, raisins, cookies and candies!  I also got an airplane that flies round and round as it hangs with a long string to the ceiling.  My joy was beyond measure!  Across those high forbidding mountains west of Bangued was a "pot of gold."

It was also there in Laoag, Ilocos Norte that my brother and I learned how to use spoons and forks.  I was around seven and my brother five years old.  I can still remember our well-to-do cousins laughing at us awkwardly handling those glistening silvers, even quite scared to soil them.

From then on we always urged our mother to visit her rich brother in other provinces as Ilocos Sur and La Union.  We always experienced new things like eating in a LURIAT party of a rich Chinese merchant where around ten different courses were served in Vigan, Ilocos Sur; going swimming in the beach of San Fernando, La Union and riding a Constabulary Jeepney.  And we always got gifts like roller skates, wooden wagon and alphabet blocks too.  Mother brought home lots of old newspapers which were very useful in wrapping new slippers for customers.  I didn't know how to read the La Vanguardia Spanish newspaper, but I liked looking at the pictures printed in them.

7. In Vigan I learned how to hit the ball with golf clubs as I served as Caddy for my uncle.  My auntie won a bike in a raffle, but nobody used it, as my girl cousins about my age are not supposed to ride a bicycle, only boys do!  How I wished I had a bike of my own.  I learned how to bike in Vigan.