Reminiscing on Life in the 50's

As I was born in 1945, the events prior to the 50's are few to remember except those my close relatives would recall which oftentimes sticked to my mind and that I can replay like scenes in a movie.  I can vividly remember my early walking days as a young boy of three or four years old.  I lived in our town's Catholic convent as the parish priest then was my father and uncles' guardian since their elementary years. As the convent was made the army's headquarters due to the prevailing Huk insurgency, soldiers naturally were my playmates who gave me the nickname "Boy".  The Catholic priest pampered me like a grandson for which I fondly called him "Lolo Pari"

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Life in the 50's was relatively simple and prices of every day living were very inexpensive as the peso then could buy many things.  Rice was thirty centavos a ganta and one centavo could buy several pieces of dried fish.  Five centavos of "pan de sal" were enough for breakfast of a family of five.  For "merienda" I usually had a glass of "halo-halo" of shaved ice with "gulaman", "pinipig", sugar and evaporated milk costing five centavos or ten centavos including sweetened beans, "langka" and "leche flan".

For entertainment. radio was the nightly source of dramas to follow or a ten centavo admission ticket to the lone moviehouse showing mostly Tagalog films.  Of course, the annual town fiesta provided the ultimate entertainment cavalcade of traveling carnival shows and the singing amateur singing contests for several nights at the town fiesta.  Those were the days!