ASKALISH TALES: THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILOILO

As I was fondly picking my nose, pondering the reasons why there has been a terrible delay upon the local release of the film, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, TWO TOWERS, I could not help but remember my yesteryears (back when it took months before a foreign film is released here). What I would consider my own personal version of "Iloilo's Golden Age". The way I remember it when I was in my high school years, or rather my first years of being a nomadic palalagaw, (one who enjoys frequent wandering) for if not for my afternoon-cartoon-influenced English accent and my excess fats, I would've been mistaken for your typical ati, for my askalish (from the word askal) wandering behavior. Unlike the modern day palalagaws, who become too image-conscious upon what to wear when they go to the mall, where they would consider a place "to see and be seen", us the classic palalagaws of the golden age enjoy plainly the art of wandering, with no other particular objective.

With these memories in mind, it would be a bit interesting to review and reflect these places now and then. It is really quite an inspiration that hit me, when I was reading the column of a colleague about how her relatives came back to Iloilo after quite a number of years. It just made me more interested to focus upon that sensation of seeing Iloilo now and recalling what it was then, especially upon how I recalled it during the days that I first learned to enjoy walking the streets of the city that I proudly call home.

Back then, we contented ourselves with going around Amigo Plaza, especially at a place there called Wizards where kids and computer gameheads would flock by the numbers to play Family Computer (aka: Nintendo Entertainment System). Tambay kids would pester you by offering you help getting through some difficult level, but what they really want is that 15-seconds of pleasure of taking a turn to play the game for free. I never did get to the Mike Tyson level at "Punch Out" or the speederbike level at Battletoads, but the memories are enough to make me grin right now.

Malls now are so grandiose, while in our high school days, visiting shops like China Arts, Jorndin's, Rofer's, and SM Delgado already constitutes an afternoon of lagaw. Oh, we didn't have text messaging back then (obviously) so we had to be a bit more disciplined when and where to meet, on-the-dot. The "popular kids" (which is equal to the modern-day jolog kids), who listened to Motley Crue (some lousy band) and Color Me Badd, would often go to afternoon discos, because back then, you can party early in order to rest your energy for the next day. Sensible, huh? But our idea of fun was more upon watching movies.

I could remember how I took pleasure in skipping my P.E. classes (no wonder I'm so unhealthy) almost all throughout High School, just because I considered P.E. uniforms "sissy-looking" (I was already a sissy, I didn't want to add on it by getting into a stupid fashion ensemble-ANYWAY-). And when I'm out the university gates, while I was humming the Mission: Impossible theme song (it was a TV series in my HS years), I would go directly to the theaters to watch movies. Particularly, me and my friends always went to Allegro, since we were deeply into Hollywood movies, which Allegro regularly shows. There, I remember watching "Robocop 3" and "Silence of the Lambs", rejoicing with a grin how all the bullies at school were dressed on the sissy outfit while I was sitting on my ass with Nagaraya in hand, watching Robocop being sliced into six parts. I also remember how jampacked Allegro and Riviera was when "Terminator 2" was shown. Back then, there were still many people who would watch the film while standing up, because on days when they're showing really popular movies, it could be impossible to get a decent seating location. When they were showing "Superfly"(starred Jacky Chan, later re-released in the western market as "Operation: Condor") at the renovation opening of Regent Cinema, I had to watch the fight scene at the opening sequence, tiptoeing over the shoulders of some guy. And back then; if a film is released in the US box office, it would take like 5 months till the film gets released here. At least, there are times when you can watch double feature for the price of one. Would you believe I watched the Schwarzenegger comedy "Twins" and the George Lucas medieval fantasy "Willow" for the price of one? Cool, huh?

At the end of the day, we would head home (that would usually be around 5 pm) and rest our backs, watching BELLAMY and the tagalog-dubbed VOLTES FIVE, while eating Cheezels and Chikadees. And by 10 pm the city is so quiet, you'd fall asleep in the stillness.