by Nunilo M. de Leon
After a few years with the Chong’s, Tatang found a new job as an accountant at the United Paracale Mines, a gold-mining firm in the town of Paracale, province of Camarines Norte.  Not knowing what was waiting in his new job, Tatang went on alone (Inang was again on the way, with her third) to sort of survey the place.  Traveling to that part of the country then was quite arduous although the rail network was quite good and extensively used, extending from Damortis, La Union in the north to Lucena, Tayabas in the south.  The railroad was then being extended to Legaspi, Albay.  To speed things up, the extension was being built from either end, from Lucena and from Legaspi.  However, at that time, there was still a gap in the railways, some mountains and rivers in Tayabas province, between the towns of Lopez and Tagkawayan.

The first leg of the trip was an hour-long train ride from Malolos to Tutuban in Manila followed by eight hours on another train to Lopez, Tayabas.  The railroad stopped at that point.  Following was a six-hour ferryboat ride to reach the town of Calauag on the other side of the gap.  Then came another two-hour bus ride to Tagkawayan where the railway resumed and continued all the way to Legaspi in Albay.  To reach Paracale, one had to get off the train at the town of Sipocot, Camarines Sur, take the bus to Daet, Camarines Norte and take a smaller vehicle to Paracale.  The 400-kilometer trip took more than a whole day.

Some months after Tatang departed, Nestor or “Istong” came, also born in Tampoy with Tio Toniong as attending physician, again.

A few weeks later Tatang sent for us.  He had found a suitable house in the middle of town, a short ride from his office in the mines.  By then fully recovered from giving birth, Inang bailed me out of kindergarten and we left (Inang, the 3 kids and an Ilokana maid named Marta) not long after.  I do not remember much about our trip to Paracale nor of our life there but it must have been quite difficult for Inang, a new household with three small kids, in a strange place.  What I clearly recall were the many huge smoke-breathing, hot and noisy coal-fired iron monsters called locomotives inside the Manila Railroad’s cavernous Tutuban terminal, my nostrils sooty from the thick black smoke inhaled during the long train ride, the particles of cinder in my hair, the cool sea breeze during the nighttime ferry crossing, the bumpy bus ride to Tagkawayan, another train and . . . I fell asleep at that point.

I remember that part of Tatang’s daily routine in Paracale involved going into the mine tunnels.  Once he brought home some discards from the mines as souvenirs for us kids, fist-sized rocks speckled with tiny bits of metal, which Tatang said was copper.  Inang did some arm-twisting and was able to enroll me in Grade 1 at the Paracale Elementary School, although I had not finished kindergarten and was under-aged.  I recall little else of that period, my first taste of hotcake with Karo syrup and butter (not margarine) served at the company canteen, Libby’s corned beef, halo-halo at the school home economics room, ice cream from the traveling sorbetes cart, a drunk running wild with a knife and chasing passers-by in the street in front of our house until the police came and took him away but not until after causing much disturbance in the neighborhood.

I had my Grade 1 and part of Grade 2 in Paracale.  Then Tatang was offered a better job as Office Manager at the Marsman Development Co., which operated a lumber concession in the jungles of Daet and Basud, also in Camarines Norte.  The company had a lumber mill in the edges of Daet, in an isolated place named Sitio Manguisok in Barrio Mercedes.  This was far from any town and meant that Tatang would have to rough it again.  He proceeded to Mercedes after sending the rest of us back to Malolos.  The school year was not yet over, I still had a few months of Grade 2 to finish but we had to leave.

The school year was about to end when we arrived in Malolos but Inang succeeded in enrolling Tancio and me in school.  Tancio went to kindergarten in the Holy Ghost dungeon and I resumed Grade 2, this time at the Malolos Central Elementary School.

A few months later a letter came from Tatang.  He had found and was renting a small house by the sea in the coastal barrio of Mercedes, just across a wide river from his new office in the sitio of Manguisok.  He said that conditions were quite primitive; no electricity, no running water but plenty of fresh food and household help readily available.  His plan was for the family to rejoin him in Mercedes although we were to stay there for only a while.  In a few more months, new housing would be ready for the family in Manguisok.  Inang, who had always felt the Tampoy atmosphere rather confining, immediately decided to rejoin Tatang but this time only with the two younger children and without a maid.  Marta probably did not relish the idea of returning to Bicol, so far from her Ilocos home.  Moreover, Inang probably felt that she had already adapted to life in Bicol, could already speak Bicolano quite well, and could easily get all the help she needed there.  She could pick up languages and dialects very easily and could converse fluently in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Ilocano, Pampango, Bicolano and Chavacano.  Me?  I was to stay in Malolos to continue my schooling, in the care of Dada Ninay, who had more than enough experience for the job and with whom I got along quite well.  She had more than enough on-the-job training raising Lolo Ramon’s six living children.  The experience was probably enough to keep her single for the rest of her life.    

I was promoted to Grade 3 at the Malolos Central Elementary School, where Tia Monang, who had just returned from Daet, was teaching.  Lolo Ramon, who had reached retirement age, was still in Daet with Tio Carlos’ family.  He was expected to return to Tampoy very soon, traveling with Tio Carlos and his family, who were proceeding to Lingayen, Pangasinan.  Tio Carlos had received a new assignment as Asst. Provincial Engineer of Pangasinan.

This time, I stayed in Tampoy for two years.  This was when I asked Dada Ninay about Inkong Tasio and was put down.  While in Grade 3, I would often be teased by some classmates about being Chinese; I, and many of my relatives, are chinky-eyed and have skins lighter-hued than others.  When I asked Dada about this, her reply was, “Bakit, mukha ba akong Intsik at mukha bang Intsik ang Impong Biyang mo?”  Then she continued, “Kami (the de Leons and Gonzaleses) ay may pagka-Kastila.  Ang Intsik ay ang Inkong Akong mo. ”  That was all she was willing to say about the subject.  I had to figure out everything else.

[“Sonny” Cano has also looked into this subject.  According to his research, the Gonzales clan of Pampanga and Bulacan originated in the town of Apalit, Pampanga, across the Pampanga River from Calumpit, Bulacan.  The sire was a Spaniard who claimed to be an engineer from Villadolid in Spain and who said his name was Gonzales.  He married a young lady from the wealthy Arnedo clan of Sulipan in Apalit.  Later, it was discovered that the “engineer” was actually an Augustinian friar, a member of the Spanish nobility, Fray Francisco Lopez, and was the parish priest of Baliuag, Bulacan, some ten kilometers up the Angat River from Sulipan.]

(The wedding described in the above account happened in the mid-1850s and the offspring of this marriage would have been born in the 1870s, at the earliest.  Inkong Tasio and Impong Biyang were already adults at that time.  Impong Biyang and Lola Meliang could have sprung from another Gonzales clan.  There were quite a few families with that name in Pampanga and Bulacan at that time.  In the narrative cited by Sonny, there was mention of an hacendero Gonzales family in Baliuag who also had a Spanish “fraile” ancestor.  It is a possibility that our Gonzales ancestors were from that clan.)   

Malolos had all the amenities for modern living.  There was electricity, supplied by the Manila Electric Railway and Light Co. (MERALCO), and water piped in by the Malolos Water System.  The water had a distinct flavor, somewhat salty, because it was groundwater.  Years after I left Malolos, I would still miss that peculiar drinking water flavor.  For cooking, there was a large wood-fired Franklin-brand stove, made of cast-iron.  Like most of the modern appliances then, the stove was American-made and meant for the US climate, which was why the stove burned hot, especially when the oven was being used.  It was probably designed, not only for cooking, but also for heating.  There were no refrigerators but the tapayan provided enough cool water for drinking.  For other cooling purposes, fist-sized ice purchased from the local ice plant was kept in an ice box and used as needed.  Food from the market was cooked at once and stored in the “paminggalan”, a wire-screened (to keep flies and other flying insects out) stand-alone cabinet for storing cooked food.  The four short legs of the paminggalan were kept immersed in small cans filled with water.  These mini-moats prevented ants and other insects from getting at the food.  

I still have vivid memories of those days.  I remember the daily walks to and from school, alone most of the time or, sometimes, with Eya’s younger daughter, Turina or Vicky, who was in a higher grade.  During the rainy season, we wore rainwear, including hoods and “bakya” or wooden clogs.  We went home for lunch in Tampoy, rain or shine, and were back in school after an hour.  The lunches were quite formal, usually with Dada, Josie (my first cousin who lived in their home at the Bulacan provincial compound), and me.  Josie was studying at the Immaculata Academy of Malolos and had lunch in Tampoy.  There was very little conversation, those De Leons were not known for being loquacious, and Josie and I usually finished much ahead of Dada, who would always take a long time to finish.  We seldom could watch and wait until she finished her meal, which usually consisted of soup, two or three “ulam” dishes with rice, “himagas” or dessert and her special health drink, which varied and which no one else seemed to drink.  To this day, I do not know what it was; something herbal, maybe, but definitely nothing alcoholic.  After lunch came a few moments for reading through some of the Tagalog magazines Dada liked to read; Liwayway, Hiwaga, Tiktik, and some others which helped Josie and me to become well versed with Tagalog literature at a very early age.

I remember that Tia Monang had a dog named “Mestiza”, a silky haired brown and white half-breed, which resembled a small coolie.  It was quite well behaved, followed Tia Monang around and sat at Dada’s feet during meals, waiting for food scraps to be dropped to her.  Then there were the cats which we could not keep track of.  [Josie remembers that Tia Monang also had several guinea pigs or “dagang costa”, which were kept in a wire cage outside the comedor.  Josie loved to see them running around their cage and fed them with grain and nuts, which were their staple.  There was also a parrot, the first in a series.]  

Schooldays then were morning and afternoon affairs, with daily flag ceremonies in the morning when we sang “Land of the Morning” and “Star Spangled Banner” with equal fervor or, sometimes, lack of it.  We had physical education, calisthenics and games, in late afternoon.  I remember venturing into the dark and dank “silong” of the school every afternoon with some equally venturesome classmates, for what reason, I do not now know, perhaps just to scare one another.  I recall the names of only two classmates in that school.  One was Fernando Lim, later to be again my classmate in Grades 5 and 6, who lived in front of Cine Malolos.  The other was Filipinas Iñiguez who was my desk mate in Grade 4.  I was quite a talkative pupil and our teacher paired me off with her, probably because she was the quiet but bright type who never reacted to my attempted dialogues.  She lived in the second story of a house which had business establishments on the ground floor, including the barbershop where I had my hair cut.  It was across the plaza from the Casa Real across the creek from the Municipio.   

On Friday afternoons, on our way home from school, Turina and I would sneak into Cine Malolos, a movie house, one of only two in town.  Turina knew the ticket collector who would allow us to watch for a few minutes, free.  Wednesday afternoons were Dada’s afternoon out.  Invariably, she would go to Cine Malolos, never to the newer Cine Estrella, to watch her favorite Tagalog movies. She would go with either Nina or Turina, not with me, maybe because I was not interested in Tagalog movies.  [Josie tells me that she sometimes goes with Dada to see Tagalog movies, and with Tia Monang to see English ones, mostly musicals.]   Dada had a rattan armchair which was kept in the “takilya” or ticket booth of the cine.  That chair was brought inside the cine every time she was in the movies.  Malolos cinema houses were not airconditioned, but cooled, after a fashion, with large and noisy blowers, and had unpadded wooden seats, cum “surot” or bedbugs.  

On Saturdays and holidays, when a double-program cowboy or Tarzan movie was showing, I would ask Dada Ninay’s permission to go.  She invariably would say “Yes” and would give me enough money for a ticket and a bottle of the lower-priced Rizal brand Sarsaparilla and Cream Soda or the more expensive Royal Tru-Orange.  (Some of the De Leons must have been quite fond of Sarsaparilla, Cream Soda and Tru-Orange.  The house garden’s hedges had half-buried empty bottles of these drinks as decorative borders.)  She would have only one condition; that I be home by six o’clock.  I would go by myself.  My playmates and schoolmates did not enjoy as much liberty.  Going home was rather hectic as I would be in a rush to be home before her designated curfew.  It was especially difficult during the rainy season.  I seldom had rainwear or umbrella with me and had to try very hard not to get too wet.  The trick was to wait for the downpour to abate to a drizzle before beginning the rush home.  First was a long run from Cine Malolos along the exposed-to-the-sun-and-rain stretch of the main road to the awninged sidewalk beyond Cine Estrella.  Then came a dry stroll on this covered sidewalk all the way to Tableria Shim Huat, with a brief sprint across Calle Pariancillo in between.  Finally was another dash in the rain down Tampoy past the Abad house, through the gate, around the house, up the stone backstairs and to safety in the kitchen.  Seeing me, wet or dry, Dada would just say, “Maligo ka na, nang makakain na.”
   
Every Saturday evening, Dada would treat Nina, Turina, and me with supper at the Chinese-owned Panciteria Malolos, followed by balut, ice cream or halo-halo at the refreshment parlor owned by “Tia Lioning” or Leonila de Leon Robles y Isidoro, married to “Tio Pepe”, Jose Isidoro.  Tio Pepe and Tia Lioning owned a refreshment parlor, in the middle of town, and a sari-sari store in their residence at Barrio Buhangin, Malolos.  After refreshments, we would make a brief visit to the nearby residence cum hardware-electrical-automotive-parts store of Dada’s older sister, Dada Merced.  “Tio Ading”, Conrado de Leon Robles, was the oldest of the five children of Lolo Celino and Dada Merced.  Coming after him was Tia Lioning of the refreshment parlor, “Tia Noring” [or Nicanora, according to Tessie], who was married to a Santiago and lived in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, “Tio Tirso”, who had married “Tia Conching”, and the youngest, “Tia Pining”, Josefina.  Tia Pining was also teaching then, at the Malolos Elementary School.

Tio Ading had been afflicted with polio since childhood and was a complete paralytic.  Lolo Celino and Dada Merced took care of him in their large house which was at the back of their business establishment, located along the main business street of Malolos, Calle San Vicente.  Tio Tirso and Tia Pining were also staying with them.  The visits were not exactly welcomed by me.  The completely helpless Tio Ading, who was speechless and could move only his eyeballs, was quartered right in the living room.  He was not a sight a Grade 3 pupil would find pleasant.    

During the harvest season, Dada Ninay would take me with her in a calesa to Halang Bridge, Hagunoy.  From there we would ride a banca which took us to the De Leon-Gonzales rice farms in Barrio Sukol, Hagunoy.  There Dada would oversee the sharing of the harvest between the tenants and landlords. We would usually stay overnight in the biggest kubo, that of Ba Gorio (Gregorio Mendoza), his wife Da Heniang (Herminia) and their children Carlos (Carling), Julian, Tranquilino (Ino) and Catalina (Lina).  There were other tenants there who tilled a combined farm area of 20 hectares, Ba Dama, Ka Ambo and Ka Tenteng.

It was there that I learned a little more about Inkong Tasio.  When Dada Ninay was not within earshot, I would ask them about Inkong.  They told me that Inkong Tasio was living in his home in Barrio San Agustin of Hagunoy with his second wife, “Impong Puling”, Paulina de la Cruz y de Leon.  They had six children, all grown up.  He was already well over 90 years old.  They said that, after every harvest Dada would tell the tenants to take part of it to Inkong’s house.  When we were once in Sukol, I asked Dada Ninay if we could go visit Inkong.  Her reply was:  “Sino ang nagdadaldal na naman sa iyo?”  To keep from incriminating my informants, I dropped the subject, temporarily.       

The harvest sharing then between landlord and tenant was 50/50, net of advances made by the landlord to the tenant, from which came all expenses.  The tenants would bring their share of the harvest to kubos which served as their palay granary.  The bulk of the landlord’s share would be taken to the rice mill in Halang for storage and eventual disposal.  The landlords’ share was divided into three portions, one each for Lolo Ramon, Dada Merced and Dada Ninay.  I do not know what the final disposition was but I know that the Tampoy rice supply was delivered regularly by banca from somewhere and was stored in bins inside the silong.

In hindsight, if land reform had been implemented at that precise time, the farms would have become very profitable ventures for the farmers, as the farms were large enough.  When land reform was finally implemented four decades later, there were two new generations of tenant-farmers who had to get their share.  The result, each tenant-farmer got less than a hectare or so, which was, and still is, an unprofitable proposition for the farmer, and for anybody.

After the “hatian” in Sukol, we would also go by banca direct from Tampoy to a nearby rice farm in Barrio Caingin, Malolos, to go through the same process with “Ba Mundo”, the tenant of the five-hectare farm.  The harvest was shared like it was in Sukol but nothing was sent to Inkong Tasio.

There were other tenant-farms in farther-away Barrio Iba, Hagunoy, best reached by banca from Malolos.  It was one or two of my tios and tias who attended the palay-sharing rites there and I never was present.  The 50% landlords’ share was apportioned among the six De Leon siblings.   There was another farm in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija which was regularly visited by one of the siblings but I never did know much about it.

I was in the middle of Grade 4 when Inang arrived back in Tampoy with my brothers.  She had come to stay a few weeks and then return with me to Camarines Norte.  Tancio, who had his early schooling in Manguisok, and I were to continue our studies at the Daet Central Elementary School, where Tia Monang used to teach.  I was to continue with Grade 4 there, Tancio with Grade 2.  Inang had resigned her job as a teacher at the Manguisok Primary School and had rented a house in Daet.  We would stay there on school days, going to Manguisok, where Tatang remained, during school holidays.  

Having many relatives and high school friends in Malolos, Inang had a lot of calls to make during her brief visit.  I remember visiting my Macapugay aunts, Tia Quintay (Pioquinta Macapugay Santiago) and Tia Rosing (Ambrosia Macapugay), both of whom were teachers in Malolos.  We also visited the Mendozas, Inang’s first cousins on her mother’s side; Tio Pedring (Pedro Mendoza) and Tio Jose (Jose Mendoza).  One was a provincial government employee while the other was a teacher at the Bulacan Provincial High School.  There were also calls on her best friends, who were all related to us on my father’s side, Tia Liling Uitangcoy y Salcedo, and sisters Tia Luisa Uitangcoy Santos y Bernardo and Elisa Uitangcoy Santos.  We also went to Calanate to pay our respects to the Chong family, especially Lola Meliang, Tia Salud and Tia Nitay.

We went to Manila to visit Lola Charing Pantangco Jacinto, one of Inkong Akong’s sisters, I believe the only one still alive then.  That visit I particularly remember.  We made it with Dada Ninay and Tia Epang or Josefa Pantangco de Leon y Peña.  Tia Epang was the “diche” or second daughter of Lolo Ramon and Lola Juli.  She was married to Aurelio Lularga Peña, of the Romulo-Kipping-Peña clan, from Camiling, Tarlac.  “Tio Aurel” and Tia Epang were staying in a house inside the grounds of the Bulacan Provincial Capitol with their three children, Josefina or Josie, Rogelio or Boying, and Fiorello or Pio.  Tio Aurel was the assistant provincial auditor and Tia Epang a teacher at the Bulacan Provincial High School and they were entitled to government housing.

In Manila, we stayed a few days with Tio Toniong in his rented accessoria, a block away from the Department of Health where he worked as a pathologist.  Tio Toniong was still single and had plenty of room for us in his accessoria.  I distinctly recall sounds which were new to me  – the evening serenade of “balut, penoy, balut” and the morning call of “pan de sal, mainit pa, puto, kutsinta” from ambulant vendors.  I did not hear any of that in Malolos or in Paracale.

We rode a calesa to visit Lola Charing.  Dada Ninay was always the finicky “maselan” type and would not touch any part of a calesa or anything which she had not personally seen properly cleaned.  On the way, the horse tripped, a common enough occurrence, and fell on its knees.  Tia Epang, Inang and I held on tight to the calesa and stayed on board.  Dada, as usual, had her hands on her lap and fell headfirst, luckily on the horse’s behind, which saved her from any injury, except for her bruised pride.

Dada and Tia Epang returned to Malolos after the visit to Lola Charing and left Inang and her three children behind.  I had suffered from bouts of asthma during that dry season and Tio Toniong referred us to a specialist.  The specialist said I was probably allergic to the pollen of the “talahib” grass which was plentiful and flowered during the dry season.  He prescribed a chocolate-coated pill named “Mendaco”.  Inang bought several bottles.  I took it whenever I felt an asthma attack coming and it worked.  I had also suffered from trachoma but Dr. Lolo Luis Uitangcoy Santos, the famed ophthalmologist, had operated on my eyes and cured them.  For other, more commonplace ailments, we were taken to another of Inang’s relatives, Dr. Cenon Domingo in San Vicente district, Malolos.

With Inang and my brothers, we went for the first time to the Aquarium and the Jardin Botanico in an area behind the Metropolitan Theater, near the Manila Post Office.  We rode a Meralco “tranvia” or electric street rail car on that trip, another first for us kids.  Afterwards we went to visit Yeye or Padre Pio Macapugay, Inang’s eldest brother, in the Hospicio de San Jose, off Ayala Bridge.  He was on leave from his parochial duties and was recuperating from pulmonary tuberculosis.

I remember also going to Lingayen, Pangasinan to visit Tio Carlos Pantangco de Leon and Tia Helen Shelledy de Leon.  Tio Carlos or “Diko”, the second son of Lolo Ramon and elder brother of my Tatang, was the Assistant District Engineer of Pangasinan.  He had been recently transferred there from Camarines Norte, a promotion, since Pangasinan was a much more progressive and bigger province than Camarines Norte.  I remember the latter visit quite well because we spent much of our stay on the beaches of Lingayen, later to be made famous by the war.  Three of Tio Carlos’ sons; Carlos, Jr. or “Cancho”, Arturo or “Turo” and Job or “Joby” went with us on those swimming trips.  Ofelia, the eldest, and Diana, the fifth child chose to stay away from the sun while the youngest, “Bong” or “Bakoko” or Julian, was still an infant then.  Tio Carlos’ house was located close to the swampy area of a river and there were plenty of mosquitoes at night.  Mosquito nets were not enough to keep them away.  We had to resort to using mosquito coils all night. I contracted malaria during that vacation but it did not surface until some weeks later.

We also visited Tia Pacita’s family in their home on Oroquieta Extension, near Blumentritt in Manila, at the very end of Oroquieta St. near the Manila-Caloocan boundary; where they stayed with their four children.  Their eldest son, Octavio or Lolong was still alive then.  I particularly remember these visits because Tio Amado Crisostomo, Tia Pacita’s husband, would take us and my cousin Jesus or “Bebot” with him for joyrides in his car, a coupe which had a rumble seat.  We always rode in the rumble seat, which was in the space now used as the trunk.  The rumble seat opened downward, unlike a trunk which opens upward.  The girls, Lydia or “Lyd” and Mercia or “Meya” would rather stay home with the two “Inangs”.   

We went back to Tampoy and stayed there for one or two weeks before proceeding to Daet.  Lolo Ramon, who had been staying in Manila for some time after his return from Daet, came home to Tampoy just a few days before we left for Daet.  He was accompanied by Tio Toniong.  He had spent some days in the San Lazaro Hospital, for a medical check-up.  It seemed that there was something seriously wrong with him, cancer of the throat, I was to learn later.

Years later, I learned that he had then written the following note to Tio Toniong, something like a “Last Wishes”, on the disposition of the properties he inherited from his parents and which he co-owned with Dada Merced and Dada Ninay.  This was to be the first of several he would write on the same subject.  

Malolos, Mayo 18, 1940 Toniong: 

          Eto ang mga titulo ng lupa sa Hagunoy, sa Caingin, at bakuran dito sa Tampoy. 

        Yaong isang tercio ng Hagunoy, ay inilagay ko sa pangalan mo, na bilang ibinayad ko sa utang ko sa iyo dahil sa nagasta ko na kualta ninyong anim na magkakapatid, na ani ng lupa ninyong minana sa Inang Juli, na inadministruhan ko na mayroon na labing apat na taon.  At ang titulo ngayon ay na sa pangalan ninyong tatlo, tia Merced, Tia Ninay at ikaw. 

The trip from Malolos to Daet was again quite an adventure, as all lengthy travels were at the time.  We (Inang, 3 kids and Salome, our new maid) took a Pampanga Bus Co. (Pambusco) bus from Malolos and got off at the corner of Avenida Rizal and Calle San Lazaro in Sta. Cruz District, Manila.  We walked a block to Tio Toniong’s rented house on Calle M. Natividad which he was busily refurbishing.  He was soon going to marry Lilia Borja and they were going to reside there.  Tia Lily, a Manileña from Sampaloc district was a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy graduate of the Instituto del Centro Escolar and was then an instructor at the College of Pharmacy of her alma mater.

Some weeks after our recent trip to Lingayen, I had a bout of what Dr. Cenon Domingo in Malolos said was malaria.  We told Tio Toniong, who specialized in tropical diseases, about it and he gave me some quinine pills for my ailment.  They were very bitter but they quickly cured me.  My malaria recurred years later but by then, newer and more effective medications were already available.

We stayed overnight in Tio Toniong’s house.  Early the following morning, we took a carretela to Tutuban railroad terminal.  What met my senses at Tutuban was once more overwhelming; the huge coal-burning locomotives with their thick smoke and ear-splitting strident whistling, the peculiar smell of burning coal, hot grease and glowing metal, the hissing steam, the constant coming and going of the trains, the massing and rushing of people.   We had to wait some time in the terminal for our train, the Bicol Express, but it was worth it.  There, I had my first taste of ice-cold Magnolia “chocolait”, straight from a coin-operated dispenser.   On the train were other delights from Magnolia, “pinipig crunch”, “ice cream pie” and “popsicle”.  We rode in a private compartment in the first class car, which had a kitchen and diner.  The first class car was well ventilated with revolving overhead fans but was not air-conditioned.

The railroad tracks to Legaspi, Albay had not yet been completed.  There was still a gap, near the Tayabas- Camarines Norte–Camarines Sur tri-border, which was not to be closed until a few months later.  The gap was, however, narrower than it was in our first trip.  The first leg of the railroad trip still ended at Lopez, Tayabas and took eight hours.  We transferred to a ferry boat which did not leave Lopez until nearly midnight.  The boat crossed Atimonan Bay and arrived at the port of Hondagua, Tayabas early the next morning.  Small buses took us on a half-hour trip to a new railroad station in Calauag, Tayabas.  We waited some time in the station for the train to arrive and take us to Sipocot, Camarines Sur, where we arrived early that afternoon.

Tatang was waiting at the railroad station.  He had hired a “special” Alatco sedan to take us to our rented house, right beside the main road, in Daet, Camarines Norte, forty kilometers from Sipocot.  We could have taken a cheaper although slower and less-comfortable Alatco bus but Tatang was in a hurry, as usual.  ALATCO was the acronym of “A. L. Ammen Transportation Co.”, the land carrier in the Bicol region, named after its Jewish owner, A. L. Ammen.  Here in Daet, we were to spend the next year and a half.  By then, we were the only members of the clan in Daet.  Lolo Ramon and Tia Monang were back in Tampoy.  Tio Carlos and family were in Lingayen, Pangasinan.