All Jayme

Lola’s house

Lazy Sundays make me reminisce those days when we used to go to Lola’s house in Batangas.

We would leave the house at 5am to avoid the traffic . The four hour ride that followed was usually spent sleeping but in between, we’d have snack breaks of sandwiches, chips and juice that my mom packed for us. Along the way, we’d buy boiled peanuts and sweet corn from street vendors who hang around bus stops and terminals.

Having grown up in the city, being in Lola’ s house up in the highland was always a welcome retreat.

Back then, the house was just made of a nipa roof, wooden walls and bamboo floors held up by wooden stilts dug deep into the ground. There was never any need for electric fans or air conditioners because the surrounding plants and trees always ensured a cool breeze.

There was one television but the reception was poor so, for entertainment, I would read some old books kept in the shelves or write in my journal while staring out the house’s wide window. Sometimes I would look through Lola’s aparador (cabinet) and marvel at the little trinkets I found there.

Other times, we would wander under the house where there was still so much to explore. The old wooden loom where Lola used to weave blankets that she gave us to as gifts, the wire pens that housed the native chickens, and the wooden storehouse that kept the sacks of rice and cattle supplies. At the back of the house were the pig pens where the pigs go in a frenzy when Lola brings out the feeds.

Back in the days when there were no computers, cellphones or gadgets, these common place things in Lola’s house all seemed so amazing in my eyes. Everything seemed like a priceless piece of treasure.

It’s been years since I last went to Lola’s house. The last time I went there, the roads were already paved and the house was re-constructed with cement. Though getting there became more convenient and the house became sturdier and more modern looking , it seemed to have lost its charm to me.

I just hope the people there would maintain the old country charm and peacefulness that makes it seem like a heaven compared to the city. I want to bring my daughters to Lola’s house some day to show them how beautiful the simple life used to be.

Posted in: Just Jayme

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Just Jayme. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.