Memoir Monday: Our Yesteryears

Hello there! I was scrolling on my "following feed" page when I had a glimpse of the Silverbloggers community having visited my page on one of my entries at aseanhive community wherein I've posted my recycled organizers out of paper artwork. Then I read the entry about Monday Memoirs. Well yes, memories of the past brings back the good old days! I managed to dig some and I only got two since the rest were stored in my other laptop and some were stored in a box full of black & white photos! Lol! I need more time for that though so maybe next time when granny me is no longer busy.:) You know, am quite sensitive when it comes to "old smell" of photos so I've been planning to ask my youngest son to take photos of each to preserve those photos of yesteryears.

As you can see on the above photo, it was dated way back 1970s during our highschool days. We were childhood friends way back then since the day we attended our Sunday school until we reached high school. We were inseparable that we formed the "GEM SISTERS" tandem. The "G" stands for Gloria (yours truly), "E" for Eunice and "M" for Marilou. We always go together to practice choir every Saturday afternoon and join the CYF (Christian Youth Fellowship) every Sunday afternoon.

This photo was taken on the same year since the two of them (Marilou and Eunice) transfered to another School. We named this group "D' Jolly Group:)

We lived in place where 90% of the populace were Muslims. Our school was founded by the Presbyterian father's and they played a great role in educating them way back then during the American occupation in the Philippines. Our school was a non-sectarian school hence we were treated equally. I can still remember when I was still a kid when our American Peace corps would visit our house and they'd love to listen while I sing "Paper Roses" and some "kundiman". Afterwards, he would give me 10 cents and that was already too big for me. You can already buy a bottle of orange and 10 lemon candies out of 10 cents during that time you know. Lol!

The peace corps were one of our teachers in English Drill subject then it was abolished later on when UNICEF stopped their support to our school. Our president during that time was Rev. Lloyd G. Van Vactor. He was our church pastor though it was a tragic incident when Martial Law was proclaimed by the then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1971 because of insurgency that had misplaced both our Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters in Mindanao. We were forced to evacuate and leave our homes. It was most unfortunate that our president was kidnapped and held for ransom by the rebels for 8 long months which made his wife succumb due to heart failure. He was released with the help of our Muslim and Christian friends and the American government wherein he went back to the US with their 2 sons.

That was also the end of our happy days since many of us especially the Christians relocated to other places for refuge and safety. After the war, our school continued with their noble endeavor to educate the people and despite of that tragedy, our former president still continued supporting our school.

We were the lucky ones who survived the war. My classmates still continued with their respective chosen field of profession.

Thanks to modern technology that we were able to contact each other through the social media. I am proud to say that most of us succeeded on our careers. Then we formed a group chat via FB and agreed for us to meet and have a class reunion for the first time after 46 long years!

We had our first class reunion last July 2016. See, that little lady on that photo is now a medical doctor, that guy was a consistent valedictorian and still our GC chairman (a pastor now) Marilou is a Physical Therapist and Flight Stewardess, Eunice became a seasoned mining Accountant/Auditor and the last but not the least, yours truly got her AB course at the Mindanao State University, though I chose to do office job but hubby asked me to tend to our growing family while he served as our bread winner. Well, I am also a seamstress at home doing some little earnings and now a writer. Ain't that cool?

My classmates from abroad went home to the Philippines just to attend our class reunion. It was just the right time since all of us were already retired and enjoying our days as grandparents of our little siblings! Those are unforgettable moments we always cherish everytime we talk about it in our GC when given the chance to converse with each other.

Thank you for reaching this far, God bless us all!

@Sarimanok a.k.a @silverglory