High School Days

Manilyn Reynes and Sheryl Cruz ruled the FM airwaves from sunup to sundown. Mr. Dreamboy was an instant hit.

After school, we turned on the TV to watch week-old broadcasts of That’s Entertainment, followed by Inday Badiday’s Eye to Eye. There were no other choices.

Bramy Bayron and Mae Lacang were the undisputed newscaster king and queen in Bisaya. Wearing a pang bible-study blouse and sporting coke-bottle glasses, Mae looked like an aging librarian; Brammy appeared like he just drove in after a ten (10) hour trip from Davao. They should have stayed in radio. I never cared about the local news. The newscasters and the decrepit sets were far more interesting to look at.

Laura Brannigan’s The Name Game. For some reason, I associate this 80's relic with hi-cut boots. My seatmate in senior year, Froilan, wore those.

Debbie Gibson’s one-hit wonder Electric Youth marked the end of the New Wave phenomenon. What happened to her? Also, The Wonder Years and Murder She Wrote were my favorite TV programs.

Romnick Sarmenta-Sheryl Cruz-Jennifer Sevilla love triangle. Didn’t really care. How on earth would any girl fall gaga over this average-looking guy?

Matet vs Aiza: The battle of the babies. I sided with Aiza, I even watched “Wake up Little Susie”.

My seatmate Froilan knew all the real names of local celebrities, without skipping a beat. He knew the real name of Maricel Soriano. He read Kislap.

I woke up regularly at 4 a.m. to catch the first school bus. Ambrose and I would engage in operatic vocal exercises early morning before class.

I played the bandurria during morning ceremonies. We played “Mabuhay” for VIPs who visited the school. I was also the church organist and pianist. When it came to music, people, I was the guy. Hey, they transferred the school piano to our classroom.

Beauty contests were hilarious affairs. My History teacher’s daughter, in the talent portion, performed some native ritual dance in authentic tribal costume, bit the head of a live chicken and threw the bloody corpse in front of the shocked judges. I never looked at her in the same way again. Of course, she didn’t win. My friend Estela did.

I was constantly being linked to buxomly Barbara. She loved to quote Indira Gandhi (“love and sacrifice”).

My public speaking teacher was also my ninong (godfather). He was extremely boring. In fact, he’d kill time by dictating his old notes to us, word-for-word. First time I ever cheated in school and made a codigo.

My History teacher spent half his time lecturing us about things that have nothing to do with History. He said the capital of Austria was Venice!

My classmate Wowie spoke English punctuated with Bisaya expressions like “uy” and “gud” all the time. We all spoke to her in Bisaya.

Matilde would ask questions with which she already knew the answers.