I was on my way to work when I happen to think about my earliest memories as a child, my mind was filled with snippets of the past. Being the youngest of the brood I grew up at a time when everyone of my sibling were already going to school, spending the better part of my early childhood years alone. Playmates were scarce and I wasn’t let out of the house on my own, I had to be with yucky Dihiya (we fought a lot).
Mornings were a drag for me then…
My (so much older) Achie would usually wake me with her good morning smooch thereafter ensuing to tease me and make lambing “Pong, pahinging piso ha” ,she’d say. She took a peso a day, which was enough to cover the fare for her jeepney ride to the university, from my piggy bank (in reality it was a gianormous mug) that she bought…..which she fills every afternoon with coins left over from her day. Weird huh?
I’d occasionally tease her about those days. Fine, fine…I tease her about it A-L-O-T. But Achie gets even when she brings up my heyday as “little-miss-mischief”. There is no logical explanation to it but as a young gal I always ended up creating a mess at home or doing something ridiculously crazy. I once cut my very long hair, so for the next few months I sported a semi-kalbo cut and my dad made wear a dress everytime I went out. My mom being my mom, grilled me when they got home. “Why?!”. Of course they didn’t understand…
I was spending the day with achie (so you see it’s her fault) at home. She was cleaning our room and I… I was having my usual day roaming around the house like the princess I was. Then I locked my sights on my clothes which my sister was refolding, so I decided I wanted to try most of them. I tried one on and took it of then tried another and another and another....until I found THE shirt. It was simply what I wanted. BUT I couldn’t take off the shirt I was wearing. I bugged my sister to help me, she wouldn’t. I've always been resourceful so I went to my parent’s room looking for inspiration… Then, I found my mom’s all-around scissors. That’s when it struck me “Darn my tresses for being so long and thick!”
And snip, snip, snip…I went.