IN RETROSPECT……AND BEYOND

Phoebe J. Beltran

Literary Editor, THE COCONUT, Class ’56

Looking back…….

          …a myriad of images come rushing by not unlike the quickened movements of the clouds in a satellite picture for a weather forecast…

          …one lazy Friday afternoon by the pergola, armed with dulos  we were weeding, watering plants, and aligning the stones that bordered the flowerbeds which were arranged in a star-like pattern…while close by a row of caimito heavy laden with fruit seemed to entice anyone bold enough to throw a stone at it to free it of some of its ripened fruit…ah, well…soon we’d be homeward bound….we’d walk lackadaisically…bantering with each other…our laughter unmistakable above the din of plying jeepneys…unmindful of the long walk (it seemed so then that from Iyam to my house by the gasoline station just before the munisipyo  the distance was quite a bit)…it would be weekend…but Monday would come soon enough…another day that dawned and started with the ritual of the flag raising and the singing of Lupang Hinirang …we’d proceed then to our respective classrooms via the long way round the back…students were not allowed to loiter let alone pass through the front porch of the main building to get access to the classrooms in the two wings during the morning hours…

          …Mrs. Mascardo (in the first trimester of her first pregnancy) was admonishing a male classmate for distracting the class with his antics, and telling him she wouldn’t want to see his face again…the following class meeting he came to class with a brown bag over his head…could still picture her choking up and tearing at the same time with laughter, and so was the whole class…

          …during a roll call in history class, Mr. Amion asked around why so and so was absent…a male voice from the back volunteered an answer…“Sir, he’s absent because he was caponized.”…

          …whispers and giggles in the library while the badge “Talk in English Only” changed his hands faster than a sneeze…while the librarian wearing the highest stiletto heels one had ever seen watched us like a hawk…

          …Miss Lavarez’ perfume wafting and lingering on even after Physics class was over, leaving those amorous boys who had a huge crush on her daydreaming dreams they kept only to themselves…

          …the daredevil caper of some dude from Section 5 who prided himself of replicating Mrs. Aglibut’s (she was assistant principal to Mr. Salazar, and also our adviser in third year) signature to near perfection and gallantly dispensing it to anyone desperately in need of an excuse slip for an absence/tardiness…

          …marching the length of the gym in PE class wearing those abominable black bloomers!!!…

          …a huddle in one of the corners of Miss Unson’s humongous house amidst big sako of palay, trying to make heads and tails out of the submitted articles for  publication…the hassle of re-editing, rewriting…the frantic attempt to beat the deadline so The COCONUT could come out the following Monday…

          …group rehearsals for all-star cast production of the operetta “The Forest Prince” with Mrs. Abcede in the director’s seat…Dennis Abcede was the king, Zenaida Lopez the princess, and Reynaldo Sena (where could he be now???) in the title role…happily it was a howling success with nary a chord out of tune…

          …g to g jamming on Saturdays in the backrooms (Mrs. Yngente’s and Miss Zuniga’s), the dividers rolled open to make room for the dancing floor…kudos to Miss Unson…she couldn’t have thought of a more delightful way for us girls to learn to tango, boogie, cha-cha-cha, and waltz…it was wholesome fun through and through…dancing away the afternoon to our hearts’ content…but to the chagrin of the boys who always came to watch from the sidelines…desperately wishing they could cut in…

          …the honors, medals, and awards garnered from the classrooms as well as from the playgrounds…the heady joy of winning a championship game…the much anticipated out-of-town field trips…the annual national secondary school paper competition…PMT…WAC’s…

          …friendships that were forged, and that have lasted a lifetime…

          …QUEZON HIGH honed our skills and talents…prepared us for our various pursuits,,,making the difference that she alone could grant us…

Looking beyond….

          …somehow the clouds seem to be moving slowly, taking its dear time…treading lightly into the sunset…

          …for some years after graduation our class did not see much  of each other…until it was brilliantly decided by a core group that we have a reunion every five years…so it has been all these years…through thick and thin… through joy and pain…through grief and suffering over death and failed relationships…through silver…and last year’s 4^th anniversary celebration…we’ve met…laughed…cried…shared…

          …the golden years have stamped their marks on wrinkles and sinewy lines on the neck (euphemism of course for “turtle” neck)…on sight getting less focused…on hearing losing more and more of its acuity…the telltale cricks on the joints…thoughts starting to wander off at some unguarded moments…gratefully still lucid…coming back on track through sheer will…

          …there is so much to be thankful for…blessings of family and

friends…successful careers…the glorious feeling of being alive…of being ageless…the sharing…the giving…

          …what is known today as QUEZON NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL seems to me light years away from my time…the ambience dramatically different…but the vibrancy unmistakably still there…

          …student overpopulation stares at us glaringly…the concern there being that the school is not turning out quality graduates…the reason being the students are not getting quality education they richly deserve like for those before them…

          …it behooves us to seek and identify feasible solution to overcome this situation…our ALMA MATER gave us so much…we are proof of this legacy…what then…can we give her in return???…

          …on this centennial celebration…let us think and mull over ways and means by which we can really make the difference for our esteemed and beloved school…how it can reinvent itself…and once more hit its STRIDE for today’s youth…

 …MABUHAY ANG QUEZON NATIONAL HIGH!!