Scott's Google Earth Meme

Scott, this one's for you. Thanks for the idea. *grin*

The house with the orange X on the roof had been newly built when I was born and it was where I grew up. After some years away, it is where I live again today, but with my family. The area wasn't this crowded, though, when I was very young. Back then, it was grass as far as the eye could see. Except for the trees behind the house. Those are humungous mango trees, and they've been there forever (or so it seems).

I think I was in primary school when some of the neighbors started getting their houses built. The neighbors had young kids, too. The perfect playmate age for me and my two brothers (my sister was some years older and had her own clique at school).

I was never the doll- or dollhouse-type of person when I was a very young kid. Oh no, it was always books or my brothers' toys. My older brother had this über-cool Voltes V and other die-cast metal robots, which were all the rage those days (and if we'd known better, we'd have preserved them because such things fetch a pretty price these days), while my younger brother had a huge collection of Matchbox cars--fantastic stuff--none of which survived our childhood.

But most of the time we could be found outdoors, in the street in front of the house, with our playmates, the neighbors, engaged in several street games. There was piko (something like hopscotch), patintero (something like tag, but much, much more complicated), shato (a strategic game that involved hitting sticks), and agawan ng panyo (hanky-grabbing game that favored the quick-minded and fleet-footed). I think we'd start the games after lunch, play through the early evening, stretching out the hours as long as we could before a parent could appear to summon his or her offspring from the street for dinner.

Sometimes we'd spontaneously come up with other things to do during the day. Things like holding afternoon picnics in the park near our house, or just getting on our bikes and riding throughout the subdivision. That must've been a sight here those days: a gaggle of kids cycling madly, boys and girls together, watching out for one another and laughing our heads off. Sometimes those biking expeditions would end at a local clubhouse where we'd cool off in the pool after those rides (no pics of me in a bikini, sorry. Besides, I was just a kid, you perverts). And no death-defying stunts, Scott, unless you count that incident when I was still learning to ride a bike and crashed spectacularly--earning me some very bloody elbows and knees.

Makes me compare then and now. My own kids hardly come in smelling ewwwily of sun and sweat; they have computer games (and other indoor recreation) instead of the street games I grew up with. No day-long biking expeditions for them so far. None of the über bloody elbows and knees that I wore (after the tears) as badges of honor when I was a kid. Hell, I'd probably scream bloody murder if I saw my young ones with such injuries now.

Sad, I know.