Each time there's a heavy downpour outside and dark clouds above, I am sometimes almost brought back to those long gone days when I was a child. When my mom was still around.How i loved the rainy days and cherished some of the typhoons then. Sure, there were super typhoons in the past but none of the kinds we had to deal with the past couple of years. Or maybe I was just too naive then, so innocent and unmindful of what's going on around us. We were all safely cocooned inside our own shells and seemingly content so whatever damage those past typhoons may have done were lost on me. Didn't even came to my attention. I believe that is the feeling that i am hoping to recapture in trying to reminisce about those past moments - the contentment, the simplicity of things minus the clutter and information overload and the disturbing facts of life. One can say I almost lived a sheltered life as a youngster, self-absorbed in my own little world.
What I love then each time Signal No. 2 or 3 was raised apart from the suspension of classes & more playtime is that our mom gets to stay at home. For she too was a hardworking woman, responsible for bringing food to our table so it was such a
rare treat to have her around in the morning throughout lunch and dinner cooking our comfort foods and just bantering w/the kids during those wet, cold and windy times. Back then, all I felt was pure warmth and love.
Another childhood memory I wouldn't mind playing repeatedly in my head are those days when my father would come home for lunch on work days bringing with him some of that good old choco candy 'Flat Tops' for us kids. Flat Tops seemed tastier & richer compared to what's now being sold on the market. Probably Ricoa did some cost-cutting, scrimping on a few ingredients here and there.
Or it can also mean that my taste buds were more sensitive then, apparently not yet numbed by too much caffeine, alcohol, spicy foods or whatever.
There were also some of those treats from yesteryears that I don't see much of these days. I wonder if they still exist to this day. Does any one of you remember Tootsie Rolls? Those chewy chocolate candies that come in small, medium, large sizes. We used to buy lots of them at our neighborhood sari-sari stores taking small, slow kiddie bites.
And the Magnolia Chocolait in a bottle. Somehow it never tasted the same again after they replaced the containers with either the plastic bottle or tetrapak kind.
Even Chippy and Clover chips tasted differently today than they used to when we were younger. But i don't believe that taste is in the tongue of the eater. I know for a fact that some of these food manufacturers are now using different ingredients to go w/ the latest technology. And that's why their long gone tastes will now only be in our memories, much like the moments that cannot be re-enacted the same way inasmuch as we are now living and dealing w/ different people and a totally different environment - no more Mama and Papa, and the storms and typhoons more violent than ever..
Still it's nice to look back on those things that can bring a smile to our faces. Those warm recollections that could help us move forward toward a better future. And reminding us that good things do exist and can be felt throughout space and time.
