I posted the blog below “To All the Kids who were born in the 1950’s to 1980’s” so I could react to it. I thought this spam email that I got was worthy of my time reading and sharing with you all.
Here’s by own flashback… I was born in 1975 in the Philippines.
Knowing the sex of a baby while still in the mother’s womb was impossible at that time. My dad was hoping for a boy, but the nurse brought me to him in a pink blanket! Delightfully, my parents wished I never grow up…. But I did!
While growing up, the kids in my neighborhood were all my friends and playmates.
I could compete in the Chinese garter and Jackstone Olympics! I was that good!
We would go caroling in our neighbors every Christmas time!
Eating Pringles with Pepsi in the cellophane was the best treat!
I rode a wooden sled (we called it “kangga”) drawn by a carabao (Philippine Buffalo) in my grandfather’s farm with my cousins! That would always be the highlight of our summer vacation!
I also rode at the back of a goat with my grandfather holding me. (That made me teary-eyed for a second… I remember I had this photo…. somewhere.)
I’ve seen carabaos, horses and cows peeing and pooping, and pro-creating! These shameless beasts! Gross.
I bathe in the rain with my friends, out in the streets! And “drank” the rain water from the “alulod” or the gutter.
I bathe in the river, and “drank” the water from the river, too. During that time, people (and stray animals) do “everything” in the river! I mean, everything!
I ate cheese with rice. I still do.
I ate margarine with white sugar on my bread, and on my pancake. I still do. I ate Indian Mangoes with white sugar. I will still do.
I had my mom and dad, my grandparents, and nannies around me while growing up. We ate together and chatted over meals.
Our nannies did all the household chores for our family. I’d get in trouble if my grandfather saw me sweeping, washing dishes, doing laundry or cooking.
I remember I had to win the declamation contests 3 times before my dad would buy me my first karaoke machine. I sang my parents favorite standard music like Moon River, My Funny Valentine, My Way, All the Way, etc. rather than sing Madonna’s Borderline and Like A Virgin. Our most high-priced and high-tech “thing” was our Yamaha Organ that we all can play.
In high school when I was a varsity in volleyball, I would wrap a masking tape around my chest. Sports bra does NOT exist at the time. Training bras were useless! I remember I used minimizer bras until I was 27.
In high school, we asked our friends to write in our “slumbooks!” It’s like your bio-data on a perfumed stationery type notebook with personal questions like, What’s your ambition? I wrote “to be somebody someday” like everybody else. Duh, can I be more specific? What is Love? I wrote “Love is something beautiful between you and me, or me and “him.” Yuk. How corny! What is crush? I wrote “Crush is when someone’s looking at you with sparkles in their eyes and you are kilig (giggle!)….” Ha-ha-ha! That’s so cheesy! Are you engaged? I wrote YES. I remember getting in trouble with this. My poor grandmother… she freaked out when she read that I put YES on the “Are you engaged?” part. Gee, I was like 10 or 11 years old then and I don’t even know what that meant! Later, I learned.
Here’s my reality now that I’m grown up…. 2008, Domestic Diva in America.
No more nannies. I learned to do everything. I do the laundry. I cook. I clean. I drive.
My kids are 2 shih tzu puppies, boy and girl. We bought them from a breeder 100 miles away from us. If people asked me if I have kids, I said YES with big bright smile on my face! And I’ll pull out my cell phone and show them their pictures! My puppies are now full grown at 11 pounds each and will never grow bigger!
Kids in our neighborhood don’t do caroling. They only do “Trick or treating” on Halloween in their “Witch” and “zombie” costumes.
Families rarely talk because they have their TV on over dinner. Young girls learn everything from Paris Hilton on MTV and the internet and not from their parents. Their parents (single or divorced) can’t spend quality time with them. To make up for the lost time, they buy them laptops, cellphones, ipods, and all the gadgets you could ever think of. They have 400 to 1000 virtual friends from all over the world that they don’t even know. When you ask them what’s their ambition? They have no clue what that meant.
People here in America ate and drunk the “cleanest” water and food in the world. But yet, they have cancer and all these weird illnesses. In the Philippines, we have “flies and bugs” all over our house and over our greasy and fatty foods and we are fine. I drank rain water from the gutter, remember? Luckily, I’m still alive.
The bra-issue is over. I didn’t need Dr. Vicky Belo to do the magic. I found everything that lifts and fits at Victoria’s Secret. I can jump, spike and run without worrying.
I don’t see all my friends everyday. I chat with them on Yahoo messenger on my phone or on my laptop, or see them occasionally in parties. They are all in my Friendster account, or Facebook, and we would exchange messages once in a while. The last time I counted, I have 250+ in Friendster, and 150+ on Facebook, and it’s growing everyday. Do I really know all of them? Hell, no.
To go back to the slumbook questions: What’s my ambition? I still want to travel and see Europe. What is Love? Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. What is Crush? Crush is what you do to the lemon if you want to make your own lemonade.
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