HAPPY DAYS BY THE SEA
As I mentioned, I just have a handful of photos from when I was a baby and child. This was during the time when people used real cameras, with real film, that had to be developed and printed. The paper used were not necessarily archival and the pictures disintegrated; and most of the time, the rolled up negatives got lost or were destroyed.
Here is one photo I found of me at around 4 years old. I’m with my mother, father, and older sibling. We are bathing in the sea, and this could have been in Talisay or Liloan beaches which we frequented on Sundays. I suspect this photo may have been taken in Liloan because there is land in the background. I don’t recall Talisay beach looked like this.
Sundays, my parents used to pack up lunch and the inner tubes, and a whole group of us caravanned to the sea. House maids came along to watch us and serve lunch. Often times, we stopped by somewhere to buy lechon and barbecued chicken.
We children used to play in the sea and seaside all day, with our skin wrinkling and getting burned. We didn’t mind, and resented being pulled out of the water to eat and rest for a while, because one should never swim on a full stomach.
I remember draping my arms around my father’s neck so I could hang on to him while he swam. It took me a while to be water safe, and even then I just stayed where it was safe — either in the shallow part of the sea or swimming pool.
The second photo shows me with my brother and older sister. I was around five years old then. We are in Liloan, posing in front of a World War II landing craft that had been submerged in that water for many years after the war. It was a kind of landmark for us. The fact is that when I was very young the evidence of World War Two could still be seen in Cebu where I grew up. This was one of them.
I’ll be posting more photos from my growing up years, so stay tuned.
Tags: Tags: vintage photos, old photos, family photographs, World War Two landing craft
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