10th POST

091508

I should title each set of photographs so that there is an underlying theme...
But I only follow what fascinates me at the moment...

Back to TOYS - I wanted to describe all the memorable toys I had...
But I only need mention that toys are important HISTORICAL ARTEFACTS that reflect the technology, ways & mores, whatever of a bygone ERA or PERIOD... Now I'm wondering what toys our leaders/heroes/great figures (and even heels!) of the past played with during their childhood... What did the child Magellan, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, Lapu-Lapu, Rajah Sulayman, Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, MacSak etc etc play with? One might retort that the genuinely heroic ones were too poor to play & had to feel/experience the full brunt of REAL-LIFE oppressive existence...

ADDITIONAL PHOTOs

I was extremely familiar with /unawed by white foreigners even as a child... Shown during my 6th birthday is a really blonde-blue-eyed All-American boy whose name I have already forgotten... Again if he is still alive today I am very sure he would be a lot smellier now!

What I remember well is that he gifted me with one of my cherished toys - a cream-colored toy metal JEEP similar to the real one below. Of course, it was MADE IN U.S.A., made of metal & hard plastic & very durable unlike the Made in Hong Kong or Made in Japan "LOCAL" toys. It was not really a case of MENTAL COLONY but even as a child I could perceive the inherent superiority of white/Western/American goods & products...
At left, with her hands on her chin, is Mary Lou the adopted daughter of a DUTCH-American civilian employee in the former U.S. Naval Base at Subic... My best friend Rey & my sister at right.

MY MOTHER, ANOTHER'S MOTHER, & THE MOTHER OF ALL JEEPNEYS
My mother at left & an original U.S. Gov.t Issue (G.I.) JEEP (Willy's or what or just plain Jeep???)

My mother with Janet's mother who married an IRISH-American U.S. Marine.
Note the details of the JEEP similar to my toy...

The face of an ASTHMA SUFFERER
My late LOLA with my distant cousin Ate Julieta (also R.I.P.)
who married a HUNGARIAN-American. She died of cancer in the U.S.A. & had a daughter.
See how MULTI-NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL my personal links are!!!
This is the 2nd floor SALA of our ancestral home in Alitagtag, Batangas in the 1950's.
Note the fixtures & rattan furniture (bought from BASCO's in Batangas City according to my mother & aunt.)

Batangas - My late father with my brother & my TATAY's pet rooster.
We called our parents "Tatay & Inay". Should be "Tatay & Nanay" or "Itay & Inay"...
If you call your parents "DADDY & MOMMY" or "MOM & DAD", then you are AMERICANIZED.
If you call them "PAPA & MAMA", then you are HISPANIZED.
My old Tausug friends call theirs "AMA & INA" which I believe is TRULY native.

1966, Batangas - My sister & I with our first family (not my rich aunt's) car, a Ford TAUNUS.

TMNP