80 Different Things: Part Two

 Celebrating Me 

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. - The Wonder Years

Growing Up

14. Growing up, I was English-speaking. Mum wrote on my baby book that I would choose clothes after a bath, Mummie, dis one wid pawers.

15. We lived for a while in the Llenado home with Mum's six sisters. They said that at an early age, I could recognize which bakya (6 pair for the sisters, one for the maid) at the foot of the stairs belonged to whom. 

16. It was there that Blackie the dog bit me, for which I had to endure anti-rabies shots.

17. Mum always adorned me with real jewelry. I had a silver bangle and a pair of hand-crafted earrings with blood red gemstone that was supposedly my birthstone. 

18. Sort of a tomboy? Yes. I wore t-shirts and shorts when it was unbecoming for girls to be so attired. Hated dolls. Didn't like getting dressed for photos.

19. On Saturdays, Mum sometimes gave money to the maid so we could go to Cine Rosie to watch cinema heart throbs Amalia Fuentes and Romeo Vasquez. 

20. My godmother Auntie Tessie was my idol. I wanted to be like her. She was unmarried and drove her own car.

Pouting Don't-Want-To-Be-A-Girl in overalls, a birthday hat, and dollie. Llenado House on Trabajo Street (now M. de la Fuente), Sampaloc, Manila. Circa 1948

21. Once, Ninang took me to the air-conditioned Life Theater to watch Lana Turner's blockbuster movie Imitation of Life. 

22. Mum told me to never forget that I was Llenado, a landowner family with old money.

23. Dad always teased me about my butt sticking out when I walked. I must have been thinking about my Llenado lineage.

24. Mum lectured me on the importance of owning land. It is immovable property, she would say.

Maria Francisco Llenado and Gregorio Llenado Sr. Sepia photograph of my grandparents: Llenado House on Trabajo Street (now M. de la Fuente), Sampaloc, Manila

25. Because I was fair-skinned, Mum always chose bright orange and yellow fabric for dresses that she sewed for me.

26. For Christmas, when most girls wore pink dresses, Mum had me wear an apple green dress. You'll be different, she'd say.

27. For New Year, she would sew a light blue dress for me, her idea of an appropriate welcome hue for the year.

(To be continued)

80 Different Things: Part One

 Celebrating Me 

         The important thing to remember is not to forget. - Benny Bellamacina

For the first time in my blog history, I'm writing as I go, while preempting an originally-scheduled series topic. For two reasons: Brother Number Two's discovery of some rare foto albums in our ancestral home at the Emilia Compound and the fact that this month marks my milestone 80th birthday. 

So, here's the plan. This series will be a celebration of me through 80 personal tidbits, unknown to you.

I've not reached that stage yet where my train of thought often leaves the station without me.Thus, I'm confident that I can do this.

Here goes.

Pencil Sketch: AVS, Columbus: October 2023

                                 

                                         BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS

Never forget where you came from and never take your eyes off where you're heading. - Anonymous

1. You already know that I was born on March 21, 1945 but perhaps, not the fact that I was born in Balic-Balic, Manila. It is a jeepney-ride away from my ancestral Emilia Compound home.

2. I was delivered by a midwife at home, don't know exactly at what time.

3. Because of my tiny, flat, round, and reddish nose, I was dubbed Tomato Nose.

4. Relatives had commented that I looked like Fat Mother (Dad's mother), a comparison that I resented, growing up.

5. My ears were pierced shortly after birth.

6. Milak was the name that I used to call my Mum, perhaps because she was my milk source.

7. Mum said that because of hard economic times, she had to feed me castanog (roasted coconut meat) which she said gave me the smarts.

8. When she could, she would save centavos to go to the sari-sari store to buy me an egg.

9. I told my Mum once that I didn't like my given name, Adoracion. I wanted an American name, like Jennifer or Elizabeth.

10. She reasoned out that Adoracion was the most beautiful name ever because it meant adoration in English.

11. She had vowed that her first-born child, if a girl, would be so named, as a form of her adoration of God. Note: Glad she didn't apply the scriptural reference to sacrifice of the first-born.

12. Conceding to my inclination toward an Americanized monicker, Mum nicknamed me Doris after Doris Day, a popular American actress and singer at the time.

13. As a child, when asked what my name was, I'd say, 'Chon Toyo. Mum and Dad took to Chon as a shortened form of Chona, referencing me in their mind to one Chona Recto-Kasten, a well-known socialite at the time. They kinda liked that linkage.

                                            (To be continued)

YOU Are The Magic!

 Magic 

The illusion of perfection is an illusion anyway. - Anonymous

Re Quick Change, Second Daughter said, Don't know many magic tricks, but I do like your reference about 5 minutes. =)

First Daugther quipped, They wore several outfits at once? Yes, but how were the changes made?

I must admit that I had been intrigued by the Quick Change act... until I found out how it is done. 

The secret is pretty simple. The most common way is to put on multiple costumes at the same time and for an assistant (hidden from view, of course) to get rid of the layers in such a way that it looks like the performer is able to change the entire outfit in seconds.

Velcros, snaps, and magnets are often used to keep everything in place during the performance. On cue, strings are used to pull on and take off each layer of clothing.

As for me, I'd just keep calm and get dressed. Importantly, I'd be sure to remember this simple dress code. Keep your clothes on!

And now, for the finale of this series...

*****

Come to think of it, perhaps we don't need to watch nor understand how legendary illusionist David Copperfield can make the Statue of Liberty disappear or how he can escape from Alcatraz.

Consider the bewitching moments in every day.

May Calendar Page. Compiled by P.D.Hughes, Hawaii: 2024 

* The deep, wild magic that’s as old as the world itself in the bond shared between dog and human.

* A little boy grown up.

* A dad who held his kids' hands for a short while but who holds their hearts forever.

* The pride of accomplishment.

* The soul connection between mothers and daughters that would carry through a lifetime of smiles, even tears.

Life's magical moments are here, all around us. That's the thing about magic.

There's magic in the feeling that nudges us to delight at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of enchantment waiting somewhere behind the morning. 

The sentiment that reminds us that this world, after all our science and technology, is still a miracle. 

Wonderful. Inscrutable.

For the best magic of all, what you need to do is simply to turn it on, for... 

... Y O U are the magic!

Quick Change

Magic 

Illusion is the first of all pleasures. - Voltaire

On the Levitating Woman trick, First Daughter said, I don't know how the trick works! No other responses were received, so it looks like the secret to this trick needs to be unveiled now.

At its core are hidden supports and mechanisms that make the illusion possible. These often involve a mix of metal rods, mechanical platforms, or even strings, all skillfully concealed from the audience's view. 

The key is to create a believable illusion of levitation while keeping the supports invisible.

The magician directs the audience's attention away from the secret mechanisms with movements and gestures, all designed to distract and mislead.

Modern renditions of the trick utilize innovations like electromagnets, advanced hydraulics, and even computer-controlled systems to make the illusion more seamless and mesmerizing.

*****

Now, to this week's magic act.

I really need new clothes. Is this you every morning?

Or this. I have to put on makeup, a bra and pants on? I'm not going.

Or, you do eventually find the stamina to get dressed, although stressed and depressed. You say, Ready in five minutes. But you're using the same time scale a man uses when he says the game will be over in five minutes.

Then, you emerge dressed up like you're going to get murdered in those clothes.

Such dilemma won't apply to the QUICK CHANGE artist.

This kind of magician is able to have several changes of fashionable outfits in seconds, often multiple times in a row, before a live audience.

In an AGT show I watched recently, a couple took this entire performance one step further and got really creative with their tricks. Not only were they garbed in a dozen different outfits in a few minutes, but they also changed their clothes while only being covered by an umbrella or even smoke.

You know magic is not real, but how??!!

Please email (send to me only), if you know how it works. 

The secret is revealed in the next blog.

 

Levitating Woman

Magic 

There is no magic in magic, it is all in the details . - Walt Disney

Not one of you seem to know the hidden mystery behind the Black Magic game, so here it is.

In private, the magician tells the assistant the secret to the game. The latter will be pointing to different objects in the room, and asking the magician whether each one is the object that has been chosen by the audience.

The magician keeps answering, No, but pays attention to the color of the object that is being pointed to. When the assistant points to a black object, that will be the cue. The magician will answer, No, but both know fully well that the next object to be pointed to will be the right answer. 

To that, the magician answers, Yes.

*****

Are you ready for this week's illusion challenge?

Yup, it's the all too-familiar Levitating Woman trick.

A woman lies down, usually on a board or a table.

Then, as the audience watches in disbelief, she rises into the air with no visible means of support. The spectacle is often enhanced by dramatic gestures, such as passing hoops over the levitated person to dispel any suspicions of wires or hidden supports.

How does a magician achieve this feat? Is it pure skill, clever engineering, or a combination of both? 

Please email (send to me only), if you know how it works. 

The secret is revealed in the next blog.

 

Black Magic

 Magic 

It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works. - Terry Pratchett

I love magic.

It's not real, but it's fun. When life get serious sometimes, I think magic can bring back a joyful energy to invigorate us.

Thus, in this series, I'd like to feature some of my favorite magic show acts. But not only that. I'd like to ask you if you know or can figure out how the magic is done.

For starters, how about the BLACK MAGIC game? I used to play it as a kid.

As the name suggests, this is a baffling game where the magician is able to guess which object had been pre-selected by the audience.

The game proceeds as the magician's assistant points to different objects in the room, asking, Is this the one? Eventually, as the correct object is pointed to, the magician enigmatically discerns it to be so and says, Yes. 

Of course, he is correct.

Please email (send to me only), if you know how it works. 

The secret is revealed in the next blog.

Grandma's House, On A Helicopter Ride

A Lovely Place To Be

 Don't just fly. Soar high. - Anonymous

 If I flew on a helicopter I would visit... my grandma's house.

Such is the inscription on Second Granddaughter's pre-school art project that leaves a lump in my throat every time I look at it.

It is my favorite page among her stuff that I've compiled through the years and put together in a folio album.

A lone, blue helicopter tinged with a red tail dominates the space. Rotating propellers made of popsicle sticks enable the aircraft to navigate quietly across a sky that is huge and high and impossibly blue.

Overhead, a fat, white, slow-moving cotton ball cloud floats across the horizon. A solitary, gnarled wisp trailing behind seems to say, Wait up.

In anticipation, a stick person peers through the copter's bubble window.

What an endearing work! It has filled a space in my heart that I never knew was empty.

Of course, dear child, when you do come, it will be the loveliest place for you and me to be. 

But know that you won't need a helicopter to fly high. Your wings already exist. All you have to do is make the leap.

Soar high.

Touch the sky.

Dear Future

 A Lovely Place To Be

 Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now. - Anonymous

In 2039. I am 27.

Such is the title on the last panel of First Granddaughter's mini-autobiographical  pictograph.

A cartoonish girl wearing a purple shift dress that features a shine bright design on its front is winking, looking back, saying, Almost done. An open door with a view of a sunshiny day beckons on the far right.

It's my favorite page on the treasure album that I'd recently put together.

There's confidence in this girl, on her final tween year, no longer a little child, but not quite a teenager.

Her stance is certain, as she seems to assert, My day, my way. I'm looking to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.

It is going to be her happy place - and I'd very much like to be there with her.

For right now, I'm not blinking because I know she's growing up too fast.

So I say, Keep growing and glowing. I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck whether at 12 or 27!

For in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.

It's the life in your years.

Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory

 A Lovely Place To Be

 Enjoy the little things... for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things. - Anonymous

How would you like to get a pass that will allow you to get into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory? Moreso, how would you like to be the recipient of a lifetime supply of chocolates?

Yes! And yes! to that.

That, indeed, would be my lovely place to be - and I know just how to do that.

By perusing the pages of one of my treasure albums.

From one of its pocket pages will first fall out a toothpicked photograph. That of a squiggly, bald, wide-eyed baby boy.

Then, a Golden Ticket.

Mementoes of First Grandson's birthday when he turned one.

I remember.

Willy Wonka was the party theme.

Although we didn't quite re-create a palace made out of chocolate nor serve ice cream that didn't melt in the sun, First Daughter saw to it that there was chocolate galore -  from a three-foot fountain with a crown at the top and stacked tiers over a basin of chocolate fondue in which fresh strawberries could be dipped.

A cake was meticulously decorated by Second Daughter/Godmother Nani with spice drops and dots, and M&Ms were scattered throughout. Trees of Kisses and Hugs lined level and undulating surfaces to emulate a Wonka-ish wonderland of magic and whimsy.

Lolo had obliged to be the colorfully-dressed, small, spritely Willie Wonka. I may have worn wide slacks to mimic being a teeny Oompa-Loompa.

I still pull out my Golden Ticket from time to time to recreate that especial time in that lovely place.

A moment that has become a memory.

A memory that has become my treasure.

Madeleine And Tea At Combray

A Lovely Place To Be

Within the pages of my favorite books and treasure albums is a profusion of lovely places to be.

That's where I'd like to take you in this series.

*****

First, Combray. 

The fictional town created by Proust in Remembrance of Things Past.

It is here where the first scenes of the novel take place.

And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine which in Sunday mornings at Combray... when I went to say good day to her in her bedroom, my aunt Leonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of real or of lime-flower tea.

I so love this passage because of the exquisite connection of flavor and memory it explores.

... No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place.

I was obsessed. I'd actually searched and found madeleines (at Trader Joe's, if you're curious and/or interested).

I wanted Combray.

Even now, when things are broken and scattered, I like to think that I can nibble on this delicate scallop-shaped spongy French tea cake, as I sip lemon-flavored tea.  

And the smell and taste of things that had remained poised a long time, like souls, will be ready to remind me, waiting and hoping for their moment.