A Comfort Long Missed: My Interview with Cecile Bajar

Cecile Bajar walks drudgingly into her home after another long day of tax work. She hangs her keys on the rack, collapses on the sofa and turns on the local news. It is hard days like these that Cecile remembers the good old days. Days that were stress-free supporting, and loving. It is days like this where she remembers her childhood in the scenic town of Taal in the Philippines.  Taal was anyone’s dream tropical home. Situated near the majestic Lake Taal, on an island in the lake looms the ominous Taal Volcano. This didn’t bother her much but it was always a looming reminder of the possibility of danger. Times were simpler back then in Taal. No real modern conveniences and only a few “jeepneys” or cars. It is this primitive and small town life that brought out the best in everybody. Cecile recalls her town as a friendly and loving town where almost everybody knew each other. Her loving and fond memories of Taal driver her through tough days and cheer her up.  

I grew up in Taal, in the province of Batangas in the Philippines. My family was big which was kind of common back then. There was three boys and four girls and my father and mother. My father is Feliciano, my mother is Masing. Then, my eldest sister Rosie, next is Pina, Pernie, Fred, I’m the fifth, Flora, and Ry. 

My father, he is called capanoy, he’s well known in the town. He owns a business like auto supplies and he was the first person who owns the auto supply business in our town so everyone knew him. My parents started that business when my father started the passenger jeepney business for rent or boundary, like a taxi. He bought like one then it went up to six. Every time a jeepney or there was a problem, repair work or a part to be replaced, be buys like two or three spares for the other jeepneys. He keeps all the rest of the parts, and eventually he accumulated a lot of parts so he started business and other people who own jeepneys come to our place and ask for parts. These people encourage him to put up an auto supply store so that started his business.

We didn’t have our own rooms. We had a big house but practically we sleep together in a big living room. They count their children one to seven, four girls here and three boys there, everyone sleeps together. We were very close, we don’t get to fight and we play bachugan most of the time.

Taal had a few thousand people at least. Everyone in Taal was so friendly and you know that’s the trait of the Filipinos and the Taaleños. Taaleños are very well known for their hospitality and friendliness. Everyone was smiling all the time and greeting each other even if they don’t know each other. Everyone in town was familiar with one another. In fact, you know everywhere they meet they say hello. It’s like a small town and big family. People knew almost everybody by name or face. 

Most families in Taal had their own businesses for their living. Most business there is the hand embroideries. The businesses were really close to each other and hand embroideries were one of the products or industries that are well known in Taal. They made clothes, dresses, and materials made of pineapple bark, called jusi. It was like a tourist spot, the hand embroideries. Also we have this business of knives we call balisong. It’s made out of steel taken from scraps of railroads; you know railroads are made of steel. The handles of the knives are made of caribou horns or reindeer horns. So that’s how people made their living.

During my days we didn’t have telephone, so everyone communicated by word of mouth. Yeah, families knows each other so like if something happened it would just start spreading by word of mouth. There weren’t any newspapers or anything we could read about the news for the town. We had the Manila Times to hear about the nation though. Sometimes they go there it reaches us like the day after. It circulated in the town but people communicate like verbally and since its very small town we know all the people. We also have televisions, but not all homes have televisions. We have like one old one during my kid time and you can hardly see all the stations. You can only see one station and you have to arrange the antennae, the same with the radio. The technologies encouraged people to go to school more. 

Our town had a lot of activities like parties. Like we have the Santa Cruzan, it’s a long procession done every May, and every night they have this procession with the Virgin Mary and they get all the teenagers and kids to join. The procession would last two hours and after the procession, everyone goes to the altar one at a time and offer flowers. We also have luwa. It’s an adoration or praising of God and we specifically do these things and especially to the image of the patron saint of the town, St. Martin. We had a poem offering and like me, I always do the poem offering on the fiesta and I memorized like twenty stanza of poem. For fun, we had a lot of social activities like dancing. We had so many parties over there but dancing is the most popular you know. 

In the Philippines we had a special way of greeting each other. The custom of kissing the hand of the parents or elderly and in the evening the kids kissed the hand of the parents and elderly was followed by most Filipinos, not just my town. We called it manu po.

Taal wasn’t really racially or religiously divided. Taal is really 100% Filipino; it is the only town where there is no single Chinese. You’d see Chinese in other provinces but not in Taal. People in Taal were mainly Catholics. There weren’t Muslims like the Abu Sayaf (a Muslim terrorist group) Taal wasn’t really affected by Americans and the harsh rule of the dictator Ferdinand Marco. We adapted and adopted to American culture and Marcos’ harsh rule but this was mainly effecting Manila. My family didn’t really think mush of theses events in Taal.

The lake and volcano played a big role in our lives. We were proud to be there because it’s a tourist spot. When I was small I remember when it erupted. We woke up in the morning and our house was full of dust and it’s really scary, it was like rain with dust. The lake was covered with lahar and it really affected businesses because it killed all the maliputo, a famous fish only in Taal. People used the lake often for fishing and recreation and fun. The volcano in the lake was really special. 

Small town life is very good; I don’t know how I’m going to express myself. I really loved it and childhood life until I grew up, it’s a really loving town. We didn’t have much hardship and everyone was just fine, it was an enjoyable time. I had a lot of experiences you people never have here, and it was really great