2066 Vision St.

2066 Vision St. was the Manila apartment address I shared with my two brothers, sister, and aunt when we were all in college (the older of my two brothers was working already). I still am hoping that someday that will be the title for a sitcom on Philippine TV :-) We had an interesting time during those days. My brother was an architecture student so the walls of the apartment was decorated with sketches and unfinished floor plans, my sister was working on a biology degree while my aunt was in medical school. We did not have a TV since our father thought it would be a distraction (obviously right), we did have a stereo though and I bought a newspaper everyday (at the end of every semester I will sell the old newspapers to the recycling shop and have enough money for all of us to watch a movie). We were on our own and we ran the household. We did not exactly sing Kumbaya everyday but we all got along real well.

We had a neighbor who was a retired journalist of the famed Manila Times. We called him "Manong" a generic title in filipino for an older man. He regaled us with his tales from his newswriting days and international trips as he covered the Labor and Foreign Affairs beat. Every afternoon and sometimes until late into the night my brother and I would sit outside the apartment door and observe the residents of Vision St. We dealt with the humid Manila air by drinking copious amounts of ice cold San Miguel Beer (most of the time drinks were on "Manong"). To this day I still wonder how my brother was able to save so much of his allowance (even if it was smaller than mine) and afford to buy me beer and sometimes tickets to the movies.

Manong had a sister, and in the mornings they run some sort of a Philippine version of the breakfast diner that served the student population of Vision St. In the makeshift diner you can buy Philippine breakfast of rice porridge, rice noodles, eggs, and fried fish ($0.25 worth of meals would be enough to get you through the day). If you wake up late, then tough luck, because they run out of food to serve by 10 am. Manong and her sister were kind to us, treating us as if we were their nephews and nieces. I vowed that when I get my economics degree I will come back one day and treat them to a nice meal in one of Manila's fine restaurants. It was not to be, they died only months apart after they both suffered heart attacks. I was a couple of semesters away from my degree.

Now that I live on my own in a small college town, in an apartment all to myself, my mind wanders back to those days in Vision St. Sometimes I think of sitting on the steps of my apartment entrance and watch people walk by but it's just too cold...