Sweet are the friends from girlhood

I wasn't much of a joiner in high school. I skipped the junior-senior prom when I was a junior, then skipped it again the following year when i was a graduating senior. The outsider feeling (OP or out of place) is quite pronounced in the teenage years. I guess that explains why I still like J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and his creation, Holden Caulfield.

There's still a little bit of Holden in me even as I approach the next decade: my 60s.

But life is short so when Bibit Esteva Llamas asked if I'd be in Baguio Feb. 25-26, I answered that I was scheduled to visit family here. That was how I found myself with my lively Class '73 batchmates. I served as their tourist guide. We all had fun and capped Thursday with wine and beer at home where they met The Wee One and where the sleepy husband showed how he cared for me and my friends by being willing bartender.

Let's do it again, sweet girls of my youth.

Our ground zero was the Europa Condo Villas on Legarda Road where we had a full breakfast, the works! The gourmet cooks in the group, Vicki Narciso Valero (second right) and Bibit Esteva Llamas (third from right) took over the kitchen and cooked well-marinated beef tapa, cheese omelette, etc. Others in this chorus line are (from left): the blogger, Marie Zamora Lazo, the balikbayan from Vancouver, Canada, Rita Heimbrod Fathi, and Marianne Martin Soriano.

Imitating the pose of some bulul or figures of rice granary gods as suggested by the Bencab Museum guide

We "bumped" into my husband Rolly and his fraternity brod Chibu Lagman (left) at the museum's Cafe Sabel after we toured several upper floor galleries. If I'm looking more lola-ish than usual, blame the flights of stairs that my creaky knees had to manage. I recommend the lemon grass iced tea to recover fast.

Another group photo before we headed back to downtown Baguio to meet up with our former high school principal who now supervises the canteen and dietary requirements of patients at the Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital on Gen. Luna Road.

At 70-something, Sr. Auguste is quite strong and refuses to slow down. Her problem that Thursday noon when she sat down with us was how to find 40 kilos of fresh fish in the public market. It's Lenten season. The hospital serves no meat on Fridays. Sister Auguste still goes to the market almost daily with her kitchen staff.

Stopping at Billy King's Le Chef at The Manor, Camp John Hay, for coffee and pastries

The girls just had to stop at Mines View Park to buy and eat pusit before going to the nearby Good Shepherd Convent's Mountain Maid Training Center for pasalubong shopping. I didn't join them and stayed in the van to watch shoppers go by.

Come together, High School Class of '73

At the end of these rare reunions, a class picture is SOP beginning with the usual restrained shot followed by a wacky one. I've noticed, too, that as the years go by, no one wants to sit on the front row because of soft round bellies that, vanity dictates, have to be hidden from the viewing world. But I don't mind showing mine--it's well-earned after a day of eating, eating, eating. *Sigh*

I tend not to forget anyone's name if I still use their maiden surnames (for the marrieds) and their nicknames from childhood. Mind you, these are women who're either 59 or 60 years young. Seated (from left): Hayni Estrada, Jill Racela, Eugene Mesina and Babeth. Standing are: Ana Marie Earnshaw, Maan Martin, Vickie Narciso, Concept Zamora, Pam Bañez, Marissa Ileto, Baby Tecson, Bibit Esteva and Lyn Sanchez.

Host Baby Tecson-Mangahas left this tarp of images from our generation to keep the sun out. Later, baby photos of some members of the class were put over the tarp for a guessing game. Baby says she hasn't taken down the tarp. It's a nostalgic trip for any group that comes over to her home. BTW, Baby also uses Babette as her nickname--she chose it when she entered college because she thought Baby was too, uhh, infantile for a tall woman like her.

A child of the '60s and '70s caught between Janis Joplin and Audrey Hepburn. Thanks, Marissa, for taking this pic. She took it when she saw me struggling to do a selfie that always came out baluktot!

While catching up on one another's life, they nibbled on watermelon seeds, something I couldn't anymore impose on my fragile teeth. No wonder I was the hungriest when lunch was served. I had a box of Rodic's famed tapsilog for appetizers before I went on to the bangus and pork sinigang. Baby's family is behind Rodic's. You can't be a true State U alumna if you haven't tried Rodic's at UP Shopping Center.

Pancho Llamas, Bibit's big half, served as game master. He went high-tech, using a flat screen with a laptop attached for the quizzes.

This game revolved around the number One and its variations and sound-alikes: first, Juan, uno, isa.

Baby approaches the stool to ring the bell, confident that she has the correct answer. Since the party was set in the garden, we came in flower power clothes.

Jumping for joy for each correct answer

While having our dessert of Calea cheesecake and Nathaniel's buko pandan ice cream, we played Pinoy Genyo that still had a Christmas theme. It was fun watching Concept guess what was written on her head. When the bell rang and she saw the word "magi," she quipped, "How will I be able to guess that? It's not something I associate with Christmas. Magi we use in the kitchen!"

Hearty congratulations to Bibit for being our class' tireless organizer of reunions. We promise to do our bit in assisting her at the next happy occasion where we all revert to the sweetness and lightness of girlhood.

Becoming ruby

For awhile there, we (a minority of St. Paul College Quezon City High School Batch '73) thought that preparations for our ruby or 45th jubilee had gone kaput, and we would just end up standing to be acknowledged for a few seconds of applause on homecoming day.

Never say never. Nothing like leaving the picking up and organizing to the professionals. So when tireless classmate Miriam Gimenez pleaded that we had to show up for this meeting, who were we to decline and use the bad weather for excuse?

Corporate setting gives our discussions a serious tone with welcome giggling breaks. Clockwise: The blogger, Marissa Ileto, Hayni Estrada Prudente, Eugene Mesina, Lota Alix Medina, Miriam Gimenez,Teresita Rey Evangelista, Jill Racela Narciso, Elaine Barretto, Marie Zamora Lazo and Ana Marie Earnshaw Rigor. Standing are Vicki Narcisco, Adelle Nadres, Bibit Esteva Llamas and Audrey Agatep General.

Nothing like 14 heads, some gray with age (the let-it-grow-white school), others turned brunettes (becomingly so), invoking the old Paulinian spirit of can do!

So we quickly agreed on being red hot mamas when we show up attired in red tops on Jan. 12, 2013, at the Gilmore campus, on having a core group of dancers to lead our march up the stage, on having our own be-kind-to-ourselves days before the main event (a spiritual "getaway," my tentative term, since there are the apostates who gag at the word retreat or recollection; a Zumba dancercise session to get the energy level high; a group spa to remove calluses of aging; walking tour of Chinatown or some historic district in Manila for the classmates flying from overseas).

Elaine Barretto calls these activities "bonding time."

Nourishment for body, mind, spirit--how can we go wrong with that at this stage in our lives? We hope it entices other classmates out there to join the homecoming.

A time to be serious, a time to be comic

 Of course, from the funds we raised, an amount will be put aside for classmates with serious health and financial issues."Caritas Christi urget nos" is the school motto, after all.

Audrey Agatep General, who hosted this July meeting, said the ruby jubilee may be our "last hurrah"--intimations of mortality there. If we make it to diamond, we may be in wheelchairs or clasping walking canes or assisted by care givers.

Or still remain in fine form like Bibit who just joined the "Honesty Club" by giving up coloring her hair and letting it turn its distinguished color. Below she models the lead dancers' look.

Ruby and silver, yeah!