7. BAGUIO BOY II: Take Me Home, Session Road

ME AND DOG. At our 3-storey Session Road flat, shared with the Dimacalis. My brother Gregg and I shared the ground floor with the Dimacali's pet, Dog.

Cold, cramped and damp. That's how I remember our first Baguio home, but our place was right smack on Session Road. The Dimacalis, friends of Manong Nanding and kabalens, lived atop us. Next-door neighbor was good old Tea House, ran by George and Elsie. I went there for their tasty Fruit Pie and Cinnamon Rolls!

BEDROOM BOYS. Our room was at the very end of the hall, half-buried in stone and concrete. It was dark, damp and very cold so we had a small heater to warm us up. Unfortunately, one night, my pillow fell on the heater and nearly set our room on fire. So the heater had to go.

If you go right, you’ll find Fireplace and Tesoro’s at the corner, and just farther down—Cid’s Book Store. Also on this strip, there’s the “Love Radio”—DWBW—the radio station where I had my internship, with me doing the graveyard shift!

ON BOARD! Doing my graveyard shift over at the Love Radio. I played mostly OPM and the hits of the day. Then I tried being conceptual with my approach, doing some poetry reading, but it didn't catch on. Looking back now, that was silly indeed!

There was Koken’s Barber Shop where I got my haircut and Jack’s News Stand at the corner for my daily paper. Crossing Assumption, one would find Cid's Book Store, and also on this strip, the Love Radio, DWBW, did its broadcast. It was here where I had my internship, assigned to the graveyard shift! For my haircuts, I went to Koken's Barber Shop (my barber was a kabalen) while I got my dailies over at Jack's News Stand.

STUDENT, DAZED. I was still a Chemistry major here, balancing equations and titrating KMnO4. Then, in my 3rd year, I shifted to Communication Arts.

To the left of our place would be the steps leading to the Cathedral. D&S Supermarket was at the very end, across Old Pagoda Shop where a wisened old Chinese lady read fortunes and sold Buddha amulets. BCF or Baguio Colleges Foundation and the Victory Liner bus station was but a few paces away. Directly right across us is the imposing Skyland Condominium, newly constructed and filled with swanky shops and merchandise one would find in Manila.

NIECES THREE. Charnelle, Charmaine and Charisse. Dondi, the only boy, would complete the Hamada family in 1978. Now, all have grown up, married with their own kids in New Jersey and Florida. But back then, they were just our Baguio darlings!

When Manong’s family grew (my nieces Charisse, Charmaine and Charnelle came in one swift succession), we moved to a real nice house on General V. Lim St., at the foot of Legarda Road. Actually, we rented the lower half of the Saycon house, which was still very capacious for 7or 8 people, househelps included. We were now neighbors with Uncle Matt and Auntie Auring, and my cousin Marlene would conveniently pass for me in her noisy Volkswagen when we went to school. Oh yes, we were classmates too!

LOUISIAN FOREVER! Moments of boredom drove me to doodle on my ID.

I think I enjoyed my university days more than high school. It was at Saint Louis that I really learned and had fun at the same time, even if I false-started with a wrong course--Chemistry! Shifting to Communications after 2 years, I gave vent to my artistic pursuits--writing, directing, producing , performing. I had a tightly-knit clique and we always moved as a pack, hanging out at Diego Silang Canteen, often attracting attention.

BAGUIO'S GOT TALENT. The talent-quiz contests sponsored by the College of Commerce were eagerly awaited by students annually. I joined 3 times-- a different category every year, and placed in all: 1st in Spelling, 2nd in Original Composition and 2nd in Group Singing,

Unconsciously, we had become popular figures--topping scholarship tests and talent shows, winning academic awards and being casted in high-profile university events.

SKOLAR NG BUNDOK. I pipped my first cousin Marlene Sheryl for full scholarship but she graduated with a Magna, and I went home empty-handed as I lacked tenure in the college and had some previous dropped subjects.

We were young, we were loud, we were irreverent. Our voices were heard over the radio and our feats were written about in local papers. And we lapped it all up!

LUKSONG TINIK. One summer, my groupie--Kinie, Francis, Chum-chum and Jojo--decided to co-produce a concert. And so, we hastily formed Luksong Tinik Productions and brought the New Minstrels and Ronnie Henares to Baguio.

Since our very own school wouldn't let us use their auditorium, we held the concert at a rival school, University of Baguio! We earned flak for that but also a thousand pesos each for our enterprising efforts!

 I stayed with my Manong's family till I graduated in 1978, a year overdue. That year, Dondi--my sister's only son and the youngest--was born, prompting the Hamadas to move one more time, but still along Gen. Lim St., just 3 houses up. Even while working in Manila, I would find time to take the bus to Baguio and visit them once in a while, until they left for New Jersey in 1981. At every given opportunity, I would pack my bags and hie off to Baguio. I remember, I would intentionally put the setting of a commercial I was doing in Baguio, so I could revisit the old place!

CONFUSIONS OF AN AD MAN. Two years out of college and already in advertising, my articles were still seeing print on the school paper, The Saint Louis' Chronicle, thanks to the editor--and my mentor--Prof. Noly Balatero.

Then there were the Ad Congresses that were often held in the city’s convention center every 2 years.. Such industry events allowed me to go on official, and extended visits to the city. I would return in 1984, under sadder circumstances, when my cousin Marlene passed away, and again in 1997—my Uncle Matt, this time.

THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE. In 1981, I did my first TV commercial shoot on familiar grounds--Baguio!. The ad was for McVitie's Biscuits. Burnham was transformed into an English park, with a cast of Brits. Jun Urbano was our commercial director.

Since then, my sojourns to the city have become few and far between. I was there last in 2004, at the Strawberry Festival in La Trinidad. It was a business visit, but I took a side trip to Baguio to try to re-immerse myself in its sights and sounds and smells and flavors that have become so much a part of my life for five long years.

SCENT OF STRAWBERRIES. Back in Benguet in 2004, for the Strawberry Cake Guinness Record attempt which proved to be successful.

I am overpowered by the sights of new concrete landscapes, the teeming crowds, the high-rise malls, the confusing walkways, Session Road at a standstill and a remodeled Burnham Park I hardly recognized. Where is that bakery along Kisad that sold delectable cinnamon buns as well as rabbit foot charms? Whatever happened to Rose Bowl Restaurant? Is Vallejo Hotel still here? And where is Ms. Woelke’s famous Abanao thrift shop?

There are things that have irrevocably changed but luckily, there are still constants that remained as they are. They are tucked away in the recesses of memory, ready to come alive again if only one summons them hard enough --indelible images of a city that I once knew—cool, scenic, mesmerizing, tinged with the scent of pines and sweet strawberry memories.