UMPHA TELL ME YOUR MEMORIES - ADDENDUMS.

IS IT COLD ?...BRRRR! TEMPERATURE NEAR 35 DEGREES FARENHEITS

The news carriers brought nothing but cold news everywhere in the country! A massive winter storm moved eastward across the central US bringing snow, sleet, ice and flash floods, killing at least 25 people and like Oklahoma, was declared an emergency. More than 100,000 people without power on Sunday.

In spite of the blankets that I placed on top of my papaya trees, the leaves suffered some damages from the night frosts. My guava trees are affected and so are parts of my cherimoya trees. They will survive! It is only the outside leaves that were affected.

In the state of Missouri the weather claimed 8 lives. 300.000 people lost power. In Kansas, 5 people were reported killed in weather related accidents and one person was poisoned by carbon monoxide exposure. Texas, to the south, has more than 6 inches of rain caused flash flooding with dramatic high water rescues. Floodings are reported in Arkansas and Louisiana...18 inches snow in Colorado.

A record-braking cold weather even hit the Pacific Coast state of California, where mild temperatures usually prevail all year. In central Los Angeles, the thermometer dropped to (36 Fahrenheit) this morning; a record-setting temperature not felt in the city for 75 years...icicles hanging off tangerine trees in the Central Valley near Fresno, a rare sight in the state. California oranges, lemons and other produce worth as much as half a billion dollars were likely ruined. This will be expensive for the consumers for this produce.

So far, there is no major disaster here in San Diego, but this weather will give a us something to ponder...Wearing socks is not enough! I can feel the draft here in the TV room. Before I go to bed, I turn on the electric blanket to high and turn it off when I am inside the blanket.

SOME MORE MEMORIES:

I can't remember any popular hit songs from my youth. I love music but music doesn't love me. My sister while in high school, she played different string instruments except the viola and violin. She belonged to the "Centro Escolar Rondalla Ensemble." Her main instrument was what they call "Laud," almost similar to a guitar but with a longer handle. She plays the piano too. I think in my heart I would have liked to learn how to play music. I just did not have time those days. Later, my brother Wilfrido started to tinker with the piano and this brought him to other countries playing. He is living in Lanzarote, Canary Island today after several stints in Germany. The last time we visited him, he and his wife now run a restaurant and his synthesizer is still there with him.

HIT SONGS AT THAT TIME:

The Philippines was not by-passed by American recording artists of the time. I had the chance to attend to most of them...not because I particularly liked the artists but because they were "pro bono." I hung around with radio stations' announcers and staffs, that I just got to tag along for the rides. My sister was a radio soap opera villain in those days; "Ang Sepulturero sa Lumang Simbahan," (The Grave Taker of the Old Church). In those days, I even had an autograph book with signatures of those artists that I can't remember who they are now. American actors like Charles Heston, Tyrone Powers, Burt Reynolds, the former husband of Dinah Shore (I can't recall the name) were all in that book. I have no idea where that autograph book is now. It was not important for me because I was never star-strucked in the first place. We visited local movie studios too.

TELL ABOUT A STRANGE PERSON THAT LIVED IN YOUR TOWN.

Anybody that was from different countries were strange to us. Every Indian looking person is a "Bombay." There were several male Indians peddlers those days. They carried big bundles of blankets, mosquito nets, towels and other materials and they peddle them house to house. They are the "monsters" of the children because mothers threatened the misbehaving children that they are going to give them to the "Bombay," and they will be wrapped inside the bundles that they usually carry on their heads. I found out later that they are not "Bombay" but Singh, a minority tribe in India. The Chinese are a different story...I think they were prejudiced and abused by the Filipinos the most in those days. They are mostly poor immigrants from rural China. They are the most industrious people and patience was their virtue. Practically every corner of the street block, you would see a "China man Store." They sold everything! You name it and they had it. There is limerick about them; "Inchek beho,' tulo laway, sago uhog" literally translated as "Stinking chink, saliva drooling, nose dripping." Bad...bad ...bad! These are the poor China men that immigrated to make better life for their families in rural China. Some of those that didn't have stores, plied the streets selling hot tofu curds with hot syrups, or bought empty bottles to recycle them. Some have restaurants and bake shops. There are also shops that manufacture tin wares. I like the "apaw" (crispy rice bars) factories. You can have a big bagful of trimmings for one centavo (2 cents)....it was really a lot. The Chinese have been a big influence in the country.

There were some rich ones that immigrated in the Philippines. They left China because the empire fell down. One of those was my grandmother's cousin's clan, the "Qou Ong Hin." They have an edifice in Manila...I do not really know what was their business...but they are rich! She had a "ginger foot," bounded with strips of cloth when she was born, to resemble lotus roots, and a sign of nobility in China those days. She waddled like a duck when she walked. I loved that woman! I think I had a special place in her heart. She was always glad to see me.

I have another grandmother of Chinese descent, "Lola Edang," the wife of the first Filipino Commissioner of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Pedro Guevara. She lived in Washington DC during those days, and only during her late years came back to the Philippines. She enthralled us with her accounts of her stay in Washington DC...because she had the chance to hob-nob with the elites and nobilities during those days. One particular case was an event that she attended with the ladies in their regalas, the gowns are with trains and they let them down to sweep the floor. The Filipina formal attire those day have long trains, but they have a way of holding them on their waist..."When I saw the trains are sweeping the floor, I let mine go too! Besides, I have a longer train than most of them." We all clapped our hand to give her kudos and for her spunk.

There are also Japanese people there. Most of them have "soda parlors." I don't think I had any contact with any of them. Later when the war broke-out, we found that the Japanese that were there were sent to the Philippines as spies and map makers, which was usefull for the Japanese army invasion of the Philippines.

Weird person...there is "Kandepa," the town lunatic. She was harmless, but for the kids, she is a "persona non grata." Some of them even wet their pants when she was close enough.