(This is an old post from five years ago, which isn’t in the archives. When this site was hacked last year, I took the site down for several weeks. When I finally found time to restore the contents, I decided not to repost the old articles in html format. The recent power blackouts – 2 in the past two weeks – and the intensifying summer heat, reminded me of this post, so… )

When summer nears, we look forward to holidays on the beach, trips out of town, and the long school break, if you are a student.  The summer landscape gradually unfolds when the halo-halo vendors at street corners bring out their wares, when market vendors display in their stalls the fruits in season, like watermelon, mango, and star apple, and the banderitas are hung to adorn the streets during barrio fiesta. Whether we like it or not, summer also has its not-so-fun part: the frequent power blackouts because of falling water levels in our rivers and dams that keep our hydroelectric plants running.  When the power goes out, it is as if the earth slows down, like a vehicle whose engine suddenly dies while in transit.

A power outage during summer can be like a plague especially around midday when the sun is at its hottest.  And unless you’re at the beach having fun, a blackout can be a killjoy even more when it occurs on a weekend.  Air conditioners and electric fans do not work; there is no entertainment from radio or television. And the familiar hum of a busy household ceases as electronic appliances are shut down.  And because it is vacation time for kids, the blackout is a double killjoy because there isn’t much to do – no TV shows to watch, no computer games to play.  Even grown-ups whose weekends are programmed around their favorite TV shows are bored.

At times like these, we are forced to deal with life in its simplest.  Instead of the television or the head-banging music in the airwaves, we hear the chirping of birds on the trees, or the lilting sound of door chimes dancing to a soft wind.  The world can be so quiet you can hear the rustling of the leaves as the wind blows.  Without electric fans or air conditioners, we have no choice but to make do with the summer breeze to keep cool, whistling every now and then, for the old folks say a whistle calls forth the breeze.  It is during these quiet hours that I think back to the time before technology revolutionized our lifestyle with non-stop entertainment from the cable TV network, telephones and cellular phones, computers and the Internet.  How did people live without the amenities of technology?  How did kids deal with their summers devoid of cable TV, game stations and computers?

When I was a kid (and that was many summers ago) we didn’t have colored TV; and without cable TV network, we could only watch a limited number of programs, with bad signals at that.  Thus, kids had more fun playing outside.  We climbed trees, turned stones and discovered many creatures in our backyards; we found earthworms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, dragonflies, and ladybugs.  We went to the river, which then didn’t dry up during summer and would be flowing with clean, clear water; there, we looked for crayfish, crabs and snails.  Those who were more adventurous (and more defiant of their parents’ stern warning not to stray too far) went on foot trekking the byways to the barrios looking for kamantiris (camachile) ripe for picking.  Sometimes, they also found lomboy (duhat) trees heavy with fruit. The long walk under the hot summer sun was exhausting.  To rest and cool down, they swam in the rivers.  When they went home, they made pouches of their shirts, like a kangaroo’s, and filled them with the kamantiris they gathered.  During the tobacco season in March and April we spent our afternoons at our neighbor’s, stringing the green tobacco leaves with a stick (agtudok) in preparation for curing in the barn. And though we ended up with dirty and sticky hands, we were happy with the several centavos they paid us.  However, the fruits of our labor didn’t stay long in our pockets for the ice candy or ice buko vendor waited nearby, ringing his bell, beckoning us to buy.  On moonlit nights, we ignored the TV and played hide and seek with our friends, or scared each other with ghost stories.  Summer was also a time to learn new things.  We killed time watching – and learning from – the buri weavers in our neighborhood craft bags and hats out of dried buri leaves.  We learned how to drive a bicycle; we took piano lessons; others went to the tennis court or the basketball court.

When grown-ups were not yet too dependent on technology, they didn’t have much time to be bored.  Water had to be hand-pumped from a deep well.  Women washed clothes by hand.  Men chopped firewood. Floors were scrubbed with coconut husks. And because fast food centers were unheard of and canned goods were not as readily available as they are now, families sat down to eat home-cooked meals prepared from market-fresh produce.  A lot of time-consuming chores, you might think.  But drawing water from a deep well is good exercise, so are hand-washing dirty laundry, scrubbing floors and chopping firewood.  This way, grown-ups had enough exercise to keep them healthy.  They didn’t have to spend a fortune at a gym to keep fit.  And we, kids, weren’t really taking a break from school. We simply transferred to a larger classroom – our environment. With few television programs to keep us on the couch and without computer games to occupy our time, we explored the world outside.  We learned not just how a caterpillar looked like but how cold it felt against the skin.  How it tickled us when it crawled on our forearms! We did not just learn that the bain-bain (makahiya plant/bashful mimosa) folds and closes its leaves when touched; we would crouch on the ground and tap clumps of the plant. It was awesome how the leaves slowly folded and closed! We gained knowledge through hands-on learning.

Come to think of it, life before the information technology revolution was not at all boring. We only think so now because we have been spoiled by electronic entertainment, so much that an 8-hour power blackout seems unbearable.  Ask anyone over 30, life before the computer was fun, too!

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