DANNY BALUCOS: "Linnie, Tuck & Ming ming

MINDAVIEWS
RURAL VIEWS: Linnie, Tuck and Ming ming
By Danilo A. Balucos / MindaNews

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 26 Dec) – I spend my lunch breaks watching
games in local television's noontime shows. Occasionally, I watch
other channels when I'm at the home of my friends who have cable
television.

Don't laugh at my simple happiness. You may do so at the risk of
making me happier.

Watching local TV is in fact already a big improvement for one who
grew up in a little barrio where the people's favorite pastime was
listening to drama anthology over the radio.

Before going back to the farm, peasants listened to the saga of a poor
boy who started his career in a little town and eventually became rich
and famous as a successful professional boxer in the big city.

Mothers and other women doing their laundry in the river brought
transistor radios to monitor the daily struggles of their heroes and
heroines. Some even tried to send their love stories, hoping that it
would be dramatized, plus the accompanying theme songs of Eddie
Peregrina, Victor Wood or Imelda Papin, and other so-called juke box
kings and queens.

Others eagerly looked forward to the time slot of sexy drama series.
The daily episode focused on sex and ended with medical advice on
reproductive health by one who introduced herself as a lawyer-doctor.

I started grade school at the early age of five.

That's how excited I was in going to school. But the first week was a
very difficult struggle. I had to leave home at seven o'clock in the
morning. That meant missing my own favorite radio drama – the story
of
Kaloy whose flying saucer instantly came to the rescue by just
calling, "La le li lo lu!"

You may laugh at our leisure as simply ridiculous and unproductive.
But no matter what you say, our neighbors were happy with that simple
entertainment. And I was happy too.

If Filipinos are among the happiest people on earth, I bet the rural
people are the happiest among the Filipinos!

Maybe, listening to the radio made us more creative and imaginative
because we always try to create a picture in our mind.

Or maybe, the success stories of heroes and heroines of radio dramas
were diversions from the real economic hardships and struggles of
peasants. At least, listening to radio drama served as a palliative
amusement, albeit fleeting.

I haven't gone back to our barrio for decades now. Maybe, our
relatives, neighbors and friends have shifted to watching telenovelas
since the time our barrio had the luxury of electricity.

During my elementary school years, the idiom "burning one's eyebrows"
may become literal if we were not careful in reading while using the
kerosene lamp.

We read books, too, because we had some in our public school. I
brought with me even the optional ones, including a hard-bound book
which contained nothing but poems about Imelda Marcos.

Those were their years, you know. We sang "Bagong Lipunan." Pupils in
the primary grades stayed at the "Marcos-type" school building, while
those in the intermediate used the "Bagong Lipunan" building. In front
of the buildings, yellow-leaves camote crawled, known as "Imelda"
variety.

I loved reading what were available. I enjoyed a particular story of a
group of animals, including a bird named "Tireret."

"Tireret" was the savior and every time he saved another, his friends
would say "Thank you, Tireret, thank you."

I don't remember any nursery rhyme. As activist-artist Gary Granada
said, why should you expect the luxury of nursery rhymes when the
basic services of a nurse are not even available in the barrio.

There were a few classic children's stories I can recall but I cannot
relate to most. However, that "Thank you, Tireret" line stuck to my
mind as I continued reading other books which I religiously brought to
school every day, using a colorful net bag.

We did not talk about environmental-consciousness then, but we were
already using that recyclable net bag, thoroughly cleaned after taking
out the dried fish and other stuff bought from the market. I seldom
see that kind of bag now. No wonder then that coastal clean-up
activities usually yield an enormous volume of plastic bags!

There were a few times when I also think of "if onlys." If only, I
studied in private schools with complete and modern facilities; if
only I had good reading materials at home during my childhood; if only
we had cable television where I could watch shows with substance; and
so on and so forth.

I could have been better.

But I am not really sure. No one can ever tell if I would have been
more successful and happier if I had the same heavy bags that have to
be carried by nannies of today's gradeschoolers.

After all, we react differently to the same situations. We may react
positively to a seemingly unfavorable circumstance, and vice versa. In
the end, we are made of our unique experiences.

Today's children have the luxury of developing good language through
cable television's shows for kids. As they cheer to Linnie, Tuck and
Ming ming, Nickelodeon channel's wonder pets, riding a flyboat to
rescue other animals in danger, I can only smile and say, "Thank you,
Tireret, thank you."

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Danilo Balucos, the
first business manager of the Mindanao News and Information
Cooperative Center,  left to pursue Law school, passed the 2006 bar
exams and is now a partner in a law firm in Davao City).