Nap Time Rocks!

i squinted at my surroundings; it’s been a while since i last took in all the changes that my beloved street have gone through. this is where i grew up. this is where my friend jo-anne and i used to play piko and chinese garter, and taguan with the other kids. this is where i learned to ride my bike — almost. i soon decided that the training wheels were out to get me and they weren’t really that reliable. it was also the street where i was barked at and chased by the neighbor’s insolent little dog. i hated dogs afterwards. there were good times and bad times, but mostly good times.

this morning i was getting ready to leave and while waiting for the rest of the household, i stood in front of our house where, across the street is the almost fading, barely noticeable sign of aling rosa’s sari-sari store. i remember they used to sell the round little cola candies and chocnut and little plastic trinkets that you would collect till your mom would throw them away because they would often end up scattered on the floor at home. those chick-a-dees that came free with something. the many delightful flavors of fanta, that soda drink. sweet corn and haw flakes. tomi and its weird smell. it was a time when Jack and his friend Jill didn’t come tumbling down my street yet. sweet times.

i remember that store was a kid’s haven, if you had the right stuff. just make sure you have 20 bucks on you to let the good times roll. your brain would probably go haywire trying to process which goodie must be bought first (ok, that was an exaggeration). it was the only sari-sari store at that end of the street and i imagine the monopoly of the children’s spending power was probably making aling rosa very happy.

but now if you come over and tap at the screen door (which was very dirty and was kept up with patches here and there), there isn’t really much to look at. the woodwork on the outside is so worn out, the wire mesh is really dirty, the plastic jars were almost empty if they were there at all, and the trademark candies are gone. where have all the white rabbits scurried to?

before i can consult my brainiac friends to give me socio-economic reasons behind “the decline of the small scale businesses and retailers” here’s my honest-to-goodness take on it: our generation grew up and the ones that followed us is so much in a hurry to grow up. there are just too many distractions taking the attention of children today. pop culture has just gone way younger and even kids nowadays can be DJs and VJs. fashion isn’t just a thing for adults; Barbie™ is now a trendsetter for young girls. (i used to have an unsightly bald Barbie™, its implications fashion-wise was unbeknownst to me and it didn’t really matter).

not that kids nowadays no longer have a flair for the goodies, but it just doesn’t take up much of their lifestyle as they did decades ago. today even we* have to be as attractive as the next chocolate bar, as tasteful as the imported ones, and our targets are only 4-6 year olds. if not, i think it’s going to be tough for sari-sari stores to compete with PS2’s, RPGs and arcade games for kids’ free time and spare change.

it’s already a chaotic world out there, where young minds are bombarded with complex ideals and ideas and they are practically forced to “grow up” and keep up with the pace of technology. gone are the popular days of Pog™ and jackstones. times just aren’t simple anymore. this is why when mia grows up, i will make sure she gets to experience how to figure out a puzzle first before learning to type on a keyboard, that she knows how to have fun even without a television, a computer, or a video game, and that her sport is actually something that engages her and not just one where all the ‘cool kids’ are in.

and maybe, if aling rosa is still in business by then, i’ll hang around with her at the tindahan and we’ll eat junk food there.

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*i work at “willy wonka-gokongwei’s chocolate factory”

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