My summers years ago in Minglanilla

I met a good old friend a few days ago while spending some time with my cousin at his store in the town of Minglanilla.

Democrito ‘Kitok’ Secretaria, who once was the president of the Sangi Youth Organization, which later became the Calajoan Youth Organization of Minglanilla, was going around helping in the preparations for the fiesta celebration of the place.

Kitok was the work horse of our organization that took part in the annual Minglanilla Council of Youth Sportsfest and Cultural Festival.

Although I did not live in Sangi or at barangay Calajoan, I became a member of the organization due to my long-time buddy and now Councilor of our town, Robert John ‘Jojo’ Selma.

It was always a wonder how Kitok would manage to keep the organization moving with very limited funds and other resources, but we always took part in the sports activities and the series of cultural activities in the later part of the summer months.

Kitok said that he still relishes those MCY days, which got us all so busy during summer doing things that helped us become better people.

Jojo and I played in the volleyball team of our organization and although it was tough competing against the other well-funded teams, we could see that since they had better uniforms than us, but it was the participation and not really the uniforms that encouraged us to practice and be at the games.

With only ice water packed in plastic to quench our thirst during games and maybe a piece of bread or two to nourish us afterwards, it was an experience that the youth from my generation that we always look back to.

Ask anybody who grew up in Minglanilla about his or her fondest memories of summer during the 1980s and it would definitely be the MCY.

We also had games in basketball, lawn tennis, table tennis, and even athletics or track and field.

After the games are finished, the youth get busy with the cultural competitions. We had three nights of cultural activities starting with the speech competitions that included extemporaneous speaking, oration and declamation.

This would be followed by the musical night that featured competitions in guitar solo, singing, and choir.

Then the final and grandest night of all was the last where the various youth organizations competed with each other in terms of production numbers featuring cultural dance presentations.

That was how we used to spend summer and that was the reason why the youth in our town knew almost everyone else aside from the fact that we took the same jeepneys to and from school.

During those days, the youth enjoyed participating in the competitions and made sure finished our chores early so we can head to the practices late afternoons.

Seeing Kitok again reminded me of those good old days, which I hope my kids would get a chance to experience when their time comes.

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MILESTONES:

Happy birthday to my fellow sports columnist Karlon Rama, who turns a year older today.

Advance birthday greetings to Cavalier Rumuell J. Perez of the Philippine Air Force and the snappy PMA class 1991, who turns a year older tomorrow.

I’d also like to wish ABS-CBN’s Carine Asutilla a belated happy birthday as she turned a year older yesterday.

More power to all of you! -  THE FREEMAN