The way they were... and are

In the mid-’60s, they were high school teenagers from St. Scholastica’s College and the very epitome of what was sweet, innocent and the romantic.

And then they banded together to sing in school functions and became the answer to the boy band from the then other exclusive school for boys – the Ateneo.

If the Ateneo had the Favans, St. Scho had the Lollipops.

Thirty-seven years later, the Lollipops had re-emerged, figured in fund-raising concerts for the renovation of their school’s St. Cecilia’s Hall, did one gig after another and by consensus had agreed to do a major comeback concert at the Merk’s Bar Bistro today.

What was special about the ’60s and onwards into the ’70s?

The present Lollipops members – Maan Hontiveros, Sandy Hontiveros, Elsa Lava Mapua, Lory-Vi Valdez, Nina Romualdez and Mindy Barredo – are nostalgic about those decades.

"We guess those were decades when songs had special meaning and boy-girl relationships had a special thrill," says Elsa. "Those were times when the boy calls the girl and not the other way around. And when he holds your hand for the first time, you feel like bursting into a song. Even courtships during those years had connections with songs. Nowadays, you just text your way around, girls call the boys and it’s not romantic the way it used to be. I guess that’s one of the special marks of that era."

The original group took fancy on the title of the ’60s popular song, Lollipops and adopted it as their name.

All concerts of the group opened with that signature song.

What is in that name that describes the era?

"I suppose the sweetness and innocence," says Lory-Vi.

"We hope we have retained the sweetness but not necessarily the original flavor," adds Elsa in jest.

Elsa, Lori-Vi, Nina and Sandy are new members who imbibed the spirit of the ’60s from original member, Maan Hontiveros who discovered that the new pals actually love to sing.

Both old and new members have excelled in their chosen non-musical paths and years after mothering and succeeding in their respective entrepreneurial challenges, they couldn’t resist the call of music and finally going on stage.

Nina Romualdez, one of the new recruits, says she joined Maan in her private resort. They were doing this board game and singing the hours away when the challenge of doing a gig cropped up. "I thought, why not? We were not going to go full time on this anyway. We just want some fun and in the process, join a musical trip down memory lane," she relates.

All the members of the present Lollipops are colegialas (from St. Scho, Assumption and Poveda), fulfilled mothers (except for Maan who is known as a surrogate mother) and successful in their respective areas. All play the guitar and one, Sandy, was once a Penthouse 7 dancer. Their backgrounds are diverse but a common denominator is they all love to sing.

"Going back to singing in public complements the side of me that loves music," points out Lory-Vi. "And besides, it is so universal. It is the only medium where we can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world without effort."

Elsa did reservation work with PAL and used popular songs to illustrate computerized reservation. To the tune of Rodgers and Hammerstein Do Re Mi (from Sound of Music), she demonstrated Press A for availability and so forth. "I used music to make the work session more interesting," says Elsa.

And so, after getting involved with drama and glee clubs and with basic mothering done with, they have decided to blend their alto and soprano voices and revive the Lollipops, the singing group.

They have reasons to stick to their nostalgia program.

For one, they are "managed" by no less than the Washington Sycip.

And for a lot of other reasons.

Says Lory-Vi: "The surprising thing is even the young ones can relate to the songs of the ’60s and the ’70s and I think this will work in our favor."

Adds Sandy: "We have songs for the e-mail crowd but the revival fever I think is an added plus. Just look at those retro concerts."

(Catch the Lollipops at Merk’s Bar Bistro today and on May 20).