1955—1956
(Re-Union News in progress, I need input from all my classmates)
It was snowing here in NJ when I left late Jan. The tsunami disaster in SE Asia was still being re-played in CNN but the extent of the hurricane and flooding in the Philippines Philippines The other part of my vacation was to attend my 50th HS
re-union in Nueva Vizcaya.
It was just a small class from a HS on top of a hill that is
not longer there. We graduated in 1955-56 and the memories are misty at best.
It was fun but emotional at times. As an amateur historian,
I am able to observe a few more things that may have escaped our collective
experience. Every year is a year of discovery and exploration and on the middle
of that decade men were no different. The first men to run a mile in less than
a minute or the first man to climb Mt Everest were the news headlines of the
day. Roger Bannister and Sir Hillary were making their part in history. Most of
us were very oblivious to the global events while we tried to learn from this
small corner of the universe. It was the final of the our
formative years and we did our best, but what we studied from the school was
only a very small part of what we learned from each other. We even learned from
the mistake of our classmates. Those playgrounds encounters were part of a
learning process. It was all part of
growing up and the commencement was a right of passage. All we had were blurry
memories as we did not even have snap shots, only Kodak moments we stored
selectively in our minds.
Southern Nueva Vizcaya Institute, our High school is a
common denominator in our life. We were all dreamers and fitting the
Platters’ great song of the period-“ I am
the great pretender.” The earth has successfully traveled around the sun.
I’ve traveled around the world.
Along the way, we reached several crossroads where each of us had to
decide which the right road was. A few of us did not have many choices and they
were never easy. Life is never fair but I’m sure that what we learned
from each other had helped.
Looking back now, we might have made different choices but revisiting time is unlike revisiting places. This is a reunion and celebration. Rejoice as tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives. For whatever experiences we had, I am always proud of our class and company. It is indeed a good year and golden.
It was
a good year…
The Golden Anniversary of 55-56 Class is scheduled on Feb 3-4-5 2005
weekend. Please contact Ruben Balut
or Edith Ordonez Perez of
Almost half
century later, Felicitas Rumbaua
(widow of Jose Barasi), Editha
Ordonez Perez, and I stood behind the Statue of
Agbanlog. Celestino Amador, Saturnina
Balut, Ruben Balut, Estrella (Deceased)
Banaga, Virgilio Barrouga, Leonida
Barasi, Jose Bautista, Lilia
Cabading, Ernesto Bullecer, Cholita
Cabading. Roman Casem, Rosario
Casem, Honesto
Cayton. Rolando
Dagdag,
Enriquez, Nestor Javier, Juanita
Lagasca, Gideon Magpale, Rosalina (Deceased)
Magpale, Rosendo Ordonez, Editha
Mailig, Renato
Saulo, Agustin Palugod, Nieves
Soriano, Alfredo Rumbaua, Felicitas
Velasco, Pedro Sales, Alfreda
Vidad,
Let us not forget our contemporaries who walked the portion of the 4 years of high school with us. Some because of economic and other family condition were not able to complete the graduation. There were others who transferred to other school but regardless they shared our growing up process. I would like to mention few and please help me track them down:
Dominador Perdido (who transferred to Dalton
High)
Rolando
Palugod (transferred to
Policarpio (I don’t know the fist name)
I
remember the first year when there were band members from
