What I Remember of Ateng
Ateng , our eldest sister, was most loving to us. Next to Inang, she was like our mother, attending to our needs. Without her, perhaps we could not have been together after our father died.
Ateng could draw very well. I remember her drawing the head of a beautiful lady, (like Eartha Kitt) and also of some flowers.
Most of all, she was a very good poet!
Most of her poems, if not all, were published in the NEHS* "The Granary." Ateng kept a collection of the published poems.
Unfortunately, the collection was lost during the Japanese Occupation period.
Ateng also had a baul where she kept her clothes and other belongings. I don’t know when she started to have the baul. Just imagine all her worldly belongings were stored in that"priceless" baul of hers.
Ateng was an expert butong-pakwan eater. While we kids had to virtually chew the butong pakwan, she could pick up the meat or laman of the butong pakwan by biting only one end of the seed.
Another favorite hobby of Ateng was her collection of dolls and doll furniture sets and plates and utensils. At times, she would tender a party for her dolls. She would sit the dolls around the dolls' table and put plates of calamay or other sweets before the dolls. When she was not looking, Fabian and I would take the pieces of calamay from the small plates and eat them.
Whenever Ateng caught us eating the cakes, well, it would be pinching time for Fabian and me.
Oh, my God, Ateng was a very expert pincher.
I was still in elementary school when Ateng was already in high school. She was my idol because she could write well, draw, and dress smartly. She had several shoes and was fond of applying face cream. Pond was her favorite cream and "Cashmere" was her favorite face powder. I never saw her applying lipstick.
I also remember that Ateng never got sick or stayed in bed because of ailment.
Ateng came home from Manila when Tatang died. She stopped studying after her first year at the Philippine Normal School on Taft Avenue. She stayed at the PNS dorm. She brought home pictures of PNS and the dorm. I was very impressed.
She got employment at the Philippine Long Distance Telephone office in Cabanatuan as a telephone operator and used to bring home PLDT magazines showing pictures of the original American owner of PLDT. His last name was, I think, Stevenot. I used to read any paper, magazine, or newspaper I could lay my hands on.
One poem of Ateng whose title I still remember is the "firefly"" so lovely at night," she says, "but so ugly in the morning."
She used to dedicate some of her poems to "Alfa Flor," an admirer of hers.
When World War II broke out on 8 December 1941, it was Ateng and I who were left behind in Cabanatuan because she had to continue with her work at PLDT. Inang and the two girls, Concha and Adela, had already left for San Felipe, Aliaga, to seek refuge with her brothers, Tata Cadiong and Tata Pape.
It was nearing the Christmas season of 1941 so I tried to make a cake. Well, I think then and I still do, that Ateng liked it very much. By the way, Ateng was 20 years old at that time for she was born on 1 December 1921. The war broke out on 8 December 1941. Maybe it was a "birthday cake" I made for her.
It was before December 1941 that Pedro Q. Carlos started courting Ateng. He would come late in the afternoons and they would sit by the round table near our front windows.
Later Kuyang Pedring would join the USAFFE and participate in the war.
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*Nueva Ecija High School |
