How does a boy who is growing up in the mountains of Bukidnon during the late 1050s to the 1970s define fun? Kids of today would find it difficult to understanding our definition of play and fun back then, because apparently the fun that kids are obsessed with nowadays is done within the confines of the four walls of a room. Outings to the beach or theme parks do offer some fun and yet you’ll see a gadget in the kid’s hands while outside. All they have to do is swipe and touch and they can have fun.
If you’re out among the hills with some friends day in and day out, how could that be fun? In a few days with this given scenario a kid could get bored. So what did we do back then? How does a child with ADHD cope with these conditions up in the mountains back in the frontier years? We created fun, and apparently that spirit is what developed my definition of fun: Create your own fun, make yourself happy, think up ways to stay happy and interested. Invent, improvise... be ingenious.
A fun place in our community was the ranch - cows, horses, sheep and goats plus funny cowboys who knew a lot of tricks and never lacked in humor. Milking cows early in the morning so the milk can be served for breakfast in the cafeteria was fun. Each cow was given a name, which corresponded to the beautiful lady students that the cowboys admired, but would not dare approach. I made sure that there was no cow named Ethel (my sis), but I helped milk Jennifer, May Ann, Nely and Lani.
The orchard was another place. We had sweet oranges, pomelo, bananas, jackfruit, calamsi, guavas, and marang. Helping ourselves to the fruit was allowed as long as we first asked the manager of the farm. Sugar-making was also an industry that we had. Tira-tira was something we made ourselves while the sugarcane sap was boiling in the large vats.
There were two rivers and one stream around our community. In those days we could drink directly from the river, because there were no villages yet upstream. The river in the forest up behind the campus had a beautiful waterfall. On some boring day we would surprise our parents with wild orchids that we gathered in the forest. I had a .22 caliber rifle and hunting and trapping wild ducks and pigeons was one of our favorite pastimes.
The tennis, basketball and badminton courts were our regular fun places. Soccer and Table tennis were also some sports that we enjoyed. All of us were into sports - because there was nothing to keep us busy inside the house.
Apparently the ability to create my own fun stayed with me even as a father and a grandfather. Going places in tours that we ourselves designed, cycling through beautiful highways and backroads of the USA, Thailand, Nepal and Cambodia; scuba diving in Bali, Borneo, Thailand, Coron, Malapascua and other awesome sites were done all in the name of fun. It is no wonder that my kids and grandkid also manifest the same adventurous and fun-loving spirit.
A fun place in our community was the ranch - cows, horses, sheep and goats plus funny cowboys who knew a lot of tricks and never lacked in humor. Milking cows early in the morning so the milk can be served for breakfast in the cafeteria was fun. Each cow was given a name, which corresponded to the beautiful lady students that the cowboys admired, but would not dare approach. I made sure that there was no cow named Ethel (my sis), but I helped milk Jennifer, May Ann, Nely and Lani.
The orchard was another place. We had sweet oranges, pomelo, bananas, jackfruit, calamsi, guavas, and marang. Helping ourselves to the fruit was allowed as long as we first asked the manager of the farm. Sugar-making was also an industry that we had. Tira-tira was something we made ourselves while the sugarcane sap was boiling in the large vats.
There were two rivers and one stream around our community. In those days we could drink directly from the river, because there were no villages yet upstream. The river in the forest up behind the campus had a beautiful waterfall. On some boring day we would surprise our parents with wild orchids that we gathered in the forest. I had a .22 caliber rifle and hunting and trapping wild ducks and pigeons was one of our favorite pastimes.
The tennis, basketball and badminton courts were our regular fun places. Soccer and Table tennis were also some sports that we enjoyed. All of us were into sports - because there was nothing to keep us busy inside the house.
Apparently the ability to create my own fun stayed with me even as a father and a grandfather. Going places in tours that we ourselves designed, cycling through beautiful highways and backroads of the USA, Thailand, Nepal and Cambodia; scuba diving in Bali, Borneo, Thailand, Coron, Malapascua and other awesome sites were done all in the name of fun. It is no wonder that my kids and grandkid also manifest the same adventurous and fun-loving spirit.
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