Cousins Who Filled The Void

Since I didn't live with my siblings, my cousins and close family friends filled that void. It was the primary essence of my childhood I cherish the most. We played outside a lot - Marco Polo in the pool, playing games like patintero, taguan and freeze. We rode our bikes and even went horseback riding in the city with cousin Dennis' horse, Randy Roo. Boys played
21 and graduation on the basketball court.  Indoors, it was games like chess, dama, battleship, Atari's pong. We endured our marathon pekwa games in which the loser drank a tall glass of cold water. We staged plays and musicals for the family Christmas party. Girls danced the hula to tiny bubbles. Together we sang songs like Happy Talk from South Pacific.

When one cousin got sick, it seemed that we all got sick, too. Even in sickness, we made the most of it by hanging out together in one house to pass the time. Chicken pox, beke (mumps)and even the dreaded kuto (lice) were excuses to be together with the cousins. You know you're related when you've picked and pricked each other's kuto with blood and all! Being sick also meant visit's from doctors in the family, chicken noodle soup in the the bedroom and "dry" baths with alcohol and warm water.

Rupert Holmes' Terminal brings me back to the summer of '75. With the Eala, Castanos, Pangan and Guevarra cousins, Ate Anzelle Guevarra would serenade us with her beautiful voice and guitar skills. Ate Anzelle and her younger brother, Guido, taught us how to play the first chords to Terminal. We learned to play Chopsticks (with two fingers!) and The Theme from Sting on the piano from Triccie Castanos, who was our family piano prodigy.

I sure miss those days....