This is the
first of a series about my “Nostalgia Journeys”- Revisiting the places where I’ve worked and lived in
the Philippines from 1966 to 1973 prior to my emigration to the USA where I lived and
raised my family for more than four decades.
Circa 1966 – 1968 Tabangao, Batangas I
Set foot for the first time in 46 years, June 17, 2012.
This place
is the most memorable one because it was my very first job after bumming around
for 3 months doing nothing after graduation.
Yes, 3 months of bumming around exhilarated by the absence of homeworks and exams until one
day, my late mother told me that I had to pack up and start working with a
Construction Company which the owner she knew, starting the coming Monday . Off to work I went to this place called
Tabangao, in Batangas province; a quaint little seaside village adjacent to the
Shell Oil Refinery where my employer was a contractor.
I don’t
remember how I got to the jobsite but I remember vividly standing in front of
the refinery gate like a lost soul. Here
I was, 21 years old, fresh from college, a city boy smacked suddenly in a tiny
village with all the construction workers. I was wearing a white shirt, a school uniform
which became my trademark at the jobsite because I didn’t own work clothes. My
co- workers laughed at me when they found out that I brought pajamas and party
clothes. Where’s the party in Tabangao?
My foreman I will call Perting, my boss, a dark
40yish good looking man, an electrician by trade who will become my life
mentor, and my friend, not necessarily the job itself but how I will get along
and relate with the rest of the group. I
will have a separate paragraph about him later. I was the only engineer in the group and a so
called “employee of influence”- being there because of family connection with
the owner of the company. Perting broke
me in, not exactly knowing what to do with me because I got nada
experience. He asked me to take care of
our field office(shack) and I became a glorified “Tool Boy” and a part time electrical
“cable tag artist”. Cable tags are 1”x3”x1/16” tags cut out from lead sheets by
hand and individually stenciled with identifying numbers I will never ever
forget….50001, 50002, 50003…90001... I
also had to punch 2 small holes on both ends.
I am telling this because this job was my first introduction to the
construction world and the pain from the blisters on my hands cutting those
lead tags with metal scissors. I
remember shedding some tears during my first week. I went home after my first weekend and told my
late mother that I didn’t want to come back to Tabangao anymore and if she could find
me a another job in Manila. I even
showed her my hand blisters. If you knew
my mother, you already know the answer. “Go back there on Monday”.
Our group
lived in a rented two story house where everybody sleeps anywhere on the hard
floor. If you happened to be on the
lower level, you have to find a space where nobody sleeps overhead of you
because of sand from the other guys feet will be raining on you. There are the
snorers, loudmouths and the stinkers I had to stay away from to have a peaceful
night. We bathe in the open, in a small creek
nearby and pooed by digging in the sand around the thorny aroma bushes by the
beach on the way to work in the mornings. We travelled to and from the refinery by a
motorized outrigger- fishing boat(banca) owned by our landlord. This hell of a place, and all the other ones
after this, I learned to endure and
enjoy with “Perting,” our foreman, our boss, always on my side to keep
everything within our group in control.
With him, one could never get bored nor be lonely. He led our group not
by instilling fear nor commanding authority, but mostly with fairness and real compassion.
I have yet to meet the next person whom
I can honestly bestow my respect and admiration. I really miss the guy. I do not have much regret in life but one of
them is not being able to convey to him my feelings before he died about 10
years ago. Perting did not have a
college degree, an electrician by trade, a poor man, he did not attain wealth,
high status or fame but Perting became “The most memorable person” in my life.
I was inclined to describe him as “My most Unforgettable Character” but it
could also mean something in a negative note and too Reader's DigestyJ.
I have a lot more stories to tell about this
place, mostly humorous, my experiences, my learning process, but this is only a
blog, not a juicy novel . Most
importantly, this was the place where it all begun and shaped my destiny into
the world of “Engineering and Construction”.
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Tabangao, Batangas June 17, 2012
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