Verily, Junk Memoirs – P

P – Philippines
When I was younger, every year during the Christmas/summer season, my family would travel to the Philippines to visit family and friends. I remember the fact that the roads were almost 100% gridlock and that there were more public transportation than private. There were everything from big buses (which interestingly enough, functioned like taxies), to a bike with a side-car. If you were lucky, the bike would even have a motor. (On a related note, the side-cars were about a foot off the ground. Some of the puddles went down two feet.) I remember that during times of celebration (like Christmas, for example) the little shops would sell bundles of little red sticks which were about the size of the graphite in a wooden pencil. These were firecrackers. If one were to put one on the ground and drag it along the pavement, (with their flip-flops), it would spark and make a surprisingly loud sound. Needless to say, these were very popular. In retrospect, probably also very dangerous.

-next post May 26 @ 8:oo pm