@?&%#

I said my first curse word when I was around three.

I was on the bed in our bedroom in Buencamino. Dad was sitting on the edge near the bottom of the bed and Mom was seated near the head of the bed, her back resting on the headboard.

They were watching a basketball game.

Mom was for Crispa, and Dad was for Toyota. They watched as the players tossed the ball back and forth running towards either basket.

The Toyota-Crispa games were very big in those days.

Now Dad has a favorite curse word. All of you who know him know what it is. Those who don’t, here’s a clue it starts with a P and ends in “ina”.

Dad kept yelling this word out loud during climactic moments of the game.

I sat down and decided to see what all the hullabaloo was about. I watched the game a little bit, and at one point, when Mom was yelling at her team to shoot the ball, just as it was thrown at the net and missed, I yelled out

P------Ina!!!!!

Dad and Mom looked at me and started yelling that "that"`word was a bad word and should never, ever, be said.

Now, of course, this was incredibly unfair…after all, when all the yelling at me stopped, they went back to watching the game...as it went on, Dad would blurt out the " bad" word over and over again

But you know parents…”Don’t do what I do, do what I say.” In other words...

“Because I said so…”

So, being who I was even then, I thought that what had happened was distinctly unjust.

I decided to call someone to make “sumbong”

So I called on the one person who I knew had some level of authority.

(That I could come to without fear of course)

I went up to the head of the bed, on Mom’s side table, where our old beige telephone was.

I dialed this number….79-74-87

I find it funny that I still remember that number. It hasn’t been used in years and years.

Someone picked up the phone and I started crying.

“Tita Virgie…si mommy pinagalitan ako……”

Mom’s eldest sister.

I remember passing the phone to mom and I think she talked to Tita Virgie a bit and then talked to dad.

Nothing happened but I still remember making the call.

Yeah yeah, I know, bratty.

I was three…sue me.

A few years later, Jo Ann remembers the one time dad spanked us. We were arguing
(which was not unusual) but we were yelling at each other through the hole where the aircon usually was. (I think it was getting cleaned or fixed or something)

She was inside and I was outside, and seeing that we were separated by a huge wall
(and therefore we couldn’t reach out and pull each others hair like we usually would)

I cursed at her and she cursed right back.

(Since we only knew one curse word, that one that we heard over and over again, we yelled that at each other.)

The problem was, was that Dad was in the same room with her and heard her yell out P-----Ina!!

He spanked her, and she cryingly told him “ Eh bakit si Leslie…”

So he called me in and spanked me too.

I don’t remember this so I guess it wasn’t very painful.

It didn’t stop us though.

Dad still says it at the drop of a hat.

I do too, especially when I get frustrated or something...like when I lose a game.

Oh well…

Remember me saying how we don‘t look alike?

I never said we didn’t act alike.

Just look at these…

Funny.