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STC Class 1964
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Hi Ginny and welcome "HOME" alum!!!! All of us who live here in the Philippines started getting together to prepare for the reunion as early as a year ago. Some meetings were well attended and others were not. We were still in the planning stage. At that time. We decided to get a core group to plan on the performance we had to present. Alam mo na, we are not particularly talented. We are more the people behind the scenes and the supporters of performances. We approached it by trying to decide how to begin. See how out of it we were? The first really constructive meeting was in Country Waffles in Eastwood - this is in Pasig. Tess Pena was tasked to do the story board for vignettes. We had a bullsession to decide what was to go in the vignettes. It was good. Tess went home and did her homework. It was a lot of work. But, when presented, and we realized we had to "act" out each vignette, dress in STC uniforms, and play jackstones, we realized that we probably would not get enough volunteers to do this. So, we were back to square one. Then we decided to try some verses. Cute, funny verses which would be punctuated by a short fitting stanza from a song of our high school era. This worked. We got the director's ok. Then we relaxed as the performance was so simplified, we did not need much rehearsing. That was very naive of us. When the director finally told us that we could do the verses, but no punctuation of stanzas, rather sing a whole song after the verses, and that the verses should have some cute movements - acts, and we had to dance a bit to the song, that was when we realized that we had a lot of work to do. We did not know what to do. We hired a voice coach, we relied on Tess Pena to organize our singing, and Meng Sangco took care of our first venue. Our classmates were great. They travelled all the way to the International Airport where were were to practice, and we labored through learning how to sing alto, soprano and melody. Whoever would have though it would be so hard to sing Happy Together! Our voice coach was really good. We were not that good. I think the sopranos were the best singers. They were so good, they drowned out both the melody and the alto. We had a great time, but it was hard work, learning the words, learning the tune, and learning not to get distracted when the other voices started singing in another way. Finally we were ready to record our voices. Tess Pena was again the angel who arranged everything at a very reasonable price in a studio in Antipolo!!! So far away, so hard to find. Well, most of us found the place after much calling on cel phones for directions. It was facinating. We felt like stars walking into this cavernous warehouse through a scene being recorded for TV, up to this tiny recording studio - just like in the movies, complete with blackout curtains and banks of equipment. Here we came in noisy, roudy and excited. First we recorded the verses - had to do it twice because the excitement and nervousness made your voices high pitched and reed thin. Then the song - three voices separately. Oh wow, we were singing melody, and when we played it back, our voices were depressingly bad. Oh well, Tess diplomatically told us to move back and asked the sopranos - with the good voices - to sing the melody for the recording. Anyway, our voices are also there, but we were FAR away from the microphones while the good voices of Joy, Lylette, Ting, Tess (hope I did not forget anyone) did a good job of covering up for us. We left the sopranos and the altos and drove up to Antipolo to have lunch in Lanelle Abueva's very peaceful and serene Cresent Moon. It was very nice. The others followed. So we got our CD of our song. The next step was to learn the dance. Ay ai yai. That was a catastrophe. We had a very nice choreographer, but we had 2 left feet. OK, so we learned to dance the soul, the boogaloo and the shingaling. We still mixed up the song and the steps. It felt like we would NEVER get it right. Of course it did not help that the choreographer kept changing the steps and forgetting the sequence. I do not know who was more confused - she or us. We learned to write the steps down against the song's stanzas, but that got even more confusing when she changed the steps again. But we were meeting twice a week in a venue closer - in Fort Bonifacio - arranged by Lylette. Carol Pintor, our balikbayans and others brought merienda. Everyone was in good spirits, and we were enjoying the bonding. Balikbayans were coming in and everyone was excited to welcome and greet everyone. Our meriendas were getting fancier - dried cranberries etc. We were really looking forward to the next rehearsal. Of course when the Director came, he renamed the steps. We were calling the boogaloo the shingaling and the shingaling the boogaloo. Confused? We were! He simplified our sequence and had us do a bit of acting to go with the verses. Nothing fancy, just cute. Everyone was game. On Tuesday before the reunion, we all met on the balcony of the Captain's Bar. We were about 26, and when the music began - all of the 60's, we got up to dance where we were and did not stop until the music ended. All our balikbayans' names were called out by the bandleader. We loved it. We were acknowledged as the largest group there that night. We requested for Happy Together, and when they played our song, we were dancing like pros. We loved it, the band loved us, and the audience loved us. Hely's husband's eyes popped when he saw a totally different side of his wife. She was unstoppable! We met George, Raquel's husband, and adopted him immediately. On the Thursday before the performance, we were in despair because we got even more confused by yet another change in our finale by the choreographer. We decided to have another rehearsal before the dress rehearsal as we knew we would only disgrace ourselves. By this time we had the good dancers with us - LP Puzon and Racquel Villavicencio were home and were dancing better than we all were. Cathy had also joined us by then. We got LP to finally teach us each step of each dance. Tess simplified the finale even more, and we were all very happy about that. When we got on stage for the dress rehearsal, we were ok. The choreographer was shocked because we did it well, and we did not follow her sequence. We were all grinning inside. We ended up that night in Max's. Remember the good old fried chicken place - and at a time when "bird flu" was all around Asia. The Philippines has remained "bird flu" free. Everybody was talking louder and faster than everyone else. Nobody was listening. We took over the restaurant - kawawa the other diners. We received our souvenir program and our STC bookmark souvenirs. They are both really special. On the night of the reunion, everyone showed up in black tops and long black pants or long skirts with the silk ruby shawls. Baby and Joy were busy tying each shawl in a different way. We all looked really gorgeous. We looked so much better than any of the other groups who tried to squeeze their matronly bodies in skinny roaring twenties outfits that left arms flapping and tummies buldging. I had to ask Baby to compromise as she wanted to fix my shawl and expose my flabby wings. We were the first on stage for the group photo. We were the class with the largest number on stage to perform. We were 42. We were the class with classmates having the most fun. We were the class that took over the stage and danced after the program ended and they played our music. We were the class that loved one another and will always be friends. We were the most beautiful, the happiest, and the loudest group there that night. We infected everyone with out joie d' vivre (baka wrong spelling pa). We saw classmates from abroad and in Manila that we hadn't seen in
such a very long time: We had photos taken at our tables, while dancing, while singing (dear George and our friend who came home with Connie were our paparazzi) and posing ourside the ballroom and on the grand staircase. We all went straight home because by then we were exhausted. Sunday night was dinner at my home. We had a sit down dinner specially made for our very special class. We had champagne, wine, good food and even better companionship. By this time we were really totally and completely relaxed. We were making retirement plans in our retirement cottages in Tagaytay. Requirement for entry is ability to play scrabble, mahjong, paint, do crafts, sing or garden. We decided to grow old together. Sunday was also the day we bought Ting's beaded bookmarks, Lolita's nude breast cups without nipples (the jokes after that were to die for. Like Norma saying, do you notice I am wearing my Lolitas's), and my heart shaped cakes. We also received our picture frames in anticipation of the group photos. We had some smaller dinners in different homes with different groups. Guia opened her condo with a gorgeous view to Hely and Baby. Our hints of a barbecue in Guia's Antipolo home fell on deaf ears. Sigh. But, the idea finally took root as this will be the venue of our turnover of officers from the very able leadership of Tillic, Joy and Darn (who can I not remember?) to Guia, Tess, Ting and myself. A week later, we went to Tagaytay. That was a lot of fun. Monina outdid herself the day after her birthday supplying the most delicious jumbo prawns, fried bangus bellies and fried lapulapu fillets. She also picked up salad from the neighboring farm. Everyone brought something - chips, cheese balls, lots and lots of native delights. I made the salad dressing, and had bowls of marinade. Everyone threw their meat or chicken into the marinade, and the drivers grilled the meat over coals while we partied inside. We gathered the gifts people brought for our games' prizes. Lolita outdid herself by bringing one huge box filled with shampoo and conditioner. She even gave a "Lolita" as the main raffle prize. Tessa brought two large chocolate and vanilla puddings which were delicious. One became a prize too. Eyelet also baked cassava bibingka, a balikbayan's dream dessert. Carol brought one BIG bag of super pandesal which I won as a raffle prize. We played silly games that became so much fun. The longest line was won by Carol's group because of the shoe laces, but not to be beat was Aida Grino who peeled off her blouse to add to the line (she did have an undershirt). Baby also removed her half slip - ay ai yai - things were getting hairy. The "bring me" game was played twice because we had prizes and because we kept thinking of more wacky things to ask for - like, pubic hair (won by Aida Nunez - second place Cathy Fructuoso) and a sanitary napkin - won by..... yes at our age - yabang ano? Of course someone cried foul because it was an adult diaper (haha) but it looked like a napkin, so it was accepted. The balikbayans shopped till they dropped. They said their tearful goodbyes, but we KNOW that they will definitely come back, and we will go out of our way to welcome you and wine and dine you when you all come back. The next event was Baby Manguerra's book launch in Power Books in Makati's Greenbelt. That was nice. We sat through the authors reading what they wrote. We did not expect to be entertained, but their stories were very good. Then we were invited to cocktails on the balcony. It was nice. This was where plans of yet the next event were being made. Yes, our outings are not over yet. We yoga at Rhadika Ghenomal (Babs)'s home on Mondays or Thursdays. We have also adopted her husband Chandru. And on Friday, the majority of us are going to watch the play Menopause. That is such a riot. Do Not fail to watch this play. The others who could not get tickets (SOLD OUT) are going on Saturday or next week. And after that, we will let a week or two pass, and plan on getting together again maybe on Holy Week or so. Our location groups - like the ones who live in the north get together often while we in the South are often together. Carol takes care of the Manila and Makati folk. We are enjoying our close friendships and hope you come and join us soon. There is nothing like the bonding and lasting friendships of Elementary and high school classmates. If you missed this wonderful experience, save up for the 50th. It is just 5 years away. We promise to make it even more memorable.
~end~
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