TWO fine ladies chanced to cross each other’s path at the Baguio City Market about a week ago as of this writing. One was a former mentor at UP College Baguio but now well-settled overseas and the other a stabilized flower business woman in the City.
The former had just arrived with her son from abroad to pay respect to the memory of her now deceased parents-in-law as well as to her own mother, a Baguio City High retiree but now also resting in peace. When their eyes met the latter’s flower shop, recollections started to be activated.
“Did you not study here in Baguio?,” the flower seller wanted to satisfy her curiosity that was growing affective. Upon receiving an almost just a casual but a positive answer, the dealer became surer, “Do you still know our graduation song?”
“Yes, why?” the prospective buyer suddenly realized the face of a co-graduate from the Dona Nicasia Juco Puyat Elementary School and the duo instinctively hummed the melody then put in some unmistakable portions of the lyrics to indicate the certainty of their aroused mutual hunch as regards the identity of each other.
“What a beautiful song and you made it; it became the school song,” the floral shop owner said in a congratulatory mood, “I heard that they were singing another one later on but during the graduation of my child at DNJPES they sang the same song that we sang in ours!”
“Actually, the lyrics were composed by my father inspired by my description of our school environment and activities while Ma’am Basilisa Pimentel composed the adopted melody that my father considered surprisingly so akin to the melody he originally had the feelings to carry the lyrics naturally,” the prospective vendee interposed to clarify.
Uncaring about their then present whereabouts in the market, the duo, transported in time, resumed to continue, thinking at first, according to them, with only chosen lines they thought pertained appropriately to the state and level of life that they have attained having been fundamentally prepared for by their elementary schooling, but finally rendered the whole song instead as follows:
A guiding light among the pines,
Dear Alma Mater, are thy lines:
We’re proud to say our school is great,
The finest hearts pass through thy gate.
Here boys and girls do scale the mount
To drink the cup of wisdom’s fount,
Here science and rich culture blend
Transforming each a better friend.
Thy children hail from near and far,
From Modernsite and homes afar,
From barrios of the skyland range
As also from the lowland plains.
While still thy hallowed halls we tread
Or when our steps are no more heard,
Thy counsels shall we e’er acclaim
To make it known thy golden name.
Refrain:
Our pledge accept, DNJPES
With hearts sincere, we to thee raise:
Our Alma Mater, we are thine
In life’s dark shade or bright sunshine.
Modernsite, that’s it, in lower Aurora Hill, Baguio, that’s where DNJP Elementary School still proudly stands today, and proudly remembered by two of its graduates who got assured of each other’s identity, despite the physical manipulation of passing years, by means of their internalized insignia school song.
“Our Alma Mater, we are thine/In life’s dark shade or bright sunshine.” “Thy counsels shall we e’er acclaim/to make it known thy golden name.”
What courageous offering and brave sworn promise! I believe them because one of them, biologist Ma. Gina Sison, is my daughter whose academic research paper done conjointly with serious-minded other colleagues gave prophetic warnings on the dire effects of pollution affecting the Balili River already years ago and the other is now an enabled supplier-vendor of flowers engaged in a major industry in Baguio-Benguet as profiled in the yearly Panagbenga floral celebration.
Incidentally, the DNJPES School Band has shown appreciable mettle in its community performance, thanks to the devoted conductor and school support.
It is hoped that it will continue to sound and resound in its ensemble performances the school insignia song (DNJPES March) that served to bring two of their exemplar predecessors to identify and enjoy each other’s company once more even for the brief moments permitted to them by master time and how the school had prepared them fundamentally well for life’s challenges.
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