A Kagay-anon Remembers

IN MY childhood years, my world was bounded by Dolores Street to the South, Puntod to the North, Corrales Avenue to the East and Cagayan River to the West.  It was an era where everybody knew everybody in the town called Cagayan, whose population was less than the student population of a university in Manila.

Although Carmen belonged to another world, my neighborhood friends and I ventured into this world again and again crossing the river by ferryboat.  The bridge after World War II (WWII) was not reconstructed yet.  There, in the plains of Carmen we would harvest wild guavas that abounded in what is now known as Golden Village subdivision.  In another season we would go up on foot to the hills of Carmen where we would fill our bags with lumboy or local berries and come home with violet tongues—making our parents know where we had been.  There were plenty of lumboy trees where the Pryce Plaza Hotel is now located.

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Nobody had a swimming pool in Cagayan de Oro.  There was no public pool either.  And there was really no need for one.  Cagayan River was invitingly crystal-clear.  Its water was even clean and safe to drink.  Most Kagay-anon boys and girls with adventure in their hearts learned how to swim because of this river.   The sand bar that would later be named “Isla de Oro” was our playground.  It was located in the middle of the river.  After a flood, the river’s strong current would uproot the grass we called “tigbao,” leaving nothing but golden sand where kids like me would play to our hearts’ delight.  But adults also came to play volleyball, bringing with them their cooked, slightly ripened bananas to be dipped in sautéed ginamos.  Tuba was their drink.

I vividly remember that Cagayan River had three seasons.  One was the crab season.  We would catch crabs running under the crystal clear water, but we would have socks as gloves to avoid being caught by the crabs’ nasty pincers.   We would easily fill-up our pails and have crab adobo or simply fried crabs cooked by our helper.  Our mother would have none of it. 

Then there was the hipon season.  This was the popular tiny fish made into “ginamos”.  It was the poor man’s food.  Now because of its rarity, it has become the rich man’s gourmet.  And speaking of gourmet, the flood season would bring in the famous pigok that could only be caught by bisig (wooden fish trap) up the river.  The flood would drag the pigok up to the bisig and remain there until the flood subsided.  The ridiculous price of the pigok as of this writing according to a recent article is P4,000 per kilo.

There was only one automobile that I can remember in Cagayan de Oro right after WWII.  The general mode of transportation in the poblacion (town) was the tartanilla, which we called “King of the Road”.  This horse-driven carriage was unique to Cagayan de Oro until the motorelas, pedicabs and trisicads proliferated.   Food for the horses was the kumpay, a succulent tall grass that grows on water but its roots would cling to sand bars or mud.  In Cagayan River, there were three islets toward the sea after the Cathedral.  One islet is gone today but in the old days, it was surrounded by kumpay.   Another source of kumpay was in the swamp where now stands the Limketkai shopping mall, but kumpay there was not popular because it was muddy and dirty.

There was only one gymnasium with a basketball court in Cagayan and that was the Ateneo de Cagayan gym.  Many basketball games were played there.   Many teams would come from as far as the Visayas and Manila to play against the Ateneo de Cagayan basketball varsity, which was often victorious.  I would be watching almost every game and cheered for my school team until I was hoarse.   

Games would usually end late at night.  With no lampposts, it would be dark going home from Corrales to Mabini-Burgos. I would be scared going home in the dark especially when I would hear the fierce barking of the dogs for my fear of it. I would wait for anyone by Calle Real going to Mabini even though I could not see my “companion’s” face in the dark. I would go with him until I reached the house, which most of the time was unlocked.  This ritual would be repeated in every basketball game. I would walk with a faceless companion because my parents would tell me the people knew us, and it was safe.

(Roy B. Gaane is an ardent Kagay-anon and a true blue Atenean. He is the founder of Kagay-anon International (KI), a group of overseas Kagay-anon that has now several chapters around the U.S. and Canada. Over the years, KI has done many charitable projects in Cagayan de Oro. Gaane and his family reside in California but they regularly visit their beloved hometown.)