Mendoza: Two treasures in Davao give life extra thrill
-A A +AAll Write
Friday, February 24, 2012
ONE is turning 80, the other 90.
One plays golf, the other tennis.
Tony Tan will turn 80 in August, Ram Maxey 90 in September.
Number 12 is special to both: Tony Tan was born on Aug. 12, 1932, Ram Maxey Sept. 12, 1922.
They are from Davao City.
Last week, I had lunch with Tony Tan, dinner with Ram Maxey.
Memorable encounters they were that can only happen once in a blue moon.
To be just seated beside them, chatting, would be an education worth more than a Harvard diploma.
“I play golf and next drink beer or scotch,” says Tony Tan.
His secret to longevity?
“I feel young and I always think young,” says Tony Tan, a retired fiscal whose word is the law at the Davao City Golf Club in Matina. “Consistently, my blood pressure is 120 over 80.”
Like Ram Maxey, Tony Tan is as lean as he can be and has a waistline that, anytime, spme women would envy.
For our lunch that day, Tony and I had “kare-kare,” “adobong kambing” and “sinigang na hipon” with camote tops.
I met Tony in Bacolod last year, during the 64th PAL Interclub.
“First you forget names, then you forget faces,” said George Burns the famed comedian.
When I met Tony Tan again last week, he looked me in the eye and then he asked Yellow Fin Restaurant owner Ken Angeles: “Hey, Ken, isn’t he the sportswriter we had breakfast with in Bacolod last year at Bar 21?”
Mr. Burns, who died at 100 in 1996, eat your heart out.
Now to the sprightly Ram Maxey, whose son, Charles, is now the business editor of Sun.Star Davao after serving as the paper’s sports editor for years.
“It’s the genes that keep me strong and healthy,” Ram Maxey, the soldier’s son from Kentucky, says. “My brothers and sisters all lived beyond 90 years.”
Almost reed-thin, the wine-sipping Ram Maxey, perhaps the best sports editor Davao has ever produced, is now a top gun at Edge, Davao’s No. 1 business paper.
This night, he splurged on lechon, capping his dinner with a chocolate cake for dessert.
We next drank wine to our heart’s content.
Now, prepare to be shocked. When I asked Ram Maxey about his diet, he said: “I eat everything except vegetables.”
Top that.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on February 25, 2012.
Sports
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