THE fizzling out of a pro-Duterte rally in his hometown may be blamed to a distraction on Facebook.
Since the past week, what was filling up the Facebook walls of Davawenyos was this page Titos and Titas of Davao (Angkols and Aunties) that kept everyone glued and guessing about Davao’s past.
The questions may be trivial, but it has stirred participation from every generation of Davawenyos.
Imagine trying to answer what was the first department store in the city to have an escalator? Who was the first mayor of the city? What were the first buses traveling from Davao to Tagum or to Digos? Where can you find the yummiest pansit or cake before the malls came? What were the first taxicabs? What were the cinemas that brightened the city nights way back in the 70s to 90s?
These are indeed trivial, but it was amazing that questions and photos of old Davao kept flooding for three days, almost every hour or up to every 30 minutes there was something new posted by one of the 38,000 members of this page. Everyone wanted to share, to guess and to have fun.
I even sent my own queries: What was that department store that was rumored to have a trap door in the fitting room? Many remembered that urban legend in the 1980s, which I believe was a ploy to stop people from going to that popular store.
Another question I raised: before Betadine, what antiseptic did you use to clean your wounds? Amazingly that question gathered 700 replies, and each answer (merthiaolate, mercurcrome, incture of iodine, kamunggay) showed which decade you live in.
It became so big, and even so intriguing, that the page admin decided to close it on Wednesday night, saying the traffic and pressures are hard to keep up. This announcement saddened many followers including me.
Interestingly, a day before that close down, there was a message spread from the DDS people that this page was instigated by the “dilawan” to distract people from attending the RevGov rally.
There were some reactions on the group that said this: Can’t we have fun instead of politics? It’s sad that we are now back to seeing fake news, bashing and negative things on Facebook.
And that was a moment for me and for many. That Davao is beyond one man and his loud rants. That you can know Davao City through the memories, histories, the people and the people long before the influx of the oligarchs’ malls, hotels and subdivisions that made life kind of hectic and steep.
And why those past few days were a blast was because as one member said it, these were happier times. Although the 70s to 80s were dark days of Martial Law and Alsa Masa, nostalgia can make you feel there were times innocence and community spirit was something that has meaning for you.
To the admins and members in Titos and Titas, it was fun that we gathered in one commune, remembering the good times, and perhaps hoping for the good times in the years to come.
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(tyvelez@gmail.com)