Because of Chocolate Cake

Because of chocolate cake, we started to reminisce.

Because of chocolate cake, we faintly remembered.

Because of chocolate cake, memories about a small town came back.

And all these started during a chat on Facebook which started a thread on someones Wall which begat a bunch of comments about people’s recollections of our small town when we were growing up. A growing up which was cruelly interrupted by events beyond our control. To us, we were not Muslims or Christians or too concerned about politics at a time when our innocence tended to believe that nothing catastrophic would ever happen to our town. But it did, we survived it, moved on, and now decades later we are only able to reminisce. All because of chocolate cake.

Let me now copy and paste the unedited comments of my fellow Joloanos who made entries on that Facebook Wall:

Jasmine remembers the yellow cake with the chocolate frosting at the Town's Cafe.

Noel Those cakes were great but I loved their jelly rolls too.

Jasmine Jolo had coffee shops all around, I remember.

Tisa Kahawa hi Lawa was one of my Dad's favorite. I brought some to Gov Carlos Fortich and he even told me to market it to Starbuck. Why didn't I ??? Missed that opportunity to promote JOlo

Jasmine Lawa was a landmark ... always full house anytime of the day ... there were so many other things about Jolo like the durian (duyan), lanzones, mampallam, pastil, our schools, the tricycles, the Sulu Star, the cinemas that had people roaring in action films, etc ... don't u ever wish to be transported back in time.

Tisa John Gokongwei had this eat all U can durian in Makati &t he featured Jolo/Sulu where the tastiest durian ever is found. dont forget baunuh wanni, Camiguin Lanzones though is very sweet, I have to admit. Loctoko was a treat during weekend their pancit, sweet sour chicken. Busbus Pastil was my fav too & the sauce, nobody can do it like them. aah I always daydream back to timel. My childhood was fun!I sold Sulu STar on byke until my classmate (Thomas Chavez) met an accident & died. We were tandembut on that faithful day we decided to go separate ways to cover everything since we had a PM activity in grade school. All my Dad's co-lleague were sukih, maybe one of them was your Dad. Then they all gave me back the old and used newspaper which I sold to buy my collection books nancy drew hardy boys, mills and boon barbara cartland We subscribed to Joe' store newspaper, newsweek times mag. Indeed what a life.

Jasmine Remember that grocery store (Sincere? am i right?) where my Mamang bought M and M's (a treat).. Loctoko pansit was the best... Our childhood doctors were Drs Cabel, Obsequio, Gonzaga, uncle Basil ... The late Nelly Sindayen of the Sulu Star took time to talk to me and pinch my cheeks LOL. I had the very sweet Mrs B (pls can you supply me the name) for my piano teacher. Of course, I remember you and your bicycle, Tisa. At one time we were neighbors.

Jun The best thing about those duyan, bwahan, marang, baunu, wanni, mannga, even macopas, byabas & kapaya, was that you only need to go a little deeper into the kaati-an of Upper San Raymundo to pick them up from the ground early in the morning or reach up to (or climb) low-lying branches to pluck them out...for FREE! Hin tunggu-guimba usually didn't mind us boys foraging through his forest since he didn't exert any effort anyway growing all those fruit trees among the weeds and vines. In that forest, one only feared getting indigestion from all those feast, no worries about being held hostage for any reason. I could still almost smell the magazines of Joe Store & the spices of Loctoko (mostly white pepper mixing with the aroma of pancit soup). I still blame Kahawa hi Lawa for my present coffee addiction, I've always wondered if they didn't put anything else with the coffee!

Jasmine LOL, we are only talking about downtown Jolo, what about those places we went to like Maubu, Quezon Beach, Patikul, Maimbung? We can never ever stop!

Tisa Mrs Burias aunt of Clarinda & Clarrissa, & our dentist was Dr Isahac, M & M up 2 now is now kids fav2 Was it the Hablo's ang sincere"? Plaza Panciteria for barbeque and satti, ha haha Jasmine unending na to. Well we help contribute to the coffee table of Mrs Margie Moran & her cousin Iso Montalva Tiulah Itum, Kurma & Jun we also had suspiciou whether Lawa put some addictive drugs to his coffee, my Dad will always bring me kahawa hi Lawa here in CAgayan de Oro, the trick is when U brew it put a pinch of salt in it of course these days U can add cinnamon if you are not allergy and use honey instead of sugar if you arent diabetic. What fun this is God bless U Jasmin for bringing this up, its therapeutic.

Noel Jeepers Jas, look what kind of thread we started from our chat last night. Loc Tu Kuo restaurant was a regular place my family went for dinner on Friday nights. They had Chiang Kai Chek's pictures on the walls. Then it was off to Capitol Theater where we got in for free because my grandma worked there.

Jasmine Thanks Tisa. Mrs Burias, the ever patient one ... i loved her. Jun, kahawa hi Lawa was just a perfect brew, no 'drugs' lol.

Noel Hi everyone in this thread. I wrote this months ago hoping to write a blog about it but I never did. The title was supposed to be: Thoughts about a small town.
Sine Jolo, Sine Capitol, Victory Theater, Perlas Theater
Lok Tu Kuo, Canton, John's Place, Sky Room, Town's Cafe
Notre Dame, Sulu Tong Jin, DDMPHS, Sulu High, PMC
Maubu, Tandu, Quezon, Plaza Rizal
Joe's Store, Swanee, Kaya, Sincere Enterprise

Jasmine Noel, it can become like a long thesis ... be sure u write about those Chiang Kai Chek's photos ... BTW, was Swanee a department store along that busy road going to the Girls' Dept? What was the street's names. I always had dreams about that place, LOL.

Noel Yes Swanee was across the street from Sincere. Please, I don't know the street names, I just know how to get there. (note: I was mistaken here, Swanee was actually located across Delaspenas Lodge)

Tisa Go ahead Noel spin your magic swan , your thoughts could probably move people to do something worthwhile, maybe our batch not only to return in memory but in action too. Go go go!

Noel Maybe with all of your permissions, I can copy and paste what we all said. My memory is not as good as some of yours are and I have no basis for comparison about what was then as opposed to what is now because I don't know what now is anymore. Incidentally Tisa, this is hard to believe but when I was sleeping yesterday after coming from work, I dreamed that I was talking on the phone with Thomas Chang, until my alarm jolted me awake.

Tisa You really miss Jolo Noel we are trekking down memory lane thats why, I hope Hassan Kurais did not pop out ha ha ha

Noel I've been looking for Hassan on the internet and all I can find is about his company being suspended, which is not what I wanted to see.

Jasmine Here I come again ... Was Kaya the small store that sold dried fruit like kiamhuy and the kuachi?

Jun Noel, thanks for reminding us about the names of all those movie houses in Jolo. I already forgot some of their names although I did spend quite a lot of time in those theaters - watching movies ranging from the lively Nora/Vilma musicals to spunky ones like Friends & Melody. Was it Sine Jolo that showed "Diamonds Are For Eva" (or something like that)? I didn't get to watch that of course (because of my age) but I heard a lot of stories about that from my taller peers (!) in DDHPMHS who somehow managed to sneak in. I remember a few weeks after that showing, Jolo streets got flooded with a deluge of rain (very unusual at that time). Then in another few weeks (or maybe only days?), Jolo burned to the ground. Byusung na ba hatiku hin hula' ta yan. I don't know whether to laugh or cry right now :|

Noel Jun, you may be excused if you want to both laugh and cry. Remember after Victory Theater burned down? Everyone was asking what movie was showing at the time. The title of course was: "SUNOG", the running joke making the rounds in town. Some movies we didn't get to see because of our ages at the time were "Uhaw" and "Gutom" among others because they were considered "bold". As far as the movies of Nora Aunor/Tirso Cruz/Vilma Santos/Edgar Mortiz/Eddie Peregrina/Esperanza Fabon, my mother loved them and dragged us to the theaters to watch them. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)

Tisa Jas ur right Kaya sold dos fud & one of my classmate in elem vomitted after eating so much of that salty red one.

Jun Yasmin, u reminded me about the pawnshops of Jolo too... :D Couldn't remember their names though, but it seems they were everywhere in those blocks of commercial buildings behind & beside the ND Girls Dept... now this gets me to smell too the fish market on the other side of ND. :D :D :

Noel Jun, one of those pawnshops was named Padjak Sug.

And so it goes folks. Interesting memories indeed, and it all got started - because of chocolate cake :-)