Pinoy Nostalgia - Technological convenience versus traditional ways

When I saw this picture in the Facebook group PHILIPPINES OLD PHOTOS AND MEMORIES I knew I had to share it with you. I asked Chester to select his favourites (there were about 20 pictures in this category alone) and group them so they were easier to view in the blog. Some of you will remember the images from your childhood and I urge you to share them with your older relatives. Teachers feel free to share them with your students to remind them what life was like before ordering food on line,  Mobile banking etc.

In the old days if you wanted food you had to get on a Jeepney, usually overcrowded, and go to the restaurant to buy it. Back then Palawan did not have McDonalds and Starbucks, just Jollibee!

This was the ID card of the first Jollibee employee...

Things were much cheaper then as well...

and instead of Grab we had Dirty Ice cream on wheels...

Special thanks to Kuya Vin for introducing me to Dirty Ice Cream in Vigan a few years back!

                                        Dirty Ice cream in Vigan with Vin in 2018

Sadly the Golden Arches are invading the Philippines - there are now 655 outlets there, but they will never overtake the big Bee who has 1150 branches in the Philippines ( and one in Bahrain!).

The old shops and "Superstores" are being replaced by huge shopping Malls like SM, Robinsons and Ayala, and more and more people are using the internet to shop online as technological convenience replaces the traditional ways.

Where people still cook at home in the big cities the traditional ways of cooking that I experienced in Barutaan with wood fires are being replaced with gas and electric cookers, microwaves and fast food. 

The old irons are being replaced by modern ones but many, like Jhoanna, still wash by hand , just as they did in the old days....

 

       A little girl washes the clothes for her family in days gone by
 

Jhoanna washing the clothes in Barutaan in 2021

Many houses still do not have running water so the children have to fetch the water from the well daily for the CR, Shower, and washing up which is still done by hand as they were taught at Elementary school. 

In the countryside little has changed in the Philippines. I was reading, as part of my research for this blog :

"Hundreds of years ago, of the mouth of what is now the Parañaque River, there stood an imposing balite tree, with dark foliage and trunks gnarled by age. When viewed from afar from Manila Bay, it seemed like a boat sailing slowly and majestically, earning the Tagalog term “Palanyag”.

This is actually a corruption of the term Palanyag which means point of migration. Before, maybe the inhabitant wanted to sound like the Spaniards. So what they did to the world “paranale” was to add a vowel and the term “Parañaque” came about. The town was founded in 1572. It lay very proximate to the sea. Parañaquenos traded with the Chinese, Indonesians, Indians and Malays. Peoples’ sources of livelihood were salt making, planting rice shoemaking, and weaving."

Source : https://extranet.who.int/kobe_centre/sites/default/files/pdf/paranaque_urbanheart_city_report.pdf?fbclid=IwAR13UMSiuYeo0u1gf05yrr4h7Cw8yl7ZsDtbD0ACfhA2VUpNDDWTGieSLfk

( accessed 21.05.21)

 

                         Salt making in Paranaque around 1930

Back in the old days we did not have tractors and all terrain vehicles to take the harvest to the market so we relied on the old Caribou to haul the load with the kids on top. 

I love this picture of the kids at play and keeping their animals in the shade on a hot summers day- no bicycles, skate boards and motorcycles back then! 

In the days before our modern Community Pantries the families used to sell their goods by the road from baskets like this:

Again do not be fooled by the colours, this is an old Black and white photo that has been "coloured" as noted in the bottom left.

Well that's all for this weeks walk down memory lane and as usual my thanks go to Chester for grappling with the technology required to transfer the photos from Bahrain to the Philippines and arranging them so neatly. He also came up with the groupings and headings. In Palawan thanks to Jhoanna for the photo of her doing the washing ! Finally thanks to everyone who contributed the old pictures to the Facebook group PHILIPPINES OLD PHOTOS AND MEMORIES.

One day I will be there in the Philippines with you all, when the Cov 19 virus goes and they open to tourists again. Until then all I can do is wait patiently in Bahrain and write blogs!

Until the next time, Kita kits, Ingat Palagi and stay safe.

Next week we have the 5th installment in our series of Pinoy Nostalgia in Flashback Friday, and we will be looking at Changes in the Infrastructure of the Philippines over the years. 

Until then this is....