Looking for a writing prompt, I came across the topic... Your favorite childhood vacation. A quick scan of my mind cannot fathom a favorite vacation, I had to dig deep inside my mind for the memory.
And what I remember is not your typical vacation. We never spend weeks away from our home. We would go to this river in a nearby province and spend the day there, oh, half the day there. We would leave our house mid-morning and arrive just before lunch and go home in the afternoon and that was it, then back to grind of normal life.
I remember we would go there because it was near, we didn't have to travel very far. And it was cheap. We didn't have to pay all that much for the entrance fees or the cottage or table we will put our stuff in. Also, It wasn't a clean river, you gasp in awe of the clear waters and it wasn't very deep and during the summer season there would be a lot of people and it would be crowded since the river ain't that large. So you'd bump into someone at every other turn.
But what I remember most would be the delicious food, our mom would have our maid cook. Chicken pork adobo that's almost dried up and the simple stuff like hotdogs and tocino. We do this almost every year, every Good Friday as it was the only time our retail store was closed. Everyone will come with us. My siblings, our household help and even the helpers at the store. Sometimes my cousins would come or some other relatives and my dad's closest friends. Yeah, I'd be the first to admit I didn't have a religious family and we never really celebrated or gave much thought to the Holy Days of the Church.
I also recall All Saint's Day, Nov. 1 when we will visit the cemetery for our dead. It was like a party and a reunion. We will spend the whole day in the cemetery. Most family members will be there. Aunts, Uncles, cousins to the nth degree. Everyone out to visit the dead. There will be lots of food and even booze. We will stay at the cemetery until the night time. The adults, mom, dad, aunts, uncles, older cousins will play cards while the younger ones will try to fly a kite, the cemetery is an open space and it was windy, so it was a great time to go fly a kite.
When late afternoon will come, some of my older cousins would start telling ghost stories especially to the younger ones, like me! And we would all get scared and the adults will scold them for scaring us! It's not a vacation but these two times of the year are the only times when the family would spend an entire day together and be with other members of the family.
So, my life wasn't your typical life perhaps. But I made do with the one I have and those times spent at the river and in the cemetery were some of the best days of my life. Although, I cannot honestly say that it was a lot of time. it was the best that I got.
