More1 Comments on Grandfather Tales

Constancio S Asumen Jr The Dagohoy Rebellion lasted 89 years and was quelled in 1829, 128 years before Tatay Insoy's passing on. He was reputed to have been 108 years old when he died, that puts him at 20 years old at the end of the Dagohoy Rebellion.
It is safe to assume that he moved to Mindanao as his father's dependent. Putting him at age 10 when he moved to Mindanao is a viable proposition. I don't have any idea which position he occupied in the siblings seniority order. So 10 is just splitting the difference.
By and large the story line is viable. What makes it dubious is the hint that it was the Simpron end of the clan who was from Inabanga. Mana did tell me today that Tatay Insoy's family was from Calape.

Mildred O. Asumen Yes, Kuya Jun (Felicisimo Jr) left for Australia 10 years - son of Uncle Mimi, then Uncle Nemesio (Mening) died a year ago and their sibling - Auntie Rosa, a teacher of Cabadbaran, Agusan. lola abing's descendants are in claver.

Constancio S Asumen Jr Neng, correction: Ingko Mining was not Nemisio. He was Hermogenis or Hermohenis. He was the one who initiated me into overnight deep-sea fishing when I was 13 to 14 years old. This was during the period between graduating elementary school and starting high school. We got so poor, everybody had to quit school and help out.
Those were the good old days I treasure dearly through the rest of my soujurn in the sun.

Constancio S Asumen Jr By the way, both Mano Mimi and Ingko Mining were raised by Nanay and Tatay like both were their sons until Mano Mimi had to go to Cebu to study high school.
This was the reason that your Papa and Mano Mimi were very close emotionally. They grew up like siblings.

Rommel O. Asumen So lolo mimi went to San fernando ,cebu to study hi school. Coz papa graduated in norte dame san fernando,cebu. Every Fiesta we would always go to san fernando. I had to drive him coz he will be to drunk to drive home.

Constancio S Asumen Jr I thought Oya Onday's town was Santander. If Notre Dame is in San Fernando then he was in San Fernando because I know he graduated from Notre Dame.He must have lived in a private boarding house (casera).
I read most (if not all) of your Papa's high school diaries because there was nothing much to read when I was laid off from school in Wangke.

Rommel O. Asumen Papa stayed with a family Suico and the Paradela's.It was not a private boarding house. I met all of them. They were nice people. so every fiesta we were there.

Constancio S Asumen Jr There was another side story to your Papa's going to high school in Cebu. He was deprived of the validictorian honors on graduating elementary school in favor of Salome Erazo who was one of the big shots in Cabugo.
This was a big deal because a validictorian automatically gets free tuition in high school. Tatay wanted to prove to the world that your Papa can excel even in a wider field, be a big fish in a larger pond.
Your Papa acquitted himself with flying colors by graduating top of his class in Notre Dame. We had a three-day banquet in Wangke for the occasion.

Constancio S Asumen Jr Mano Mimi should only be your uncle and not lolo. He was treated as the oldest son of Tatay. And I don't know where he went to school. I was then too little to pay attention to such details.

Rommel O. Asumen Yup people in san Fernando think the same. This the first time i heard about 3 days banquet.

Constancio S Asumen Jr He could not have been staying with a non-relative family. It must be one of those arrangements where you pay the monthly cost of board and lodging and laundry.
That he developed an amicable relationship with the family sounds inherent to what develops between long term tenant and landlord.
I had visited your Papa's living arrangement both in Cantilan (1 week) and Cubao (2 weeks). In both places, he did manage to develop a pleasant relationship with the landlady, because they were unusually pleasant to me.

Constancio S Asumen Jr Yes: Tatay had a penchant for lavish, no holds barred festivities when he got his mind to it. But when you invite practically the entire township it inevitably becomes a three-day affair.
One carabao and a couple of hogs were slated for the occasion. The day before the main event those who volunteered to help came to make preparations. A patch of meadow near the house was cordoned off for a dancing hall.
A local band was organized ad hoc for the occasion. The band leader was also the chief chef Mano Siso Taer. Then the day after the main event the helpers stay behind to clean up.
To a child's view it's a three-day fiesta because as long as there is company a good child is always pampered.

Rommel O. Asumen prodigal son

Rommel O. Asumen I remebered that last asumen reunion in Panatao in the 70's. A carabao was also slaugthered.

Constancio S Asumen Jr I look at it as privileges of being a first born.
Actually, because of Mano Mimi and Ingko Mining your Papa had an advantage. He had someone to look up to for pattern on how to handle the outside adult world.

Constancio S Asumen Jr This must be during their 50th anniversary, after I had my disappearing act.
For the ones I attended, I think the victims were only a couple of goats. Tatay did not have any carabao then.

Mildred O. Asumen correction on the wrong impression that Papa lived in an expensive casera...i used to be accompanying papa when he went to san fernando's fiesta... he lived with suico and paradela as a working student. most of his buddies would love to reminiscing their past- they helped him cleaned the whole school so they could have papa along with them for a barrio dance -baile. And could recall one of the old maid teacher who would love to retold the story how papa graduated as valedictorian, wherein most of the teachers contributed to papa's wardrobe- one teacher bought the shoes, another paradela old maid bought the pants and suico bought his polo.

Constancio S Asumen Jr Mildred,
Not to speak ill of the departed has always been one of the codes of ethics I adhere to religiously. And I am not about to violate it now, in the twilight of my years.
You are an accomplished engineer so this phenomenon should be familiar to you: There is a region in the strain continuum that the most tenacious materials as steel and titanium would exhibit fluid flow, the laws of solid mechanics cease to govern and those of fluid mechanics would take over.
To portray your Papa as a working student in high school would be analogous to crossing that solid/fluid divide. Protocols of civil and rational discourse would cease to govern.
I concede there might have been occasions that he would work. But it should have been more by choice rather than by brutal circumstances, not because he had to. None of Tansoy's children ever recoiled from work.
But to claim your Papa was a working student would be an insult to working students everywhere. Worse, it would be an affront to and defilement of the noble sacrifices and endeavors of my parents, who may have fallen short of their goals when they found they could not afford to send their other children to college. But their devotion to the cause of educating us never ceased.

Mildred O. Asumen Uncle jun,
the stories i have heard is not from papa but from people who were there when he has high school which i draw this conclusion. these people don’t have anything to gain to tell those stories to me... and consistency of information has been established talking and hearing stories from not one nor 2 people but a dozen.. and not just one time stories but on several ocassion when we go either on fiesta, community service leave of papa, all souls day holidays... papa does not talk much about his past... he could talk family tree, lineage and other things except his past...

Constancio S Asumen Jr Mildred,
I’m sure your Papa had his reasons to demure from discussing his past. So let us respect those reasons and not second guess him. Ditto, the people you heard the tales from. They had filtered the unfolding of events with their own prisms.
I am proud to be your Papa’s brother, and prouder still to be my parents’ son. I can assure you this: there is nothing in the family’s past that I know of that needs to be hidden. If anything, they need to be heralded far and wide and should serve as inspiration for struggling families everywhere.
We have managed to overcome all sorts of adversities. Some of them may be reckoned as self-inflicted but we overcame nonetheless. In the realm of parenting, my parents acquitted themselves with flying colors and I cannot be but proud of them.

Mildred O. Asumen Uncle jun,
"agree with you... what lolo and lola have done have been an inspiration to lots of families in claver and elsewhere. They have struggled and overcome all the obstacles and have raised above their level their children's welfare. there is no question about it... . as papa told me once - it is a legacy one parent could give when they raised the bar of comfort and welfare on their children and the next generation and his sample was your family... lolo was a farmer/fisherman and lolo and lola produce your generation as professionals - geophysicist, accountant, ministers, librarian, etc. and papa's brood - physician and group of engineers... like uncle titing - got physician and engineers too. and it’s now our generation to prove that legacy to our children...what would be the outcome would remain to be seen..."

Constancio S Asumen Jr Mildred,
Amen to all that. My endeavor to engage myself in the exchange of ideas with my writing, is integral to my devotion to upholding the legacy that my parents handed down to me. Namely, to transcend the constraints circumscribed by the immediately given parameters of engagement with the outside world, to go beyond what is being provided by the here and now. I may not give a dent on the situation but the least I can do is try.