Growing up in Iloilo made me familiar with a plethora of vintage items fit for historical and cultural museums being used in daily life. There was a time when clothes were washed by hand using batya (laundry tub) and palo-palo (stick for beating the dirt out of the clothes) in the vicinity of a poso (water pump) and ironing them meant using charcoal and lifting a heavy metal iron from browned banana leaves on to the clothes. We had someone wash our clothes, but at 12, I was deemed old enough to iron them. Believe me when I say that ironing clothes were a matter of life and death, with three servings of scars on the side. In that dreaded walk from the kitchen area where the hot-as-hell coal originated to the sala where the wooden kabayo (ironing board) stood like a loyal servant, I spilled the charcoal more than once.
Vintage Filipino items ranging from household objects to clothes, games and movies.
On our downtime, and before Scrabble and Boggle (Word Factory) tested our wits and taught us to use the dictionary properly, my cousin, brother and I played dama (checkers) using a plank of wood, black permanent ink and a handful of tansan (crown of softdrink bottles). I always liked my tansan to be Coke rather than Sprite or Royal Tru-Orange. I thought the red of Coke was fiercer, hence deadlier, than green or orange. We also played sungka (mancala) using a mixture of shells and corn kernels. In summer, when I was done with Flores de Mayo, we watched Ilonggo-dubbed teleserye on our small black-and-white TV set.
This entry brings back the memories of my province and of my childhood. God, I miss those days. Those were simple times.
Batya (laundry tub) was commonly used by womenfolk to wash dirty clothes in rivers and eventually, in poso (water pump). In my town, there was poso in every street for everybody’s use, but the wealthy families had their own poso within their compound.
Wooden kabayo (ironing board) is now endangered, replaced by metal ones. The huge mortar and pestle were used to ground rice. My grandparents taught us to use it to break down unripe saba (Cardava banana), add sugar cane sugar to the broken down banana and eat it for snacks. ☺
If I am not mistaken, the object on the left of the photo is a plough. It was attached to a carabao (also called the beast of burden) and was used to plough the rice fields.
This is a vintage ice crusher/grinder. The halo-halo vendor in our town used this to make fine ice from a block of ice. I tried it more than once, and it was hard. Maybe I was too young to do it, but it was really heavy.
Board for dama (checkers) with tansan (bottle caps). Dama was popular among children and men who drink alcohol after a day’s work. Yes, those are very specific groups. Haha.
Sungka (mancala) used to be my favorite game. It taught me how to count the shells quickly and to plan ahead.
An old TV set. I used to watch tv series made in Cebu and in Bacolod City, the former was dubbed in Ilonggo. Sabel, Sugo ng Birhen was my afternoon delight. I do not know what happened to her. 🙁
An old film reel player. Every time I see a film reel, I recall Piolo Pascual and Janna Victoria in the movie Lagarista.
A jukebox player
A vintage record player
A recreation of a Filipino sari-sari store. From left to right, big transparent bottles with metal caps were used as candy containers, an old radio, an old kerosene lamp, abacus, half a coconut shell was used as bunot (place your foot on it and let it glide on the floor) to shine the floor, bakya (wooden clogs) from which this blog is named after and Filipino comics.
Antique lamps and old notes. I am not sure if we had money bills that look like these.
Vintage dolls wearing Filipino costumes.
Barong Tagalog
Also part of something old historic are the two Misses Universe produced by the Philippines: Gloria Diaz (1969) and Margie Moran (1973). 2015 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach will be added sometime in the future.
A poster of Nora Aunor’s Super Gee. Aunor is the Superstar of Philippine movie industry.
Filipino movie actresses of decades past
Filipino movie actors of yesteryears
Some of the antique items in the area.
These photos were taken in a restaurant in Quezon City. Between the main course and dessert, we had a guided tour of some of the areas. Things that pertain to movies and clothes were housed in a spacious but dimly lit room in the second floor. The rest were located outside, just before the main entrance of the restaurant.
I know that the photos are grainy, blurry and all-around crap.