What are cool chicks? These are the kinda girls that guys like to hang with, dig their humor, hip, smart and of course pretty. The ultimate cool chick example of back in the day would be Cindy Crawford. Bodaciously beautiful, foxy with an Engineering degree.
And we come back to St. Scholastica's College (SSC) of Manila, Class of 1987.
And we come back to St. Scholastica's College (SSC) of Manila, Class of 1987.
Prior to our 25th HS Anniversary I wrote a piece about high school freshman memories with SSC '87. Years later, it was unearthed again on Google by an old SSC friend. By coincidence I shared the same post with another SSC friend while on a business trip.
Coincidence? I don't believe in coincidences anymore. A classmate thought it was a good idea to scribble another one. So here goes.....
Sophomore year was a blur to me because I hit the books being on probation. I had to study..... A lot of things were going on in LSGH. Some nitwit teacher got kicked out because of extortion charges - cash; booze and even a live peacock.
The next great adventures with SSC I recall was in junior year. 3-S was our sister class. We had interaction set with them at where else? In SSC!
I recall that being in another notorious class (I wondered why always I ended up with the fun Motley Crue.... ), LSGH 3-J! The notorious bunch that made teachers walk out, made rushing for the bell from Gate 9 like an Olympic event, the same guys that were busy cramming for Chem in the morning at Greenhills...with beer, to the tune of Rico Mambo.
It is hard to imagine that our batch produced productive members of society. Some became professionals like an architect, dentist, a few became politicians, soldiers, pro bodyguards, many turned to be entrepreneurs and some just became good at what they do. One even got into exotic dancing for a bit. If you knew us back in the day, at the time I am writing about, you would not even dream that adolescent retards like us would amount to anything someday.
Preparing for the activity, our Adviser Alma Rose and the Guidance Counselor Ms. Grace reminded us on our etiquette - basic stuff like brushing teeth, not farting in front of the girls. Y'know, the very basics.
Sophomore year was a blur to me because I hit the books being on probation. I had to study..... A lot of things were going on in LSGH. Some nitwit teacher got kicked out because of extortion charges - cash; booze and even a live peacock.
The next great adventures with SSC I recall was in junior year. 3-S was our sister class. We had interaction set with them at where else? In SSC!
I recall that being in another notorious class (I wondered why always I ended up with the fun Motley Crue.... ), LSGH 3-J! The notorious bunch that made teachers walk out, made rushing for the bell from Gate 9 like an Olympic event, the same guys that were busy cramming for Chem in the morning at Greenhills...with beer, to the tune of Rico Mambo.
 |
| 3-J in Baguio |
It is hard to imagine that our batch produced productive members of society. Some became professionals like an architect, dentist, a few became politicians, soldiers, pro bodyguards, many turned to be entrepreneurs and some just became good at what they do. One even got into exotic dancing for a bit. If you knew us back in the day, at the time I am writing about, you would not even dream that adolescent retards like us would amount to anything someday.
Preparing for the activity, our Adviser Alma Rose and the Guidance Counselor Ms. Grace reminded us on our etiquette - basic stuff like brushing teeth, not farting in front of the girls. Y'know, the very basics.
Off we went. LSGH 3-J in full force led by the likes of Dene H., Rey E., Big Mike D., Mel Lara, the Sarasolas, Noric, Donray, Rey E., Joey U., Lorex Yam, Jun A. and a very healthy Lloyd Dizon to name a few, paving the way to the concrete jungles of Leon Guinto, Manila. Across DLSU where most of us wanted to go in a year or so. 
We were good to go. Shoes shined. Plain white undershirts without underarm holes. Some even wore their brand new then trendy, synthetic leather, fungus breeding Bla-blas. Petroleum jelly on the head was so first year. The "wet" dandruff causing Dippity Do gel and fire hazard styling mousse look was all the rage for hair of 1985.We ventured where the traffic was heavy, the roads were tight, to a school that was older than ours. As I aged, I imagine how terrified our teachers must have been to have us behaving like a congress of baboons as we invaded SSC. I think it was Ben Pablo or Joey U. that brought a gallon of that cologne Drakkar that we all shared right before leaving La Salle. The bus trip reminded me of a psychiatric ward in transit. You get the picture.
As mentioned in my previous post, I knew quite a few from 3S and SSC in general. Cherie, Freida, Steph among others. The rest like Irene Y., the future SSC Student Council president and others that I cannot recall anymore. (Hey its been three decades....)
And then it happened. We landed in St. Scholastica's, a female dominated school. No men's room in plain sight. We met 3-S. We surprised ourselves by trying to be gentlemen that we were trying to be trained to be. Behaved. Polite. Speaking in modulated voices a couple of octaves lower than usual. We were black belts in the La Salle martial art of "Por ma-do".
Nobody farted, yet.
I also remember that the Scholastica's nun was fairly young and kinda groovy. She seemed relaxed about us meeting her class. We were unusually behaved.
We had icebreakers, some games and we all hit it off. None were torpedo. Lorex Yam was leading the attack ala Spartan. We all spoke Greenhills English pare, ala Lorex.
Then there was that "getting to know you" game. I remember this is where I lost it. It was about describing yourself using the letters of your name. So the future SSC Student Council President/Valedictorian smart girl used $10,000 words like superfragalocious and other words like, uh, like umm, you know... the fancy, hyperbolic speed, space age types of words. She was a walking dictionary. We were just lexicons...of love.
My classmate Jojo (not his real name) then took his turn and described himself confidently and said something like "I am Jojo, J for jolly, O for Obedient, J for very Jolly l and O for very OK." I was floored. Completely lost in belly up laughter. My flammable mousse riddled hair was disturbed. I had to retouch it later on. Jojo had too much "Drakkar".
The whole day went smoothly. Our class kept in touch. Crushes were born. Crashes came after. Notes were sent to SSC and they wrote back. In fact, I was in charge of writing the "official" post interaction class note to thank 3-S for such a great time.
That note had our signatures. Right before signing and sealing for delivery I checked it again. Beside a classmate's John Hancock was a scribbled arrow in another classmate's penmanship that led to a caption in all caps BOLD that read "Ang Batang Ututin". I could not make changes to the note anymore due to time constraints so off it went to the concrete jungle world of SSC in Leon Guinto. Cheggy has long reformed since. Munding recovered from that gastric prank, eventually.
We had icebreakers, some games and we all hit it off. None were torpedo. Lorex Yam was leading the attack ala Spartan. We all spoke Greenhills English pare, ala Lorex.
Then there was that "getting to know you" game. I remember this is where I lost it. It was about describing yourself using the letters of your name. So the future SSC Student Council President/Valedictorian smart girl used $10,000 words like superfragalocious and other words like, uh, like umm, you know... the fancy, hyperbolic speed, space age types of words. She was a walking dictionary. We were just lexicons...of love.
My classmate Jojo (not his real name) then took his turn and described himself confidently and said something like "I am Jojo, J for jolly, O for Obedient, J for very Jolly l and O for very OK." I was floored. Completely lost in belly up laughter. My flammable mousse riddled hair was disturbed. I had to retouch it later on. Jojo had too much "Drakkar".
The whole day went smoothly. Our class kept in touch. Crushes were born. Crashes came after. Notes were sent to SSC and they wrote back. In fact, I was in charge of writing the "official" post interaction class note to thank 3-S for such a great time.
That note had our signatures. Right before signing and sealing for delivery I checked it again. Beside a classmate's John Hancock was a scribbled arrow in another classmate's penmanship that led to a caption in all caps BOLD that read "Ang Batang Ututin". I could not make changes to the note anymore due to time constraints so off it went to the concrete jungle world of SSC in Leon Guinto. Cheggy has long reformed since. Munding recovered from that gastric prank, eventually.
Someone farted after all, par avion.
We ended up crashing the SSC HS Dance later that year. I remember hooking up with 3S and the rest of SSC friends there and getting down to some Thompson Twins, those two nut jobs being Head over Heels and tripping to that Brit Hippie singing about installing microwave ovens and wanting MTV.
What a blast. I remember hitching a ride back somewhere with Lorex and some other classmates and I am sure we did not go home. Was that place called Moviola, Spongecola or .....
What a blast. I remember hitching a ride back somewhere with Lorex and some other classmates and I am sure we did not go home. Was that place called Moviola, Spongecola or .....
That was just some highlights of junior year, the same year Marty McFly rode that DeLorean from, 1985.
Senior Year came and I resolved to hang with as much classmates in our last year. That was also a great excuse to crash soirees and parties with ALL girl schools. On weekends I ended up losing the funeral parlor uniform and hanging with whatever class would invite me for parties or just hanging out. That was most of 1986 for me.
Most of the time I ended up with SSC parties. There was also this one soiree with SSC at Ińaki's place in San Juan that was another rockin' event. I met even more friends there like Bambi B.. When Ińaki came home, 28 years later I visited the place again and it felt like that day, simply nostalgic!
Aside from my native 4-D, my class was the entire LSGH '87! Why, even the nerd patrol invited me sometimes. Often it was Ińaki Jose, Vince A., Raffy Intac, Harvey B. among others.
Most of the time I ended up with SSC parties. There was also this one soiree with SSC at Ińaki's place in San Juan that was another rockin' event. I met even more friends there like Bambi B.. When Ińaki came home, 28 years later I visited the place again and it felt like that day, simply nostalgic!
Aside from my native 4-D, my class was the entire LSGH '87! Why, even the nerd patrol invited me sometimes. Often it was Ińaki Jose, Vince A., Raffy Intac, Harvey B. among others.
 |
| 4-D Class Night, Antipolo, nice shorts Asis! |
 |
| Singer and SACB Pres |
Senior year at LSGH. Soirees. The school fairs. A great play we produced. We beat San Beda in double overtime. I tore the late Coach Tatang Mendoza's pants when I carried him after that victory. I hosted GALS and SSC sang "Ang St. Scho ay narito na.....", Going stag at the ball. Stargazer. Isis, ZigZag, Rumours - the song and the club. The nasal Euro-disco sound of Mike Francis with Gilbert Montagne', Shake! Body Body Dancer. Mixed tapes. School. Friends. So many friends. So much memories. Life was and still is good.
Before the age of the internet, when we were in college, when regular mail took months, I lost touch with most of LSGH and SSC friends. I guess it's just part of it. We all went our ways. I would bump into classmates or SSC friends here and there, at parties, bars or clubs but that was it. I went to school with some of them. Some I actually had a chance to work with. Some classmates dated, some even married, unmarried and are still married to SSC '87 batch mates.
SSC batchmates also became great in their respective fields. Lawyers, Physicians, great wives and mothers. Like some of my classmates (wink, wink) some got into high fashion (Aaay!), Last I heard, Cherie' still models while being a global venture capitalist. Some got in various lines of business, one even became a fuel magnate, many became entrepreneurs, some excelled in sports. Why one even flew jet planes and another flew Harleys. One is a fashion icon cum footwear mogul that sponsors polo matches every year and I get to go even if I don't play polo, pare (I only used to play water polo with my sea horse Lucio before he died.). All of them remains pretty to this day though.
 |
| Tennis star/Golf Pro |
About a decade ago I hosted a few LSGH parties at my place. It was a start of our "coming home". More years passed. Eventually I reconnected with some SSC friends as well .
A Lotta LOVE!
Leading to 2012, our 25th year, there was a resurgence of reunions. One of them was the joint Golf Tourney "Kulasa at Lasalista", a resounding success even to a non-golfer like moi'. The preparation meetings were parties in itself. It was great to see Maya, Paola. Mel and the rest after so very long.
Strange. With SSC '87 friends I feel that years can pass without being in touch and when we do meet or touch base it's like we met yesterday. The last friend I talked to was for like 5 hours over the phone and she was overseas. That was like after 15 years of not hearing from each other. I just don't experience that with the few other female friends I have, only with SSC. |
| Party at Harvey's..look at Deck. |
 |
| Walang Kupas! |
Often I wonder why SSC '87 were really cool chicks. They always seemed so easy to talk to. No frills. True. They dug guy jokes, even the gross ones and yet they still had that elegant feminine flair.
 |
| Timeless... |
Was it because they were the first bunch of girls I met? Was it because they did have "style" and still had their feet on the ground? Was it because they were fun and so easy to make friends with?
Maybe it was because they were part of my youth,my magical youth.
 |
| Longest Drive! |
SSC '87: Timeless. Cool chicks, with style and attitude to boot!. They will never fade. Walang Kupas, for sure.
 |
| The Pilot and the Artiste' |
As of this writing I am in Mindoro. Hosted by Irene Y., another old SSC friend for potential business opportunities. This is proof that friendship does lasts.
As I come closer to the end from the beginning, as the creaks in my body begin to need WD 40, as the hair falls, I still wonder what lies ahead.
So TRUE!!!!!!
I never married, don't think I ever will. I would be honored though to grow old, watch a lot of sunsets together with one from St.Scho, '87, coolest chicks in the world, since my youth, way, way before 1987.
 |
| Kulasa at Lasalista 1987 Wang Chung tonight! |
"In my mind's eye, one little boy one little man, funny how, time flies. ...." -Smith/Orzabal, 1985
Serendipity
The Bodyguard
The Visit
NINAK!
