I took a jeep home to break the routine a little. As much as I would like to go home as fast as I possibly can most of the time, there are also instances when I find myself in the mood for a little joyride and basically just enjoying the trip. It was late in the afternoon---dusk on the way to twilight---and boomboxes inside PUVs are already playing timeless classics from the 70s and the 80s. The weather was nice, cool and pleasant and the last rays of the sun receding and giving in to shadows, and the jeep was comfortable and not too packed. Toto
's "Africa" was on, as it always is during this hour on all FM stations. Of all the singles released by Toto, this song in my opinion is their best; even better than the melodramatic guilty pleasure of "I'll Be Over You". When the all-too familiar first chords of the synthesizers blared from the speakers I was instantly taken over by nostalgia.
Suddenly I was a little boy again. Barely six and torturing hapless insects by pulling out their hind legs and wings and marvelling at their complex anatomical structures and "Africa" was playing in some nearby store in the town I grew up in. It was relatively a genuine happiness specially for a child of five to be alive at that time and then---
---I was a highschool sophomore--- on the way home from the city inside a Guimbal jeep passing by Oton, on that part of the highway where there's vast empty fields on either side, full of grass and devoid of houses. One side leads to the ocean, and the other to the mountains. This is the part of the ride where one can feel heroic and serene just by staring at it and "Africa" is playing to complete the picture. Cold and bleak-sounding yet strangley comforting and pleasant and---
---I'm back at the jeep. Staring outside observing various activities people do when twilight is upon them as I passed by. All the hassles of the day and problems for the future vanishes, replaced by serenity and pleasantness.
Hope it won't rain tomorrow.
's "Africa" was on, as it always is during this hour on all FM stations. Of all the singles released by Toto, this song in my opinion is their best; even better than the melodramatic guilty pleasure of "I'll Be Over You". When the all-too familiar first chords of the synthesizers blared from the speakers I was instantly taken over by nostalgia.
Suddenly I was a little boy again. Barely six and torturing hapless insects by pulling out their hind legs and wings and marvelling at their complex anatomical structures and "Africa" was playing in some nearby store in the town I grew up in. It was relatively a genuine happiness specially for a child of five to be alive at that time and then---
---I was a highschool sophomore--- on the way home from the city inside a Guimbal jeep passing by Oton, on that part of the highway where there's vast empty fields on either side, full of grass and devoid of houses. One side leads to the ocean, and the other to the mountains. This is the part of the ride where one can feel heroic and serene just by staring at it and "Africa" is playing to complete the picture. Cold and bleak-sounding yet strangley comforting and pleasant and---
---I'm back at the jeep. Staring outside observing various activities people do when twilight is upon them as I passed by. All the hassles of the day and problems for the future vanishes, replaced by serenity and pleasantness.
Hope it won't rain tomorrow.
1 comment:
The 80s song I remember when I was there in Iloilo when I was sent by my parents to live with my grandma for the summer vacation of 1990 is the song "Sailing" by Christopher Cross. Whenever I hear that song I get transported back into Dumangas, Iloilo, being a strapping little kid playing with snails and beetles that I can get my hands on.
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