The Vanishing

I was waiting for my turn in the OB-Gyne’s clinic when I glanced at the pregnant lady beside me sucking on Sineguelas. Sineguelas! Suddenly I was deep in a Proustian moment, hurled by this random piece of the present into an involuntary memory of my childhood, where my friends and I feasted on odd local fruits under the hot, lazy summer sun.



Play time meant basking in the great outdoors playing Patintero. How proud I felt when I was first voted to be patotot of my team! After several rounds we would troop to Gerene’s house to rest under the shade of their big Macopa and Duhat trees. We’d climb it and manage a princely harvest.



Sometimes we’d spend the afternoon playing in Babing’s Aratiles treehouse. Scrambling up the branches like little bronzed monkeys. There was so much fruit to be had that we even thought of baking Aratiles pie! While that experiment didn’t go well, it was partially edible. What really sucked were the Chicos and Tiessas that my dad would make us eat. Who eats Tiessa? It is terrible- thick and cloying. And to this day I still have a deep-seated aversion for Chico and the way it scratches the throat, producing an instant gag-reflex.



All these fruits are so hard to find now, they’re practically vanishing. Imagine my glee upon finding Sineguelas for sale in Tiendesitas’ Native Delicacies village.

It’s amazing how something as random as a fruit can bring back memories of childhood past.

All photos courtesy of www.filipinoheritage.com