I grew up surrounded by cousins.

Eversince I could remember, my cousins were my playmates. There were 4 of us. Portia, Ian, Junjun and me. We were pretty much together all the time. From the moment we wake up, walking to school (our houses are literally a stone's throw from each other), in school, walking home from school (my older cousins would have Queen on the stereo really loud), and we're still together after school, we part when it's bedtime only to see each other again the day after. We even have the same friends.

I have a wonderful childhood. Most nights were spent in the movie house. They would start showing movies at around 6 PM except on Sundays where if memory serves me right, it would start around 10 am, maybe 11. I remember we would go up to the stage, before the movie starts, and we start dancing. The most memorable song would be El Bimbo and we would dance the cha-cha.

We'd sit in the very first row and narrate the whole movie. I wonder how the people around us felt back then. We would run around the movie house not a care in the world. We would go to the operator's room and see how it works and one of the thing that always interests me is when they have to fix the reel. They would cut out a strip that's giving them problems and connect them together again using colorless nail paint.

We climbed all sorts of trees back then. Guava and Mansanitas are the most favored trees. It's just too hard to climb on a Santol and with Mangoes, you're better off throwing stones at the fruit and hope they fall off since Mangoes usually have a lot of ants.

The beach holds a lot of good memories, too. I don't know just how often we went to the beach but special occasions are usually held at Punta Linaw and usually on a Sunday. We'd head out pretty early in the morning and come home late in the afternoon. Why is it that Coke tastes better at the beach? Is it all that salt on your lips?

Sometimes, the older cousins would let us play with them. And it's usually hide and seek. It was unfair though cause there were no boundaries, the whole town is the hiding place. Or, maybe they just want to play hide and seek to get rid of us. I can't remember how it would end.

Of course, we would have our little fights, too. I remember one time, we were building miniature town, and I don't remember why but me and Portia ruined Ian's town when he had to go home for lunch and then we left little puppy paw marks all over his town so he'll think it was the dog's fault and not me and Portia.

Me and Portia had this huge fight, too. And since we have the same friends, I think we made our friends choose which side they wanted to be on. That was so silly. I don't even remember how the fight started.

But, all good things must come to an end. When I was 11 or 12, we moved to Davao.