Henry Atayde writes the Story of December reunion

LSGH '78 -21st Christmas Reunion in 2008 >> for publication in ANIMO magazine.

By Sandy Gilles, Grade 7 LSGH 1974 and Henry Atayde, high school LSGH 1978


About 40 of the "old boys" gathered together on the first Thursday of December, at the "clubhouse" of LSGH 1978, at 18 Mars Street, Bel Air Village, Makati. Many thanks to Benjie Manzano, our host, for the venue.

We thank Class Chairman Henry Atayde for his leadership, and his speeches. We appreciate his speeches, even if he was hooted down repeatedly by hecklers like Minggoy Padua, Jason Lim and Jojo Beunaventura.

We thank also Au Abad Santos for running the call center and managing our "call" girls that kept the classmates well informed of the forthcoming Dec 4 party and other Batch activities. First Thursday of December has always been the date and Batch '78 has been meeting for 21 straight years.

First to arrive were Henry & Benjie, Greg Formoso, and Joel Tuano. Next batch were Brian Masigan and Sandy G. Brian was bearing gifts: Popperroo popcorn in the Crunchy Munch flavor.

Beer barrels (donated by Henry Atayde) arrived at 6pm while the CEBRERO catering team arrived at 6:30pm. Joey Cebrerro himself arrived like a jolly Santa Claus saying, Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas. Joey is now running a brisk business, catering to corporate clients -- hundreds of people each day enjoy his tasty meals in their offices or convention centers. The range of customers is about 800 - 2000 a day. There were other food donations like the Lechon from Joel Tauno , Pancit from Judd Roy, Santi's cheeses, hams and salamis from Willi Cabangon and various pastries.

Au Abad Santos was hobbling. How did you break your leg, AU? He said, "while wakeboarding in CAMSUR".... EEEEENGGGK, wrong answer... Liar! In truth, he broke his ankle while falling down a flight of stairs. Something as ordinary as that. So he walked around with crutches. Very considerate as usual, Jojo
Buenaventura was shouting at AU to "please help us out to move the tables and chairs around. Au, don't think you are excused from lifting the furniture around. Halika dito." Of course, AU was totally angry and started to spear JOJO Buenaventura with his crutches, .....and he threatened to smash Jojo's camera with his crutches. Of course, tawanan kami lahat.

Ardie Najar arrived, so did Buddy de Joya, Ricky Lopez, and Joey Flaminiano. They are the athletic types, looking very fit. For the rest, we will not name names, but they are also very athletic as far as Japanese Sumo is concerned.

Next to arrive were Anton Peralta, Ceasar Cabrera, Jay Bautista, Stevie Liao, Minggoy Padua. Minggoy is controversial. It seems he is accused of something anti-Class of 1978, and it seems he is presumed guilty without fair trial, which is only fair for guys with a case history, like Minggoy. Thus, he is now under probation.

At 8pm somebody shouted, hey, it's time for Drugs. So therefore the senior citizens among us, brought out their MERCURY DRUGS. They took their anti-cholesterol tablets, their anti-diabetes or anti-gout pills. Whew,
times have changed.

Next to arrive were Ike Yulo, Inumerable, Norman Hison, Raymund Sy, Montenegro, .....I can recall everybody's last names but have trouble with their nicknames because our teachers used to call us by our last names and we would do the same with each other.

Also present were Bonny Dimayuga, Dino Laurena, Bobby San Bue, Figueroa, Jayson Lim, Chris Swanson Belardo, HERBOSA, Lyle Baroidan, BARRY ORENCIANA,Ron Petterson! (it was his first time to attend an LSGH reunion... he usually goes to the Don Bosco high school reunion)...Ron was happy to be present at lsgh's reunion, finally.

JI REYES arrived....said hello to the call center ladies, Kim and Haydee, who have been following us up for attendance since 2001. Ji was concerned
that he got a text message ordering him to report to the LSGH reunion, and it was signed by "Haydee," and the text message was accidentally seen by his
wife... ("AT SINO.... naman itong Haydee na ito, ha, a ver.")

Arsenic Lacson showed up... he wore his hair long. A dozen others showed up, WITHOUT HAIR.... no names need be mentioned, or heads will roll. Other
Batchmates arrived, whose names I am now researching in our Ranger and Scope yearbooks

The food was good and tasty, with wonderful oyster and chili sauce, coconut cream, Flavio's oil etc..... but the old boys were watching their weight.
They concentrated on the seafood and ignored the juicy yummy SISIG, however, did not spare undressing........the Lechon.

Times have really changed, not because Wall Street is in crisis and the US economy is in recession, but times have really changed because THE OLD BOYS
are diet-conscious and gout-fearing men. That is why they only drank San Mig Lite beer and stuck to herbal alternatives the whole night.

By 8:30 pm, during the opening PRAYER, to formally open the rowdy reunion, Henry Atayde prayed fervently for HEALTH, more than WEALTH, for all the classmates and their families.

Henry also prayed for Jun Manego, a fellow batchmate, who is sick with various illnesses. (Raymund Sy managed to visit him last week. Henry Atayde was able to visit Jun and to pass on to him the well-wishes and prayers of the classmates.)

About a year ago, Jun Manego had a blockage in his intestines. It was surgically removed. They had placed a temporary bag. After six months he went for the routine removal of the bag and something went wrong. A three-hour operation stretched out to ten hours. Other internal organs started to malfunction. To this date, his feet are not functioning. Donations were collected discreetly and our Batch resident lawyers are looking into the case. We ask the other LSGH alumni to also pray for Jun Manego and to contribute to his hospital expenses, now approaching five million pesos. Please call the LSGH Alumni Office.

After all the speeches and heckles, everybody went back to their liquid and herbal diet. We enjoyed the reminiscing, getting in touch with old friends, and making new friends whom we may have neglected during our stay in LSGH.

We enjoyed physically moving the "class picture photo posing session" to different location, just to disrupt the careful planning of alleged professional photographer JOJO BUENAVENTURA. He arrived with three large white umbrellas with remote-controlled flashbulbs behind each.

We had photo sessions of the High School Alumni from LSGH, Grade School Alumni from LSGH, De La Salle Taft Grade School Alumni and the High School Alumni from La Salle Bacolod Grade School.

As the members of Batch '78 left the Manzano's residence, they carried with them a sense of lightness, peace and tranquility knowing that the Lord had bestowed another year with the gift of Life, the gift of Friendship and the gift of Purpose.

Walking to our cars with the traditional muddy shoes, bloated stomachs and light-headedness, we departed by shaking hands, not to say good bye but to reassure that we will see each other again next year at the LSGH '78 Club House, first Thursday of December 2009.