Remembering Eking

Feature writer, Evelyn Domingo-Barker, BCHS'61 is based in Bangkok, Thailand. She frequents her Washington State residence when she longs for the cold white snow. Evelyn maintains the BCHS'61Tambayan.blogspot.com and can be reached @ rajadamnern1@yahoo.com

Enrique’s parents built a house and completed in 1954 I think, along Trinidad Road (as Magsaysay Avenue was called then) which was a distance of about four houses away from us namely the Pardas, Quintong, and Keith households, plus some empty lots where sayote creepers grew abundantly. Current-day population in that particular area is now so densely populated, probably about 40 families are located, where there were four. The Floreses came from government housing in Slaughter House, and perhaps to be closer to Lucban Elementary School where Mrs. Natividad Flores taught Music. The youngest daughter, Romelia, was still pre-school age then. Floribel, or Puying her nickname, was about in first grade. (It would be so wonderful to meet them again after all these years, on 5 through 11 August, for the 6th BCHSIAA Triennial Reunion in Chicago, where the Flores sisters are actively involved in the preparations. )

Their house was reachable by a steeply-graded driveway, held together with limestone paving. Their pleasant Baguio-style house had a garden which always had blooms: dama de noche, calla lilies, dahlias, roses. The eldest daughter, Erlinda, had her own room at the corner of the house. With my sister Delia, we spent many hours there reading comic books, exchanging news, playing “In a Quiet Village” on the piano, or just hanging out. This was such a regular activity that we devised a system of calling her, or her calling us, through her window and our balcony and shouting, YOO HOO at the top of our lungs, and we would be rewarded with a return YOO HOO as a sign that hang-out time was on. Sitting at their living room one could view the boys’ room, Nick and Eking, who were careful to close their door behind them for their privacy, away from prying girls’ eyes.

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Their parents believed in celebrating each and every birthday of their children, and, of course, Christmas was always a big celebration as it was also Mrs. Natividad Flores’ birthday. Dr. Flores bought an ice cream maker: we took turns to turn the tight wheel, placing ice and salt in the bucket: very hard work but great rewards.

When we were studying at Lucban, we had entry access through four points: one at Camdas near Arthur Sali’s and Julius Valdez’s houses, another a long concrete walk along Magsaysay Avenue and close to the Checkpoint, then the main gate, and finally a steep trail just across from the side of our house. During the rains, this steep trail would be muddy and washed away: we as users of the trail all spent some time with sticks and packing the red clay trail back, along the pine tree roots for stability. The boys would be carrying their bags, and sometimes with folding shovels on the gardening days or small saws for woodworking on other days. It was well worth the trouble of fixing the trail, since the next entry point, the main gate, was some distance away. This pathway is long gone, where a concrete wall now stands: I sometimes wonder when the voluminous mudslide would come slinging down Carabao Mountain to flatten this wall: no more pine tree roots to hold the loose soil back.

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Nick and Eking always had good singing voices. At Christmas programs at Lucban, at least two special musical numbers were rendered by them: a vocal carol, or a piano piece. Eking and I were born the same year (as with Angel B-M) but because of some quirk I was one school year ahead of him. As we transitioned from Lucban Elementary School on to City High, we would sometimes walk together up to the Checkpoint to take a jeepney that will bring us to Gov. Pack Road, or to the jeepney stand for BGH at Harrison Road if the driver was reluctant to take us. Both Eking and Nick would, from time to time, give up their seats to older folk and they would be content sitting on the jeepney’s steps or triple up front near the driver’s seat, or hang on to the handlebars. A driver once commented that these boys were well-brought up by the parents, to give up their seats.

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Our house, located on a curve, had Japanese bamboo thickets for fencing. These grew very quickly and had to be thinned out from time to time especially soon after the rains. Nick and Eking would sometimes try to break off a pole which was not easy to do since these are so pliable and could only be cut with a sharp heavy bolo. My father, who would be hidden behind the thickets, would bring out a loud WHOO HOO, and the two boys would scamper away. But he let them have a first go at the thinned out bamboo as they were awaiting for collection (which was regular at that time; each household would have a large petrol drum, the contents of which the collectors would roll up to their truck to dump in, then came the garden waste).

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After high school my encounter with Eking was in a summer course in Marketing. We were both Marketing majors at UP Diliman: I think it was on the second day that both of us recognized each other. The course was quite tough, and Eking had an argumentative streak regarding his project: that Christmas carol voice at Lucban earnestly stating his position.

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In 1974 during my first visit to Bangkok on my way from Washington, DC to Baguio on home leave, I obtained Nick’s address from Erlinda. He was with SGV Thailand, and that evening he and his officemates treated me to a Thai dinner and classical dance at the Dusit Thani Hotel. He also drove me from town to the airport the following day to catch my flight to Chiang Mai where I met some old Washington DC friends working at a refugee camp and spending a turkey lunch for Thanksgiving at the American Consulate.

Time passed: we were assigned from Kathmandu to Bangkok in 1988, Eking and his wife were visiting Nick: we had a lovely dinner at Nick’s and his Thai wife’s palatial house, shrimps and other seafood were generously served. I noticed a piano was prominent in their living room: now I regret that I did not request a vocal number from the brothers. In 1989 my UN team went to Cebu for a seminar on small scale industries: we had an opportunity to view Eking’s products for export: tobacco leaf tabletop items. He looked the role of “Prosperous Businessman” from Cebu.

It was sad to learn about his death from Nick, during their golden alumni homecoming of Class 59. Nick was unable to go to the funeral in December 2008, as he was recovering from an operation then.

The mind sometimes dwells on things that are long past.

I remember Eking and Julius Valdez together, arm in arm and fearlessly plotting something or the other, in the Lucban and BCHS corridors. I wonder what they are plotting together now, in Their Final Resting Place, of which Baguio was just a whistle stop toward their destination.

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Hanging Bridge at Km 3 which is no longer there, replaced by a concrete one for access to the Bell Temple. You can see the pool of clear water under the bridge, which is Balili River. This is very close to Eking's and our house as kids.

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A detail from my brother's Lucban Elem. class picture. In the background is Mrs Rosa Bangaoet, then Mrs. Natividad Flores in a v-neck dress, Mr Boquiren on leftmost (father of Isabel, BCHS'60 - doesn't he look like Kevin Kline?) also Mr Bangaoet at the front.