Down Memory Lane...

My parents are farmers. Our farm area is in the middle of nowhere far away from civilization. There is no access to modern transportation. Our means of transporting goods is through a cart pulled by a carabao. We go to our farm by foot. In our farm we have our farm house which is big enough to keep us sheltered during planting and harvesting season. In between planting and harvesting we don't visit the farm. Only my father would go there to make sure that our rice plantation is okay.

It may sound unbelievable but all of us helped worked on our farm especially during weekends. We schedule planting or harvesting our rice during weekends that way all of us kids will be available. Each of us has assignments. The little ones will not help the field instead they will help prepare the food or fetch water. Since our rice paddies are scattered around the area, we use farm bell to signal everyone that it is break time or lunch time. I remember that lunch was served in our farm house and workers will have one hour break to relax and take naps if they wish. We also serve snacks to the workers but we have to bring it to the rice paddy and we just find a place where they could ate their snacks. Working in the farm is no joke but looking back I remember the fun times and it made me realize the value of hard labor.

We were struggling growing up because we are a big family. Too many mouths to feed and almost not enough food to serve. Thanks to my mother who has always been very resourceful. We have less material things growing up but one thing is certain, my parents raised us to be respectful, God-fearing, and they instilled in our minds the value of family, trust, hope and love. One of our "family thing" is having dinner together, which until now we still practice whenever we come home. Mom used her dinner bell to signal that supper is ready. On top of the dinner bell she will also yell for us to leave what we are doing because for her it is bad to let the food wait.

Talking about bells, when I went to school (during my elementary years), there is also a bell at school that is used to signal that it was time for flag raising ceremony and recess time. Of course how can I not remember the big bell in our church? That bell always rings at 6:00PM for Angelus and it always bells before Mass time everyday.

Whenever I see garden bells in some of the gardens here in the USA, it always reminds me of my younger years in the Philippines. Just seeing a bell brings back memories and makes me want to walk through memory lane once more.