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Recollections
A chronicle of students' life at St. Jerome's
SCHOOL LIFE AT ST. JEROME'S (Part 1)
by Viv Angeles
Like any Catholic school, we observed a lot of feast days of saints and were off
from school many more times than my sisters and brothers were. This led Diko Do
to say that every time the priest passed gas, a holiday was declared. I'd get
furious every time he said that and he annoyed me endlessly. I loved the school;
I loved the teachers and could not bear to hear anything said against St.
Jerome's. So I'd cry when it got to be unbearable and report him to Nanay.
There were no buzzers to mark the class periods at St. Jerome's but there was a
bell. According to KFlor, it was actually a tire rim, which Miss Rito, the
principal struck with a metal bar every forty minutes. One day, we did not hear
the "bell" at all and the teachers marked time with their watches. It
turned out that the "bell" was stolen and from what we heard, KFlor
and Agoy Dacumos knew something about it. No wonder, KFlor remembered exactly
what it looked like was when I said it was a gong.
Our uniform in first grade was plaid jumper and white shirt with Peter Pan
collar and a necktie. I hated that necktie, as I could never seem to either tie
it or take it off. In my frustration, I got a razor blade then cut if off. The
uniform was eventually changed into a beige dress or skirt and blouse with green
piping on the sleeves and collar. On the left breast pocket was little hankie
embroidered with the initials of the school, S.J.A. Nanay decided that it was
impractical, so she had the initials embroidered directly on the pocket. Chit
and I were the only ones who had that until later when just about everyone
abandoned the hankie idea and did what Nanay had done.
After Father Kaiser came back from his US trip, in 1955, he thought it would be
nice if we wore little bonnets, which he called "beanies." They were
very much like the yarmulkes of the Jews. Apparently he saw schoolgirls wearing
them during his trip. So we wore beanies, but it was a pain. We had to use three
or even four hairclips to keep them in place. After a year, nobody bothered with
them.
Nanay was very much involved in the school, in the fund raising activities and
campaigning to get public school children to transfer to St. Jerome's. In the
summertime, she would go with Tia Edita Matawaran and the other teachers in
Father Kaiser's green pick up truck to talk to parents. The enrollment was never
really big, and we had only one class per grade. Sometimes, two classes were
combined with one teacher.
THE TEACHERS
Miss Foz taught me in first grade. I thought she spoke well, dressed well and
made the class interesting. She was recruited by Father Kaiser from Manila,
together with the second grade teacher, Miss Guerrero. Miss Foz boarded at the
home of Dan Torres across from the market and municipio (town hall) and we
always walked her home in the afternoons. Eventually, she became my aunt because
she married Tatay's cousin, Tio Peping.
After Miss Foz, I had a succession of teachers in grade school. Miss San Felipe
from San Josep, Miss Nolasco from Caniogan, Miss Martinez from Hardin and Miss
San Diego, the sister of Tata Ipe, from Namay. When I was in third grade, Miss
Nolasco decided to accelerate Chita and I to fourth grade. She gave us the
fourth grade books and I was just too excited to tell Nanay, and then Ate what
had happened. I stayed in third grade for only about two days. Unbeknownst to
me, Ate had asked Miss Nolasco to move us back to grade three. Ate's reasoning
was that she thought I should be with my peers and besides, I was young for
third grade and much younger for fourth grade. I could not believe it. How could
Ate, the principal of the public school, order my teacher, who was in the
parochial school, to do that? I figured later that at that time, nobody said no
to Ate. After all, she was Miss Nolasco's teacher in grade school.
Miss Martinez was tall and slim, and always wore her hair in a bun. I enjoyed
having her in fifth grade, although I was not too enthusiastic about copying too
many notes from the blackboard. She was fun, though, and shared stories of her
college life with us. She wore the voluminous skirts of the 50s and penny
loafers from the US.
Miss San Felipe was always soft spoken. She taught me in second grade and Home
Ec in fifth grade. One day, it seemed like she has had it. We were constantly
chatting and finally, she put tape over our mouths (I can't remember the others,
but Tessie Lopez and I were two of the guilty ones). She told us not to take
them off until we got home, so that our parents would know what we had been
doing in school. By the time we got to the bridge, we just took the tape off and
conveniently forgot about the incident.
Miss San Diego was a no-nonsense teacher. She used to teach in a public school
in Samar but her family preferred that she taught in Morong. Her lessons were
always organized and she was very concerned with discipline. We saved money for
our sixth grade graduation expenses and every Monday, we would entrust her our
twenty centavos. By graduation time, we did not have to put out money. Tata Ipe,
her younger brother was also studying in St. Jerome's. One day, Tata Ipe
apparently did something so she had him come to our classroom and in front of
the whole class, whacked his legs (he was wearing shorts) a couple of times with
a meter stick.
The only male teacher I ever had at St. Jerome's (except for Father Kaiser who
taught us Freshman Literature) was Diko Ennie who taught us World History. DE
had a way of teaching History, as if he fought side by side with Alexander the
Great. It was fun, but since everyone knew I was his cousin, I had to make extra
efforts to read that thick book every night so my classmates would not even
entertain the idea that he would give me special favors. I guess having a cousin
for a teacher became a burden to some extent. He was always calling on me!
DE directed the play "The Stream." It was written by one of his
professors at the University of the East. It was actually a historical play,
which presented the various periods in Philippine history and showed the
colonial influence on Philippine culture. Ate Girlie and Kuya Flor, who by then
had already transferred to St. Jerome's, were also in that play. Ate Girlie did
the square dance with her classmates and I cannot remember KFlor's role. Was he
Lapu-lapu? Or a Spanish conquistador? DE gave me the role of a fairy, who
narrated the introduction to the play. There I was, in a white gown, with some
glitter things on my head and holding a wand: "The two-hour traffic of our
stage will be the story of our dream. Men and women of our age will see
themselves upon a stream, a river flowing from the past, alive with ancient
clash of arms..."
THE FEAST OF ST. JEROME
The feast of St. Jerome, the patron saint of Morong is on September 30. I never
really knew who he was. Come to think of it we knew he was our patron saint, and
except for that statue of him with a beard, wearing only a piece of cloth draped
over half his body and holding a staff with a cross on the left hand and
something like a ball on the right, we never really knew the man. I do not
remember my teachers ever telling us what he did. It was much later, when I got
into the program in Religion at Temple University and when I taught a course on
the Bible as Literature at La Salle University, that I got acquainted with him.
St Jerome translated the Bible, using Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek sources, into
Latin. Jerome's translation, known as the Latin Vulgate (common Latin) became
the official Bible of Roman Catholicism as decided by the Council of Trent in
1546.
The feast of St. Jerome usually meant having a big program at the school. This
involved days of rehearsals and elaborate costumes. There would be a play, some
song and dance numbers where every grade was represented. Not everyone
participated in it. Come to think of it it was usually the same people, over and
over. Chit, Rosie and I were always in dance numbers. I particularly remember
one number a ball dance, which was suppposed to be something like the court
dances of old Europe. I wore a gold satin gown, Chit wore a green one, and Rosie
wore pink. We danced to the music of Beethoven's Minuet in G. At the end of the
dance, when the music stopped, we were supposed to pose, our partners in a
genuflecting position while holding our right hands, as if to kiss our hand, but
they were not supposed to. Gregorio Balagtas, Chit's partner, pulled her hand
and kissed it. Instinctively, Chit withdrew it, and gave him that scornful look.
That sent the audience laughing.
KFlor, KGeorge and AGirlie were also in those programs. Try to imagine KFlor
doing the Gypsy Dance with Fely Martinez and other boys - was Tomas Garrovillas
one of them?
KGeorge had one of the lead roles in the play "Sa Pula Sa Puti" (a
play that involved a cockfight). He wore a barong, smoked a cigar and looked so
much like an illustrado in 19th century Philippines. I remember him saying
"simberguenza!"
I think AGirlie's performance, as a nun in "Half an Hour in a Convent"
was memorable. Frozen in my mind is that scene where she was counseling the
crying colegiala (played by Conching Matawaran). Come to think of it, it was a
morality play, set in a society with very strict moral norms and where daughters
of rich families were sent to convent boarding schools. AGirlie was wearing the
habit of the Sisters of Charity from Tanay who gladly lent them. Looking back
and considering the plot of the play, where the colegiala (term used for
students in exclusive girls' schools in Manila) was involved with a gardener, it
surprises me now that the play was staged. Or perhaps it was to emphasize that
violating the prevalent moral norms did not pay. After all, the colegiala
committed suicide in the end.
In another feast day program, I was the Princess in the "Frog Prince."
The teacher had initially chosen Tessie Lopez. She had long hair, and had just
transferred from some public school in Manila. They thought she was perfect for
the role of Princess but later on, they decided to cast me instead. The king, my
father, was Pulo de Rosas. Crispin Aranda had the role of the Prince. Crispin
eventually became an anti-Marcos activists and now has an office dealing with
immigration in California..
The St. Jerome's feast day programs were usually held in the second floor of the
convent. The partitions would be taken off, and the stage set up in what used to
be the rooms of the priests, but had also been converted into classrooms. It was
always jampacked with people. It was a good fundraiser too. Tickets would be
taken at the top of the stairs, and the performance usually started at 7 or
7:30. The classroom of Ms. Matawaran served as a huge dressing room where we'd
find our own corners with our mothers and change into our costumes.
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