growing up, we were rat poor. with six children to feed and my father earning minimum wage and only when there's work available, there really wasn't enough money to go around. sometimes when he didn't have a job, my mother would cook rice porridge, a handful of rice cooked with so much water you can hardly catch any rice, and we would eat it with roasted peanuts which we all loved. sometimes there's just enough rice and we would eat it with banana and soy sauce or fish sauce. we had relatives who got regular dole outs from our american relatives and there were times i had wanted to write to them and tell them that since my father practically risked his life for them during the war, my father was more deserving of the dole outs. but i understood at a young age that earning your own money is much better than hand outs or dole outs.
i can categorically state that i started working at age 8. i cleaned the neighbour's house and that would result in a few pesos pay. one time, my mother bought a box of chocolate with the money and she asked me to sell them to my classmates. i sold the first box fast, so my mother bought a second box. the problem was i had no self-control when it comes to chocolate. i got beaten up for eating the whole damn box that i paid for with my money anyway. but in later years it was a source of entertainment whenever my mother and i reminisced it.
in high school, i had a cousin who lived next door and he was quite anal with his clothes. i had inherited my mother's ability to wash clothes and iron them like they came from the cleaners. cousin would pay me ten pesos every pay day and with that money i was able to buy a second set of school uniform and a cheap pair of black shoes. i had long hair at the time and with my money i bought two yards of velvet and satin ribbons in all available colours and would wear them to school. people wouldn't believe we were poor because i never wore a pair of ribbons twice. when i got tired of them, i sold them to the girls in first year. i also used the money i earned to buy strings for the guitar that my other cousin let me use, as well as song hits magazines so i could learn the chords of the current hit songs.
in my first job at the government office, Leony, one of the senior secretaries, sold 'triumph' underwear. triumph at the time was only sold à la tupperware, and Leony would gather the other secretaries and clerks during lunch in our boardroom to show her wares. one time a girl was reluctant to spend her money on one of the top line brassieres so i told her i was wearing one. that girl was a little bit conceited and because she was more senior and thus earned more, she was quite surprised that i could afford such an expensive pair of brassieres. she dared me to prove i wasn't lying even though Leony had already told her that i had bought them. i was pissed that i was accused of lying so right then and there, even with two young men in attendance as they wanted to buy for their sisters or mothers, i took off my blouse. i told the girl i even have the matching panties so i took off my skirt as well. needless to say, Leony had a good turn out that day. after that, for a small fee, Leony would sometimes invite me to her sales parties to model her wares.
sometime later, Leony told me that triumph was expanding to sell to stores and that they needed models who would appeal to the masses and not the usual models. although i failed the print ads audition (not photogenic and too thin) i was hired as a live mannequin during weekends at a high end department store. it was a fun job. sometimes there are people who could not discern if we were real or not because i, along with the other models, would pose for several minutes without moving. others who would try to make us laugh. one day, i was done with my shift but the supervisor took our robes off the area so i had to go to her office in my panty and bra. that meant crossing the store floor and the shoppers were quite confused with a model running around almost naked (the underwear were in skin tone colours). i bumped into an employee who happened to be Benjamin. i haven't seen him in three years and i had no idea he was working at the store. when he started to say something, the supervisor suddenly showed up with my robe and she ordered Benjamin to go back to his post. after i had dressed up, i went looking for him but i couldn't find him. it would be years before i would see him again.
-o0o-
self portrait taken with a konika instamatic.
This lady looks charming and elegant - I can read that you took the elegance through your life - such an interesting life! You have come so far from those days but you still remember so much!
Beautifully said. Shame on so many today who work hard at avoiding doing anything for themselves or anyone else and are happy to put the burden on others and live on cash hand-outs.
what a go-getter. I have heard of live mannequins, but never seen one, much less seen one running across the shop after work. For some reason, the hair ribbon story intrigued me the most.
Oh I know you tell the best stories and I know we would have been friends but I have to admit I also know I would have envied your bravery. It would be years older than you before I was brave enough to strip off my shirt in front of anyone and still hold my head high.
Your story reminds me a bit of my brothers. We were also poor and my brother hated it more than I did. His friends had more money than we did and for awhile he was angry that my parents couldn't give him the things his friends had. But he too was a hard worker. He was skinny and wanted to play football so he started bodybuilding. Then he became very good looking and won the Mr Teenage Wyoming competition. A men's clothing store gave him permission to use their store as his closet if he told everyone where he got the clothes. So his last two years of high school he outshone even the richest kids.
Your story reminds me a bit of my brothers. We were also poor and my brother hated it more than I did. His friends had more money than we did and for awhile he was angry that my parents couldn't give him the things his friends had. But he too was a hard worker. He was skinny and wanted to play football so he started bodybuilding. Then he became very good looking and won the Mr Teenage Wyoming competition. A men's clothing store gave him permission to use their store as his closet if he told everyone where he got the clothes. So his last two years of high school he outshone even the richest kids.