Major Urbano Bañez, Philippine Scout, Retired, had a FARMACIA BAÑEZ, before bringing an electric plant and ice plant to Bangued when I was around 10 years old.
Our joy was very great, because with electric posts and lamps on the street corners, we could now play hide and seek without waiting for a full moon to shine.
People even played “sipa” (sort of football, by men in circles kicking the ball made of rattan towards each other, without allowing the ball to touch the ground) at night.
My father and his fellow TADEROS, or cock fighters, played their cock fighting under the electric lights on the street corners.
We could read our books better than by candle or oil lamp lights, even inside our mosquito net, without danger of setting our bed on fire.
But we had no radio, no TV, no electric stove, no refrigerator, no freezer, no electric flat iron, no electric fan, or other appliances than the electric bulb, one per house!
Why? These items were too expensive. Only my friend Tony Bañez had those luxuries, including movie projectors, and he usually brought me to his house. How delicious was an iced apple, or refrigerated sun-kissed orange or grapes.
He even had a shop where he repaired burned-out fuses and resold them in exchange for other burned-out fuses.
With electricity available, the cine Tuazon became a popular weekend pastime for everybody, men, women, children, and old people.
We went there to be a part of the show by reading aloud the words spoken by the actors, which were printed on the screen, and cheering the fast-riding hero (Bida) en route to save his sweetheart, who had been kidnapped by the villain, usually an ugly-looking person with a mustache.
At other times we were cursing and yelling at the “bad guys” in the show, who showed no mercy to their victims.
Such was the nature of silent movies.
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