My wife and I
once went to an airshow at the Chicago lake front near Navy Pier.
Not surprisingly we could not find parking at choice spots to view
the planes. We found a spot quite far north that happened to be near
a golf course. The view was not very good.
But we found other
entertainment. We encountered a kababayan.
"Oy, pare
ko, Pinoy ka ba?" he asked.
If he was not
sure that I was a Pinoy I can't figure out why he immediately addressed
me in Tagalog.
"Aba, op
kors! Ikaw, Pinoy ka rin ba?" I managed to shoot back an equally
silly remark.
He ignored my
silliness but he continued the conversation. "Nag-golf ka
rin ba? Nag-golf kami dis morning - mi at ang golf badi ko'ng Kano.
Hindi
pa ako umuwi dahil meron palang ersho."
"Pare, hindi
ako nag-go-golf," I sheepishly admitted to this arrogant -
oops, I mean, very self confident nouveau riche type.
"Ah, ay si,"
he said with a big, proud chest. "Nagtratrabaho ka lang ba
dito sa golf kors?"
I was tempted
to nod my head to get rid of him but I decided to enjoy the
conversation.
So I said, "Hindi,
mag-wa-wats lang kami ng ersho, pero..."
He interrupted
me. "Pram di golf geym hindi pa ako umuwi dahil malayo ang bahay
ko. Tega soborrrbs ako, eh. Ikaw, saan ka nakatira?"
"Malapit
dito sa siti," I said, picturing in my mind the very unsuburban
landscape of Berwyn just outside Chicago. A vision of the tottering
house
we live in also flashed in my mind.
"Yo no,"
I hurriedly continued to keep him from interrupting me again,
"ak-twali, dati soborban din ako. Tumira kami ol ober Chicagoland
as par
as di en op Dopids konti... Ibintwali nagsawa ang misis ko sa soborbs.
Ipinagbili namin ang aming soborban bahay at rental aparrrtmens. Din
wi
kimbak to di siti. " Dopids Konti, er, I mean Dupage County,
is at the
very far western fringes of the Chicago area suburban collar counties.
He stared at me.
"Sige pare,"
he finally said.
And he walked
away, shaking his head with smug superiority. He saw thru
me that in the best traditions of Filipino payabangan I merely invented
my suburban "affluence." I was a bit disappointed that I
was suddenly
deprived of an engaging conversation.
But then a B-2
bomber roared overhead. My wife and I got back to "watsing di
ersho..."
* * * * *
Fred Natividad
©2000 Berwyn, Illinois
revised 10/18/2003
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Email address: frednati@earthlink.net
