My father contructed a brand new house in Manuguit Subd., Tondo, Manila and we moved there around 1952. I was six years old. Calderon Elementary was named after Felipe G. Calderon, a hero during the Spanish time. The school was composed of one two-story building with classroom in the 1st and second floor, admin rooms, and a library. Dotted around the whole block of the school compound are quonset huts left by the american army after WWII.
I was in Grade 2 and we are in one of the quonset hut by the northend. My teacher was Mrs. Manucdoc. I remember classmates like Felipe Garcia (join the US navy, lived in Virginia), Aida Dalde (married Polly Ferrer, lived in Manuguit). I remember playing this game in the class which I named "the bird of the King flew and landed on ___". You are suppose to name anybody. That anybody should answer like "the bird is not here. The bird of the King flew to ___". And it goes on until somebody falters or stutters. One morning we were line up in front of the quonset hut ready to enter. Unbeknown to me there is a hot liquid wax can sitting on the banister by the entrance. Somehow I managed to tipped the hot wax into my body. It was painful and I cried a lot. Why is that wax in there? The school buried a time capsule in front of the building. They dug it up after ten years. My mother taught in Home Economics. Mrs. Vibar was the principal.
Mrs. Cruz was our teacher in Grade 3. We are still in one of the quonset huts this time at the western side. Cora de Jesus is one of my classmate. She is always dressed nice, her favorite is wearing this dainty white dress. Manuel Mendoza is another classmate. He was naughty. One day they were reading up on the last page of our notebook. The notebook has the multiplication table in the back with tables of numbers multiplying from 1 to 12. We were suppose to memorized it. Well I never heard of it but I memorized it right there and there. That was my introduction to arithmetic.
Grade 4 we moved to the two-story building. Our classroom is at the southend. Our teacher was Miss Flores (?) who married later and changed her name. I quarrelled with Audie Vergara and punched him in the face. Mrs. Ferrer was our music teacher. Classmates were Danilo Paraiso (neighbor, good looking kid but not very bright) who I was told by Rodelio Puhawan became mayor of his hometown. Rodelio was also a classmate. He was a small boy back then. He grow up to be normal, married a daugher of the owner of the biggest funeral franchise in the Philippines (St. Peter). I see Rodelio often during one of our high school reunions. Danila has another brother Moises. As of this writing both brothers passed. Their father had a drug store in Limay.
Grade 5 was in the afternoon, classroom on the second floor with Mrs. Espiritu Cruz as our advisor. She was not interested in teaching us anything and spend a lot of time talking to the neighbor teacher. She would leave us for hours on end everyday. We got feed up on this and we walk out of her classroom. This infuriated her. She took revenge by giving us, the perpetrators very low grades. That paved the way for others who are not in her class to get high averages which is used in deliberating honors in graduation. I did not get any honor except Brightest Pupil in Section 1. Notable classmates were Annie Solis, Dionisia Rodriguez, Leonarda del Rosario, Corazon de Jesus, Abraham Angeles. Mario Dalida was a leader back then. He was older than most of us.
Grade 6 is our last year in elementary school. Our adviser is Mrs. Cabauatan and we are in section one, classroom is on the second floor at the south end. 
Graduation in Calderon
Elementary School
Other teacher was Mr. Lazatin in arithmetic. My mother is also adviser in Section 3, Mrs. Padilla was adviser in Section 2. Mrs. Cabauatan had a son with a harelip. Poor guy accidentally shot himself and died. Classmates were Amor Padilla, Florita Regala, Efren dela Rosa, Constantino Arellano, Abelardo Lazatin, Corazon Coronel. Efren, Guillermo Guinigundo and Constantino got top honors in elementary school. I got the consolation prize of brightest pupil in section 1.
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