Felipe Oh, former Chinese teacher and school disciplinarian of LCHS in the 60's, is currently on vacation with his wife in his hometown of Cagayan de Oro. The couple left Troy, Michigan, U.S.A., their present place of residence, last Oct. 4 for Singapore and Cebu City, where they spent a few days, before proceeding to C de O. They are staying in C de O until Oct. 20.

During his stint in LCHS, Mr. Oh was well respected for his spirit of camaraderie with his students and skillful teaching of Geometry and Algebra. The Spectrum has recently been in touch with him by e-mail through the courtesy of LCHS alumnus Rene Tio in Cagayan de Oro.

Alumna's Twins Hurdle Board Exams

Marx Erwin Y. Ong, twin son of Entoy and Mila Yu-Ong (Batch '63),  passed the recent Philippine Board Exams for Physical Therapists.  Erwin's twin brother, Mark Ervine, also passed the Nursery Board Exams.  The eldest son, Michael Eric, graduated from Medicine last year and is now a post-graduate Intern (PGI) at the Cebu Doctors' Hospital.

Iliganons back from Quemoy Trip

A group of Iliganons who joined the trip to Quemoy, Fukien, last Oct. 1, arrived home last Oct. 6.  Some 40 Quemoyanons from the Philippines joined the pilgrimage to their ancestral home organized by the Philippine Quemoy Association.  Among the Iliganons in the group were Dy Tiao Un, Lourdes Dy, Sy Chu An, Henry Ang, Rita Ang and Peter Sy.
 

From: gmdy@juno.com
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 1997 09:02:08 EDT

Thanks for including us in your mailing list. This is a great way of keeping track of happenings in Iligan. We're looking forward to future issues, jokes, etc.

Greg & Mary Dy,  Burr Ridge, Illinois, U.S.A.

Thanks from former Exchange Student

From: skennedy@cougarnet.byu.edu
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 20:50:20 -0600 (MDT)

I would love to receive your LCHS alumni newsletter! Thank you for remembering me. I am married now and my last name is Jensen, not Kennedy. Thanks again!

Susan Kennedy-Jensen, former Rotary exchange student, Salt Lake, Utah, U.S.A.

Revisiting LCHS

From: Skhuanoh@aol.com
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 22:59:51 -0400 (EDT)

It was so nice hearing from you. I am really happy you still remember me, because my year in Iligan was one of the best chapters in my life. Even now, after thirty some years, with failing memory and all, I can still recall with great fondness and joy the things I was able to do with all  of you then. I don't know if any of you knew, but I did go back to LCHS on one of my trips back home. I was a little disappointed to find the school closed, and the surrounding area not very well tended. It was probably a mistake to have revisited the old hunting ground, because the trip back to the past sort of tarnished, even just a little, my happy memory of LCHS and its students.

Felipe Oh, former LCHS teacher, Troy, Michigan, U.S.A.

Spectrum now a Fireball

From: fishers@cdo.weblinq.com
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 17:57:23 +0800

With four superb writers adorning the columns and feature sections in its Oct. 6, 1997 issue, the Spectrum has become a virtual fireball. And with people worldwide now joining in, both writers and readers, this is really something.  Ever heard of any other alumni effort or project like this elsewhere on the Net?  There may be....but LCHS is one of the greats.  LCHS as a school, must be proud of its product!  Now that the Spectrum is on the Web, and accessible to anybody, we surely are losing our head count on subscriptions, most importantly the alumni.  Unlike before when it was available on subscription basis and copies were sent through e-mail.  What do you think?

Rene Tio (Batch '70), Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
 

It was nothing less than a brutal shock when, two weeks ago, access to the Iligan web site was impaired by technology-indigestion (as gathered later from Charles). Initially, of course, I accused my two unskilled digits for my Macintosh's fierce tantrum. This fiber-optic miscue made me realized how the Spectrum has pleasantly spiced my Sunday mornings.

Oh well, there got to be a tad better than football and meditation on Sabbath day.

By then, I should be a lowly prune, able to shred a pizza with my gums.

Trust me. Why do you think my eyes are reshaped into slit-like patches on my face every Fall cycle?

Absurd? What the heck, just click it!
 

I will not forget Mr. Gillera who taught us Philippine Government or Economics. He always wore a pair of dark sunglasses during classes. Have you seen those Men In Black? With his sunglasses, the whole class could only behave properly, especially during exams. There was no way of knowing where he was looking. For all we knew, he could have been asleep!

Around this time, the Iligan School Athletic Association came into being. This was a brain child of a Brother from La Salle Academy in Iligan. We started with a basketball competition among the members then composed of La Salle Academy, St Peter's College, Iligan Capitol College, Iligan City High School, Lanao Technical School (now MSU-IIT) and LCHS. We had an imported coach from China, Mr. So Tek Hai, who stood above six feet tall. I was proud to be part of the school team. We almost became the champion during the first year.

Mr. So was also my mathematics teacher in Chinese; he taught trigonometry and geometry. He was willing to discuss any math problem outside the classroom. Oftentimes, he would discuss them using the ground as his blackboard and with a twig as his chalk. But without coffee, I don't know how he would have survived. He always drank a few cups of coffee before starting his class.

Sex education. In those days we were never so frank about it. But one day, in biology class under Miss Alcover my perception of sex education was forever changed! According to Miss Alcover, the experience of giving birth to a child is the most painful experience a woman will undergo in her life, however the making of it was the most satisfying and enjoyable she would experience. The boys in the class were astonished while the young ladies were aghast!

My proudest moment during these days was being the class president of sophomore. For the first time we had intramurals with many sporting events and we won most of them. We had around 35 pupils in the class. And that was a record!

My high school days would not be complete without mentioning our drawing teacher: Mr. Yap from Iloilo City. He taught us the use of charcoal powder with Chinese brushes of different thickness. It was a medium which we mastered with professional results. One of my projects was a portrait of Pres. John F. Kennedy which was posted for exhibit. JFK's assassination on that November day in 1963 was certainly the gloomiest day of my high school years. We thought it was the start of Armageddon.

1962-1965, these three wonderful years were my high school days at LCHS. Sadly, I had to leave my alma mater short of 4th year graduating class to continue my Chinese Senior High School elsewhere.
 

It's a cloudy morning again today.  As I sit at my study table, my thoughts are drifted back to the late 1950s when I was very new then at LCHS, which was my abode until 1968.  I remember that particular day in 1959 when I was enrolled at LCHS for my grade I under Miss Tagaro. The tuition fee then was only P150 inclusive of miscellaneous expenses for the whole school year.  Being very new to the school, it was hard to make friends, but not in our case since Iligan is just a small place where everybody knows everybody.  Plus the fact that before we got to be in grade I, we already went through kindergarten where we already acquired sets of playmates/classmates who practically were the same pupils we were with in grade I.  Among the precious and few girl classmates were: Alice Ngo, Adelfa Tan, Charita Sia, Betty Bernardo, Delia Dy, Chiok Hian Dy, Yolanda Chiu, Leodegaria Lagrosas, and Edna Tan Choa.

These people are indeed unforgettable since they were my first girl classmates in grade I thereafter.  They were the first set of female genders who attended classes, studied, played, laughed, fought, gossiped, danced, sang, along with the male genders of the class.  The principal then in the English department was Miss Amparo Villaruel.  What do I remember in each of these girl classmates in particular?  Ah...Alice was our first honor  (her daughter Stacey is the classmate of my daughter Hannah at Sacred Heart School for Girls kindergarten II now.  A case of history repeats itself?).  Adelfa was our second honor.  She was my first crush and my constant partner in the dance numbers we staged during school affairs.  Charita was the frail-looking girl with skin so smooth and transparent her blood vessels were visible on her innocent face (she was the female version of Vy Beng Hong).  Betty was that girl in ponytails who was inherently talkative that we called her Betyang (in the tradition of Susanang Daldal and Amaliang Malimali of the Sampaguita days).  Delia was the scholarly-looking, old-fashioned girl with hair like that of Pocahontas.  Chiok Hian was that girl with a chronic allergic sinusitis who was always seen with a hanky to wipe those runny nose drips.  Yolanda was that chubby girl who loved to laugh and crack jokes no end.  Leodegaria was the silent lily of the class, soft-spoken, regal in her ways.  Edna was the bedimpled lass with that Mona Lisa smile.
 

Campus Virtuosos. The old LCHS auditorium was a frequent venue for wedding ceremonies and receptions as well. Through the years countless couples walked down the aisle inside this once hallowed hall to seal their love in matrimony. Which inevitably brings back images of Mrs. Tan (Hao Tiu Niew) who, for many years, was a regular figure on the piano playing the wedding march. She was to be succeeded later by other notable campus pianists like Bebe Siao, Teresita Siao and Lalita Uy. I often wondered why all the good pianists had to be women. Silently I vowed to myself to play the keyboard someday to break the female monopoly. Failing that, I had hoped instead to walk down the aisle myself one day while they played for my future wedding march. Today, three decades thence, I still haven't learned to perform either of the two.

A Showcase of the Arts. The auditorium was also a showcase for many a campus artist. On its stage students took their shot for stardom as budding singers, dancers, orators, or thespians. Not having qualified for any of these talents, I settled for backdrop artist. I was among those regularly assigned to paint the backdrop for stage plays and dances. Using opaque paint, we created replicas and formed papier mache of the Great Wall of China and other Chinese scenes of weeping willows, lakes, ancient temples, and arched bridges. It was a form of artistic release. But the biggest fun was being released from classes to do the paint job.

Yet that was not the closest I got to a stage production. I finally got on stage for a school play. I was assigned as lights and sound man. It was a disaster. During a night scene I switched on the flood light instead of the sound of gunshot as the stage actor, on cue, pulled the trigger of his pistol. It was the first time for the puzzled audience to witness a handgun turned night to day!

My next attempt on stage was a Hawaiian dance number presented by our high school junior class under Chona Serrato. The girls were graceful in their grass skirts just as we boys were awful in our Bermuda shorts. We had to sway to the music of Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii. I felt terribly clumsy doing the stuff despite all the coaxing from ma'am Serrato. I guess I eventually drove her nuts because she admonished me several times: "This is a hula dance, not the Limbo Rock!" (Continued next issue)