BOARD WALKS AND DDT

LUZON, OAHU, MAUI, BALI

PAN AMERICAN 3 day flight from San Francisco to the Philippines Islands..DDT spray, strange places boardwalks, mosquitoes, time bombs, rats, a parrot named Sammi, a monkey called RoseBud..I was 6 years old. We lived in a quonset hut in a govt compound, just after the war... guards, barbed wire,household help. Joe, our houseboy, NingNing and Marta, our maids.It was 1946. I went to the International School..we traveled back and forth to school in a"jeepney" which had a colored tin hooded back compartment with benches on each side and open air. It was typical with paint and catholic saint ornaments hanging from every side and the mirrors. We were checked at the compound gate for time bombs, just to make sure no enemy would have hidden one.

My mother and Daddy were having the time of their lives in this humid, tropical exotic new land, especially growing up in Seattle. My father received his degree in the Fisheries Program at the U of Washington. My parents had to elope and keep their marriage quiet in order for him to finish as in those days, you could not be married to go to college.

..this huge colorless compound was bare of foliage with exception of banana trees..It bordered the Philippine Sea, a bit murky, no beach there, just a concrete seawall that followed the main highway.
We played on board walks that wound through the compound, preventing us getting bitten by the explosion of rats that ran around under us.....

The double barbed wire fencing with armed guards were there to keep the "huks" out...(hukbalahuks) .. In the aftermath of the war.. these were the Japanese soldiers who had escaped & hid in the island jungles... in desperation they would come out to rob and look for food.
Our quonset hut ( military DRAB like all the rest) was one that bordered the fence. Many times we would hear gun shots.
The DDt truck would spray every afternoon to protect us from Malaria. We would run behind the truck following in the clouds of poison.

Charming? To a kid, it was just "life" and none of us gave any of it a second thought. Of course our parents were always there with a watchful eye. One time I was MIA and they had the military police looking for me everywhere. They found me, with our maid, Marta, in downtown Manila at a local movie theatre ( with signs bearing"check your firearms here") She was about a foot shorter than I at 8 years old... ( I must've stood out like you know what) but I was completely oblivious that we shouldn't be there. My parents were in shock and nearly crazy with fear. There were alot of tears that day of joy and relief.