During the weekend, I visited my hometown, the place where I was born 50 years ago… Manaoag, Pangasinan. The church of Manaoag has changed over the years and the garden at the back of the church where I use to play has been turned into a huge parking lot. I believe the Manaoag church is now a “minor basilica”… And sorry, I don’t know what that means.
The sidewalks along the church where I can walk undisturbed when I was young is now a hall of vendors selling “religious” items and delicacies. Hundreds of people visit the town because of the church resulting to humongous traffic on weekends. The town has turned into an outdoor mall full of beggars, vendors, and barkers hoping to get a few hundred pesos as parking commissions!
I miss the days when our town is all by ourselves… And don’t mind the photo of myself which my son took this weekend during our trip up north of the country. It is also a relic figure as old as the church itself… A Jurassic fellow reminiscing the past!
Photo ni Ompong 
Hey there Ompongnusaurus, you’re lookin’ good! 😍😊
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Salamat… 🙂
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Ompong buddy,you’re that old ???? You don’t look 50 at all.
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Hahaha! Yup, buddy… That’s my age… 🙂
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They paved paradise and put up a parking lot….??
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Sadly, yes.. 😦
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Blessing Happiness, dear Ompong, Thank you, love, nia
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Lots of thanks, nia… Cheers!
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I didn’t know that about basilicas, major and minor, and I used to be an ordained monk at one, for Christ’s Sake…8-)
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Hahaha! I didn’t know that. Honestly, whether it’s minor or major, they all still look like a church to me. And I don’t go to church. 🙂
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All the best for the festive season, Ompong!
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Lots of thanks, vonita… You’re my Santa! Wink!
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Your a man whore, Winky Winky LOL
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Hahaha!
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I can so relate to what you’re saying. So many things have changed for me as well – and not for the better (no matter how evolved and great in technology we think we are).
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The odd things about “change”, why does it always conflicts with our memories? Why does “change”, often than not, result to ” chaos” and sometimes destruction? Aaargh!
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I wish I could answer that!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_basilica Definition of Minor basilica. Yes memoried can come flooding in from childhood which are anchored down from our soul and when we see such drastic change it challenges our memoried to return to a simpler time. Be well my friend
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Thanks Joseph. And often, our memories cannot accept the drastic changes right in front of our noses. 🙂
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Yes!
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Sometimes change can be good, in this case it wasn’t for your memories. Is nothing sacred? You can’t be 50 my friend, thirty five or so, yes.
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Hahaha! I turned 50 last October, john. And yes, my memories seem not to reconcile with today’s developments in my hometown. I still want the town that was peaceful with only fee people, I guess.
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An old saying says that ‘time is the fire in which we burn’…
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Like that saying very much…. Burn baby burn! Hehehe!
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