seminarista souvenirs

INTRO: with our reunion pag-uli ko sa sorsogon last holy week, i (gibbs) had the urge to unearth my old seminary stuff. these are some of what i found. fasten your seatbelts, mejo halaba ini, but i hope they bring back many, many happy memories for us and for all other sanos...


where it all started for all of us -- including this blog... :)

the seminary ID, this one issued to me for 1986-87 at the start of my last year in olps minor.

ora, stude et labora. prayer had primacy, so a special scene like this (living rosary baya an tawag sadi?), done most probably on the feast of our lady of lourdes or Mary's birthday, was something we looked forward to, just to break the monotony of 'chapel na!' day in and day out.

the seminary handbook of rules and policies, which, as you can see, was never updated (at least kan tuon kita). it says '1974' pa, when mamo palces originally drew it up.

the song line-up of the 1984 schola cantorum concert with fr. ben dino. sabi ngani ni totep bag-o madismayo sa init kan venue, "please loosen my boots!"

mostly batch87 ini sa tiples group, pati si richard (what's his surname nga?--rightmost, front). si gary boy (kaiping ni richard), agaw-eksena man in one show. after "laden with happiness and tears" ('sunrise, sunset'), blag! nadismayo man!

souvenir program of the 1986 bicol association of minor seminaries (bams) meet, which was held in the olps seminary. batch86 were the hosts, while totep, erwin, paulo and i and a few others from the lower years worked on the daily chronicle of the five-day event.

the back of the bams souvenir program, with the bams hymn. music by sanni gargallo (olps batch86), lyrics by fr. gerry del prado and msgr. eladio t. palces. gabos taga-olps, yehey! all together now: "the fields are golden with grain, we come to heed His call, in service, love and poverty, for Him we give up all. Together by His guiding hand, we bravely tread the way, together strongly we stand, and fervently we pray!"

lining up for our own bams meet parade, held the following year in tabaco, albay.

'ang paglilitis ni mang serapio,' when kinabog ta an tabaco cathedral (?) with our presentation during the bams meet. nadumduman nindo kun pan-o kita naghangot during the afternoon rehearsal, when, while everybody else was practicing silly, we went up to the altar, just looked around to mark our blockings, and went off? but that night, ours was the splashiest, most-applauded presentation. wara istir, yan an resulta kan training ni fr. roy eco!

the first draft of our attempt to revive the olps school paper, which used to be CHIMES, but as usual, we wanted to be original so we called it SPARK. fr. vicboy designed the masthead on stencil paper, i was the editor, totep, dennis and erwin were the other writers, and fr. gerry del prado was the advisor. (ugaring, wara na ako kopya san finished product, aargh.) the (mega-corny) editorial read in part: "long, long ago, when we were just little boys fascinated by rain and enchanted by stars, this paper lived a happy existence in a seminary already peopled then with active individuals and loving hands. it had come to be called THE CHIMES, the bells. it was that, for like the bells we so often hear from a crumbling belfry, it tolled its magic message of hope for mankind to come back to Jesus Christ. (next paragraph) SPARK. that's what you call this new organ. a new name, a new beginning..." (ambot kun haen na the rest of the text.)

4th year, one happy barkadahan na after san samok nan iriwal of the earlier years.

ini, interesting! not sure how this ended up sa baul ko, but this is an english test for the ncee review by renato marcial. score: 29/60! which only proves one thing: nothing is impossible if you really work at it. after all, tato now talks and writes in english like a pro, and official national spokesperson pa kan bureau of fire protection!

a typical periodic citation, this one a certificate of second honors for religion (nay!) for the first grading period of school year 1984-85.

huddling to come up with designs for the intrams uniforms that year. si fr. vicboy an resident artist, that's his sketch being held up by gerald. the rest, nagmimiron para maghala-hala, mwehehe. :)

our official graduation invitation, sunday, march 29, 1987. the 25 candidates for graduation: gerald angeles, carlos baloloy jr, james cacliong, gilbert cadiz, teodoro luis de castro, felijohn coronel, ian demate, joven despabiladeras, vicente henry diesta, victor dollentas, joselito donor, erwin francisco escandor, garner marcos frilles, samuel gerona, +chito mary haboc, jose hermida jr., ferdinand labitag, jose bonifacio lasala, oscar jesus lucero jr., renato marcial, reynaldo nicolas, joseph john perez, paulo dennis son, glenn adonis vergara.

a copy of the thanksgiving prayer i wrote and recited during the graduation mass. i typed it pa (typo errors and all) sa office ni ms. nikki halcon.

arranging ourselves for the official batch87 graduation photo op. sr. myrna dioquino and librarian ghie (tama baya?), among others, are in front.

the invitation to the investiture of college freshmen gibbs, ian, henry, vic, gary boy, tato and glenn, sept. 8, 1987 (b-day pa ni tato), 3pm at the olps chapel (with edgar 'bato' barias of solt). the quote on the front was the same batch87 graduation theme: "you come alive each time you dare to die; let go, move on, bid things goodbye..."

here we are, an pito na nagpasutana during olps college first sem (with adopted batchmate, now fr. burt sare, 4th from left). pic was taken at the grotto a few weeks after typhoon sisang, the deadliest storm to hit sorsogon, which destroyed large parts of both the minor seminary and the coke building and killed some 3,000 people province-wide. notice an bagan ginurung-gusong na niyogan sa likod?

and all our olps years for what? for this, for what we thought we were destined to be! we all remember this, mao? i bet gabos na seminarista who gave serious thought to their vocation had this estampita among their possessions at one time or another. well, lain man nakapadi majority of us, this remains a precious souvenir...