8. Early Recollections



Ed at three

 When I was about more than a year old I could remember tagging along with my older brothers, Pete and Dado, when they went into my grandmother’s orchard to gather fruits. They were atop a guava tree and I could see them picking the yellow ripened fruits some of which were stuffed in their mouths and most went into the billow of their tucked-in shirts. As I couldn’t join them in their perches I must have made protesting sounds that prompted one of them to throw a green unripe fruit that I hurriedly picked up and put in my mouth. Since I didn’t have enough teeth the fruit just rolled in my mouth whole and unbruised even for sometime. I was still nibbling at it when we got home. My mother asked me where I have been. I told her that I was listening to the local musician, Mang Emong, practicing his clarinet. I don’t really know whether this was a true account. I vaguely remember this incident but it was an oft-repeated tale by my mother. It seemed to suggest that I was a precocious yarn spinner and an early music lover. My mother loved to tell this little anecdote to anyone who was willing to listen.