Waiting outside the Asian Store while my wife shopped for goodies reminded me of the times when I waited for my Nanay decades ago. Our house then was a good fifteen minute walk to the market. If there's going to be a major 'shopping spree' - think Christmas - I'm the kid my Nanay chooses to help with hauling stuff around. Not sure why, perhaps because I spend too much time in the house. Or perhaps I don't really notice that we have a roster!
Our marketplace is called Hilltop. An apt name, because you do get a good exercise going up and down the alleyways and narrow streets looking for the best price. There's always a good crowd, noisy and vibrant, with vendors calling out to their 'suki', mingled with the occasional singing of religious groups asking for donations, or the loud blast of a jukebox. For me, it's always an adventure going to the market. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the hustle and bustle. It's so vibrant.
Anyways, we'd start the day going round the vegetable section, then she'd make her way to to the grocery stores. It's somewhere in the middle of the hill, by the stairs hugging the Maharlika Livelihood Centre, that my Nanay would ask me to stay and look after our groceries, which by then would be considerably heavy. Then off she goes to get meat and other stuff. She would be away for quite some time, perhaps half and hour or so. There were no phones there. So I would just stand there and watch as people go about their business. I never felt bored doing that, though I would sometimes wonder when she'd return. I was a high school kid then so I think she felt I was more than responsible not to go wandering off.
When she would finally return, she'd have some more grocery bags having with stuff which we then muster with carrying all the way back home.
This was a routine we did for many years, so I already anticipated what would happen in the course of that trip. And each time I would wait patiently for her return.
