A Blast From the Past

[ Note : I can only do an intro right the first time, cuz no matter how many times I correct it afterwards, it won’t be the same, cuz it won’t be an intro no more (note the double negative).  That’s why I hope I do this right the first time, or at least, in a way that will elicit the necessary responses and hopefully, emotions… ] It’s an infallible truth that all stories are told in the first person.  Even if you’ve nothing to do with your narration, you still tell it via your perception, and so intentionally or otherwise, this story is a first-person kwento, and of course I’m the first person. I’ve carved out a less than mediocre academic career at the University of the Philippines, done lots of things I’ll never be proud of, but one thing I don’t regret is cross-enrolling (or enrolling in a campus other than where I started, UP-Diliman) at the UP Manila campus the summer of 1984. I gained lots of friends, and none more memorable collectively than the band of brothers and sisters known as Blitzkrieg, or Blitz for short. There was no common denominator among the members, except of course membership in UP Manila.  Other than that, there were social science majors, pre-med hopefuls, pre-law candidates, and no one knew what anyone would be after a couple of years. The growing common ground after I got to know the guys was the desire to unwind and let loose after a day of lectures and hitting the books in the library.  Besides that, it seemed that most of the guys (for there were girls too) were basketball junkies, no surprise there.  By coincidence, I lived close by, and another stroke of good fortune was that our house had a small basketball court, welcome to anyone or any group that had excess energy to shoot hoops and waste the warm days of youth in the company of fast friends. That’s all for now.  There are many many more tales of friendship, laughter and yes, love that made our Blitz days memorable, I won’t try to say too much here and now.  I’ll let all of you do that. By the way, our brand new mommy, Blitz-mate Rorie / Dodie very graciously lent us a picture of at least 10 Blitzkrieg members for posting, but unfortunately I can’t use it on my blog because of picture file issues .  If someone knows who to convert it into jpeg or any other regular file, please tell me so I can use it here.  In the meantime, I will post it asap on the Blitz FB group page. To friendship ! To golden days of youth !  To Blitzkrieg ! Noel