Intermission Numbers


March is unconsciously a special month in Balete. No. That's an understatement. March is an event in Balete.

Here are the supporting facts to consider if you don't get the picture:
  • Caravan Sales. Appliance stores in Kalibo go out of their comport zone setting up caravan sales at the grand stand and/or the civic center
  • Heavier traffic during Saturday mornings along the J. Barrios St. (formerly Mercado St.)
  • Harvest season
  • Binayle (Benefit Dance)
  • Recognition Days and Commencement Exercises
The joy of the parents especially after a bountiful harvest (farmers are perennially complaining though of the diminishing returns) is capped by the graduation, the honors and the awards received by their children after months and years of struggle and persistence. Attending such special occasions then is a must not only to give their children the moral support they so deserve but also as a break from the routines and the humdrum of their simple lives. They prepare for such event. My friend, Vic, for instance, has applied for a loan with Taytay sa Kauswagan to be able to pay for a litson to celebrate his eldest daughter's graduation day. He is attending the event to relax, to recreate, be entertained and to be congratulated for having such a child. Precisely that his attention is attracted to intermission numbers but not to those boring highfalutin speeches of speakers upstage.

We therefore could not fault an official (please spare me the obligation of naming him), who, invited as the guest speaker to one such event, opened his remark with this statement:

"Ladies and gentlemen: In a short while, I will deliver my inspirational message. For the moment, give in to the urge of going to the comfort rooms!"

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