My father was known as a certified “cowboy.” He had a horse then which he used for his kalesa and would often visit friends from nearby town with it. Back then, you can count the vehicles that passed by the national road. Motorist were afraid to drive through our town since it was known that salvage victims were being thrown in the area.
Since my father was a native of our place, he was popularly known throughout the province. Even now, I am sometimes surprised wheneven old folks would mention that they still remembered my father with his cowboy hat and kalesa.
My father, who was a desciplinarian, was also a patriot who didn’t left his country for a greener pasture abroad. He had chosen to work as a municipal agricultural technician and helped farmers by organizing various cooperatives. Though his name was not mentioned, he was the very first asian to do an artificial insimination on animals. He did not have a formal study on veterinary medicine but through he became the animal doctor of the town. A pity that most of his pictures were gone now. He was fond of laminating his pictures with his accomplishments adorning our wall.
Anyways, back to my father’s horse. I remembered only 2 names, it’s Menchu and Dotchong. I don’t really know what happened to them and their accessories and the tiborine (smaller than kalesa but I remembered ours was made of stainless steel) after my father died. Some said it was sold, others said it was borrowed from him.
Whatever, remembering it now makes me feel nostalgic. I love sitting beside my father in a tiborine while we were at the road. His one hand held the rein and the other the whip. Missing you a lot Tatay...
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