Our lumber house near the bridge and facing the national road nearby stood on its hardwood posts of 5- to 6-inch thick tugas logs. Its elevated floor was shoulder deep above the ground. The walls were of stone cut lumbers and the floors of the living room, bedrooms and dining rooms of V-cut lumbers; that of the veranda and the kitchen, seasoned bamboo slats. The roof of nipa palm shingles protected its inhabitants from rain and heat.
People then have much respect on the sanctity of other’s abode so my father never bothered to install door locks. Besides, there was hardly any money or valuables in the house to entice people to violate this time-honored tradition. But at night the doors and windows were shut and bolted to protect us from wakwak and other intruders. Based on tales I heard, wakwak or balbal are people who fly by night and eat babies and even adults. Our parents warned us never to taunt a wakwak or face retaliation. A neighbor in their hometown, who mockingly rubbed his bolo against its scabbard while a wakwak was flying nearby, found a bloody meat hanged against the wall of the house the following morning. But these cannibals, we were told, are more honorable than thieves since accordingly they don’t victimize their neighbors. I have heard the cries of wakwak but have never seen any evidence of their exploits so I assumed that they are benign birds although I have not seen any, either.
An elevated house was propitious during those days when housewives had much time to socialize, so it was common for women to congregate and perch, one over the other, at the front ladder to gossip and hunt head lice. Somehow, hunting head lice strengthened the bond among the housewives just as hunting wild pigs to the husbands.
The elevated floor also afforded the housewives to go on with their daily preoccupations (gossiping included) unburdened, by tethering their toddlers with ropes or clothes tied to the posts. The toddler would cry, play or tour around the constrictive playground while the mother tends the garden, wash, clean the yard or whatever.
The house, that had sliding framed plywood windows, was designed by our father and built by his own hands. That deserted house had long been gone and the lot was taken over by the owner who allowed our parents to occupy for free and for an indefinite tenure. A concrete pavement for sun drying and a low-lying house now covered the area.
