The Name Game

Yesterday, my wife duped me into going to Tiendesitas, the newest shopping corridor in the Ortigas area, under the guise of looking for the Christmas decors which we will use for our planned Christmas theme overhaul this coming Yuletide season.

We didn’t see much Chistmas decors being sold. In fact, we didn’t see much of what was being offered by the different shops as most of them were still under construction.

As my wife and I got tired roaming around the various shops, we decided to take a break and eat merienda. We tend to relate that shopping and eating should always go hand-in-hand. And that was when I saw two of my high school batchmates. Yup, two of them at the same time. What were the chances, right?

The first batchmate I saw was my good friend, Joey. Joey and I have managed to be in constant touch with each other since graduating from high school. Though we didn’t go to the same college, we did meet regularly. Our bond went from the fun-filled out-of-town gimiks, to the drink-till-you-drop inuman sessions, to the soul-searching Days With The Lord experiences, to the formal organization of our high school batch brotherhood in the form of concrete projects. In fact, we have a project, which is currently put on hold, that we have both agreed to give another push as of our meeting yesterday.

The second batchmate approached us as Joey and I were having our talk. It has already been 17 years since our high school graduation but I still do remember the guy’s face. But unfortunately, I do not remember the name. It was a good thing that Joey was good at this. He remembers the names of most of our batchmates. Or, at least, in yesterday’s case, he remembered the guy’s surname. Well, Joey was not our Student Council President for nothing.

The other guy was De Jesus. I’m not sure now if his first name is Arnel or Ariel. I have heard of him only through our Yahoo email group of which he is also a member. He was there at Tiendesitas to supervise the construction of his wife’s shop. I got to drop by his wife’s shop later on and promised that I would check it out later when it becomes operational.

I admire people who can remember the names of people whom they haven’t seen for the longest time. Too bad I didn’t get it from my Mom. You see, my Mom was a grade school teacher before she became a full-time entrepreneur. And there have been various instances when she would meet former students from 30 years back and still remember their complete names. Yes, including middle initials. Can you believe that?

I guess somewhere along the way, her genes got lost and didn’t reach me. And now, I have to contend myself with identifying people I know, not with their names, but with stories, I remember, of what they did from a long time ago.

“By the way Joey, do you remember that batchmate of ours who brought a floor mop when our World History teacher asked him to get the (world) map? What’s his name again?”