sagay plaza

once upon a time, before the first movie theatre was built in sagay, we’d trek to the then-town plaza to watch movies sponsored by darigold milk, tide or breeze detergent and such. 

during the daytime, the sponsor would go around town to —  “ricorida”– announce with a megaphone, “gina imbitar ang tanan nga maglantaw sang sine karon sa gab-i sa plaza…ang salida si tony ferrer as agent x 44… ”   

people from nearby barrios and haciendas would walk kilometers for the treat of watching dolphy, chiquito, gloria romero, susan roces, swashbuckling fernando poe jr or joseph estrada.  or were nora aunor and tirso cruz III movies also shown?  my memory escapes me… it was years ago, or maybe age is catching up with me? 

then rama theatre came, sandwiched between ah teng’s bakery and dr. gonzaga’s house along the main street. an adult shelled out 30 centavos (?) for a seat in the “palco” (balcony ). but one can listen to the dialogue through the speakers set up outside. that i suppose eventually killed the darigold  “salidas.”

television sets were owned by a handful and the local government  put up one on the plaza stage.  so people enjoyed chips, hawaii five-o, mission impossible.  i’d go watch and pine for “kuruda” this cool intellectual-looking japanese tech-y guy with a very minor role in a spy series that i don’t remember. 

that plaza is a far cry from what it is now. tita day (bless her soul) and tita bebing sonia transformed it into a haven of flowers. today it boasts of the Siete, an icon of the age when sugarcane was brought to the central by the “bagon” freight train cars.  a “tali ambong” (covered gym) sits on the old basketball court, where girls swooned over gab pulido, martin francisco, boy funtanar, atlas lopez and other sagay warrior hunks. the mahogany trees and rizal’s statue are still standing though. 

i haven’t been there for so many christmases. but i was told that for some years now, at christmas, it is all aglow. enough to get me misty-eyed….

 sagay plaza xmas 09