Do you still remember what your Art (or PEHM, MAPE or GMRC) teacher required you to make as a school project? I bet one of which is the ‘Family Tree’, where what you need to do is cut your family members’ individual pictures and put it in a colorful paper and paste it in a branch. It’s up to you whether you like to add more glittery stuff or you want to add more colors. You are bound to unleash your creativity and make pasikat to your classmates.

One of the Family Tree Projects I made

Way back in Elementary, I was a bibbo student. Having a popular FM Disk Jockey as your father and a well-respected Nurse as a mother will make one kid proud. Having a cute baby brother also count.

I had a couple of school assignments wherein I am required to cut some family pictures and eventually tell a story about your home infront of the class. I often told my classmates that I am happy because my family is so intact. We often have out-of-town trips with other relatives. I remember going to Ilocos (Laoag, Vigan and Pagupud – before the place became a tourist destination), Batangas, Cagayan, Baguio, La Union, Zambales and other provinces. We only have a few pictures because we don’t really own one.

I remember one instance where my dad really got mad at me. I caught me cutting some of his pictures taken in a work-related trip to Cavite. He looked really handsome and healthy in those photos and since the negative of these shots are not with him, he won’t be able to get another copy.

‘Huwag kang gupit ng gupit! May sentimental value ‘yan!’ My dad shouted.

‘What’s your problem, Papa? We can go back there soon and have another photo taken!’ I answered back. LOL whatta mean kid T_T

I went back to Dagupan a week before my Grandparent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary Party. My main purpose on going there is to scan for some old pictures that I can use for the video presentation. It was only then I realized the importance of old photographs. You know what? We’re lucky these days because of digital cameras. We can distribute as many as possible copies online. We can share them to anyone who can access the internet. Way back, only the one who hands the negatives can do recopies of the pictures.

The biggest challenge that week is to find a decent Family Portrait of our family. We have some pictures, but we rarely have our family picture taken. I even want to have a family picture taken by professional photographers just like the Raleigh, NC photographers. This is the best one I found:

Family Picture taken sometime in 2000

That was taken sometime in 2000. I was 12 years old and just graduated from Elementary.

As a blogger, I always bring my digital camera whether I am traveling, in an event or in special occasions. I make sure that I have a souvenir photo with the important people with me taken because you’ll never know. That might be the last photo of you and that person.

Take it from me. I should have cut the not-so-glam pictures before. Now I am having a hard time locating some of our old pictures. I can’t even find my last photo with my dad before he passed away! I’m planning to go back to our old house (my grandparents living in Dagupan just moved to a nearby house) and try to look for that bag where I placed the photos. Damn. I didn’t even scan those pics before nor kept the negatives.

Joseph Rodriguez a.k.a. Joshua Piranha in Star FM Dagupan (1995)

Photos Fade,  Memories Don’t – But still I want my kids and grandchildren to have an idea how my life was as a young kid. I want them to see Lolo Jojo even if he passed away already. I am really hoping to find those pictures as soon as possible. I really hope so. Wish me luck, please.

PS: I found some old pictures of my dad taken in 1966. I’ll write a separate post about it. I would like to remember him as a Little Kid 😛