Rizal Beach

Except for the sprinkling of muted colors, the pictures might have been taken in sepia.  This is actually Rizal Beach on a hovering-between-rainy-and-sunny day.  A little chilly, perhaps. And some kind of gloomy.  But to us beachlovers, the beach beckons rain, shine or in-between.

The tide was out when we got there.  The sand stretched on and on, and it was quite a walk to the water's edge.  On this particular day, Rizal's almost even terrain was evident; the sand was almost silky.  It was too cold for a swim, but the kids did manage to get themselves wet.

Beaches, after all, are for bathing. 

Robertson

My earliest memory of the building at the corner of Rizal and De Vera Streets, fronting the old Velasco Restaurant, was Loida Theater.  I remember double features, The Sound of Music and Burlesk Queen.

And then it became a bowling alley and then the Kadiwa Store of the Marcos Days.  The DBP was there, too, if I remember right.

It might have had a string of occupants after the bank but I was too far away to notice.  The fact that I was home only during the Holidays and Holy Week was not good for my memory, either.  Suffice it to say that when I decided to come home for good, it was already Robertson.

At the time, it was the biggest grocery and department store in the city.  D' Best and Sampaguita were soon forgotten, and Robertson became the shopping haven hereabouts.

Alas, Robertson's days will soon be over.  Already there's a big sale on the second floor.  The owner, reports say, sold out to PureGold in a classic case of big fish eats small fry.  Come to think of it, Sorsogon City is turning into a mini franchise haven of sorts.

Oh well, the price we have to pay for development.

Overpass

Sorsogon, it seems, is turning into a concrete jungle. Don't look now, but there's an overpass spanning the chokepoint where the National High and the State College are.  There's also one in the Pilot School campus--from the main building to the row of Pierside classrooms.  And there's still another along the Maharlika Highway, near Rizal High School.

In due time, perhaps, that old joke about an overpass spanning Hollywood and Bayanihan might just be no laughing matter.