Once upon a high school day, there was a teenage love that blossomed through the spur of a song. It happened on a Linggo ng Wika program when a young girl who was a sophomore then,sang “Tiririt ng Maya”.Across the crowd, a young lad who was a senior, heard her voice_alluring as the nymph of the sea, and his heart fell at her feet.
From that time on, the enamoured young lad followed his ladylove, but only up to the approach of the Buyu-an bridge. If the bridge could tell a story, it would tell of the countless times he would stand there, and sadly watch her vanish through the dusk. Afraid and shy ,he could not cross the short bridge that seemed longer than a mile to him, because the girl of his dream told him that she wasn’t ready yet to entertain male visitors. But then, her smiles and tender looks revealed her secret feelings for him. And that was that. They nurtured a love for each other in silence.
Then it came to pass, high school days went by and came to end. The two parted ways. The young lad had other flings, while the young girl kept busy preparing to be a teacher, wanting to please her strict father whom she loved so much, to the point of hero-worshiping him.
Things happened so fast,the years reeled swiftly in the wings of Father Time. In 1995, when cellular phones were not yet in fashion, radio communication was in common use. My daughter, was also among the youngsters who got crazy over the trend. Once she happened to talk with Butch over the radio,and because she was the best friend of the object of his affection, he opened his pent-up emotions to her, saying something like, "Just say I love her . If you chance to meet her tell her how much I care”. ( It seems I heard these familiar lines from Vic Damone”). By mere chance and coincidence, Josie was there, standing behind my daughter, for she dropped by to visit her best friend; and she heard everything. She was shaken to a reality that through all these years, their love for each other has not waned and withstood the test of time surviving against distance and silence.
And now, here they are, after eight long years_ All of a sudden,love flourished once again, blooming like the first bud in the advent of spring. And on February 14 of that year, her Prince Charming gave her a teddy bear. That was it. According to Elvis Presley when a man gives a teddy bear as a gift to a girl, it means he wants to belong to her. Or it was some sort of unspoken proposal.
Josie was already teaching then, and one time she confided to me about her lovelife and asked me if I could write a song which she will dedicate to Butch. That was how the song “Listen to My Love Song” came into being. I wrote the lyrics and was set to music by Josie, dedicated to Butch.
Then Butch went away. It was then that he realized how he missed her, because almost everyday he called up until he would run out of load. True enough is the saying that “distance makes the heart grow fonder, because upon his return from across the China Sea, he decided once and for all to be Josie’s ever loving, huggable teddy bear for life.
No comments:
Post a Comment