kal-ye-ra noun
: colloquial term for someone who is often
out on the street playing
Source: Ann Street Studio
I was a certified kalyera many, many years ago when I could still walk, jump, hop and even managed to run without slippers on the street. I had fond memories of those days when the word deadline was foreign to me and when all that mattered were the outdoor games and activities I enjoyed with my playmates.
I remembered giving my grandmother a difficult time then because she would untiringly hunt for me hi and lo; following a litany of scolding the minute she found me. In the process, I somehow became an expert in pretending I was sorry for going out just so our "session" would end. And I would gleefully run out of the house the minute she napped to continue with the expedition my friends and I had in mind.
We enjoyed going around our neighborhood using a bicycle. My friends and I would bravely pass through New York Street and its side streets admiring beautiful houses and landscaped gardens. We would then find ourselves talking about our dream houses and the lives we wanted to have.
Today, the kalyeras continue to dream about a better tomorrow. One is an area manager of a famous Bakeshop; the other is a patent lawyer based in Singapore while the eldest in the group is a banker. We occasionally do video calling through Skype and recall about the numerous fun-filled escapades we had down memory lane.
What outdoor activity did you enjoy in the past?
When we children were adults we told our mother of some of our escapades. She just shook her head.
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful memories of childhood!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoyed swimming, riding my bike, and flying kites.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you got to make such good memories playing outside. I also rode my bike all around. I enjoyed play grounds with swings and slides and I played games with the neighbor hood kids...base ball, flying kites, building forts. We put on plays . Such fun to be a kid .
ReplyDeleteI'm not really the kalyera type. Or the ones our parents say as batang lumaki sa kalye though I go out when the moon is full and masarap maglaro ng patintero at football and other group games or after studying. I really miss those times. And if only I can bring them back, I would have gone out more often.
ReplyDeletePlaying outside; jumping rope, tree climbing and other childhood games come to mind. I enjoyed your story. :-)
ReplyDeleteEliz
I am not familiar with the term but I would have to say that I was a certified Kalyera too. :) We had bikes and we would ride everyday. Nung walang bike, okay lang. Lakad, takbo. There's lots of space where I grew up. Sheltered kami sa loob ng malaking compound ng St. Andrew's Seminary. We would spend our days at the basketball court grounds, or in one of the gardens. Or even at the back of the church. Deadline would be the 6PM bells. We would know then that it was time to break it up and head home. I miss those days.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby often laughs at me whenever we compare our childhood. I never played on the streets! According to him, I didn't had a normal childhood. :)
ReplyDeleteI remembered those time with my friends going around with bicycle and playing. I enjoyed most the playtime with my friends and just walking around the neighborhood and ended up in the side of the river talking about silly things hehehe:) It was FUN! and I missed it:)
ReplyDeleteI'm a kalyera too! that was many years ago.. :)
ReplyDeleteOne of the most memorable sides of my childhood is collecting conkers under trees during Autumn :)
ReplyDeletethe world was a lot safer then, as i recall my carefree childhood days too. now i worry about a lot of things everytime my boys are out. *sigh*
ReplyDeletemay the kalyeras' dreams all come true! :)
I used to play patintero out in the streets and when we could get our hands on badminton rackets and shuttle cocks, we also play that in the streets. Teenage years, I am mostly inside home na lang concentrating on my guitar, books, and school stuff. I didn't like na kasi the interests of my playmates like gossips and boys... Am still a child at heart lol!
ReplyDeletewhen i was a kid i also a kalyera or my grandmom calls me "kalyehera" haha...i enjoyed those days wherein we play with bikes, taguan, luksong-baka etc, i'm on the streets with friends from morning til dusk, love it haha
ReplyDeleteyou' restore your old blog title?
I can't get over my first love, lol. I hope too that my readers are not confused by now :))
DeleteI love going for bicycle rides in the neighbourhood when I was young. We stayed in a house then so easy to go for rides around.
ReplyDeleteWell, I grew up with a very strict "ate" so she won't allow us to go outside to play. When he got married and went out of our house, that's when we got to explore the outside world. My childhood friends loves climbing trees then. During summer season, the Duhat tress in our village have so many fruits so that's one of our hobbies back then. But I never learned to climb a tree. Maybe because of our late exposure to such. Haha. Anyway, I also learned to ride a bike and every afternoon we wander around our village not minding the dogs that run after us. I missed those days that we can still go to our mini oval to have a bone fire at nights. Safe pa noon :)
ReplyDeleteMommy Maye
I am such a loser, i dont know how to ride a bike! hahaha :(
ReplyDeletei had a bike as a kid too. i used to bike with my brother when we were kids but we were not allowed to go beyond our backyard, hihi! we were both raised by our grannies so they're very strict in a very loving way. :-) btw, nice memory of your childhood right there. thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletegreat a childhood memories, i am a kalyero too, but most of my friend and even my younger sister usually play gambling games if we are not playing patentero.. nowadays, kids in our place usually not play the games we usually play in our times.. they seems to grow up really fast...or they have other interest..
ReplyDeleteWe used to play more of physical games before. Chasing each other, hide and seek unlike now that most kids are at home playing in front of computers.
ReplyDeleteI love the bike image you have on this post.
ReplyDeleteI used to enjoy collecting tadpoles from ponds as a child and watching them change into frogs over time.
Children don't seem to appreciate the outdoors as much nowadays.
A lovely post - thank you for sharing : )
Yes, I'm a kalyera, too! However, I was not a full-time kalyera. My childhood days alternated between playing in the streets maghapon and cocooning in my bedroom reading a book. :-)
ReplyDeleteI was a kalyera before too during summer vacations. we had a version of toboganning. See, some roads here are steep kaya we get plywoods, rub leaves of "marapait" (that's sunflower in the vernacular) to make it slippery, sit down on them and use them as sleds haha.
ReplyDeletewhen i was a kid i was not allowed to play outside the house or play with other kids, i play alone, sometimes with my siblings and cousins
ReplyDeleteBatang kalye is it?---- Taguan, piko, shato,agawan base.. U name it I've played it all. I had a great childhood=)
ReplyDeleteSeriously? Aliw ako sa photo mo. I wasn't such a kalyera when I was young. Booo! to me. I guess I missed out a lot as a kid. Still, I played futbol, patintero and other kid's play with my cousins.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to reminisce childhood days! Deprived of expensive toys and without a kiddie playground around, my playmates and I would go picnicking in a huge vacant lot with huge trees not far from our house after getting tired of playing sipa, luksong lubid, patintero and all those street games. Who doesn't love the good life of being a kid, thinking only of having fun with no worries at all! Lol!
ReplyDeleteNice post Ida!
I used to walk to with our neighbor's house that was about 300 meters away from our home just to play. Tapos pag-uwi ko super haba na naman ng sermon ni Mama hehehe..
ReplyDeleteHi There, It's great to hear from you. I too love to walk (or run) down Memory Lane. I had a great childhood too, full of lots of running around, riding bikes, playing outside, and just having a good time. I also try to keep up with those old friends --by email/phone/Facebook, etc...
ReplyDeleteGreat post which brought back such great memories for me. Thanks!
Hugs,
Betsy
When I was younger, I used to go biking a lot. And to the horror of my mother, I'd always come home with some sort of scrape or something. I was really accident-prone as a kid. :))
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in elementary I used to that, going around in the neighborhood using a bike. When our bike got busted and I started high school I rarely do that.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the "patintero." It was especially fun under a full moon. :D
ReplyDeleteI spent like elementary and hs day in Saudi Arabia. So outdoors for me is school grounds only. We play patintero, Chinese garter (i was an expert on this LOL!), Agawan base and tag it. But during HS days, I got engaged in sports, volleyball. Then turn to music, guitar. My life is boring hahaha!
ReplyDeleteCertified batang kalye here. But I actually do better in physical activities rather than the feminines. Being in the kalye during our younger years made us smarter, street smart that is.lol
ReplyDeleteOMGosh, that sounds like fun! We ran outside and played all the time, too, when I was young. But I think my favorite things were to read and to write in my "diary" notebooks. :)
ReplyDelete