A sketch of the old Agno River, Asingan

-photo by VDCabanilla-This concrete bridge I believe took the place of the wooden one that marked the boundary between Poblacion and Aragaag..


A typical house in Aragaag before. The neighbour would be quite far away. But this house maybe would belong to a tenant looking after a nearby agricultural land...

Comparing Asingan to Toronto is like comparing apples to oranges, but for me each place is dear to my heart for each of them helped in my growing up..Asingan saw me grow as a child, Toronto saw me attain maturity as a man...So how can you forget the scenes you saw through the eyes of your child hood?..You can not..These are always be lingering in remembrance like an old song which you heard when you were still going about as a happy, carefree individual..I loved to be alone then..So sometimes I walked to the riverside and played amongst the thick underbrush ( talahib ) and sand dunes of the old river.But I do not wander too far from the houses beside the river.There was an old wooden bridge going to Aragaag before..There were many clothes washers at the river below looking up at whoever would pass over the bridge: carromatas, Pantranco busses, cyclists..no motorized tricyclists yet at that time...A few meters away from this bridge was a sort of trail going down to the river..It was quite an experience going down this elevated downward trail riding on a carromata just to see the splash of the river as the wheels hit the water..This place then was scenic. There were lots of CAMANTERES ( KAMACHILE ) trees all around, and a bit upriver were the remains of an old bridge..It looked like a pier or a dock at that time and some kids used it as a diving board because the river was deep ( lipos, they say in Ilocano ) and only the good swimmers dared jump into its waters...Alas, one rainy season came, the river overflowed its banks and it took away EVERYTHING changing the topography of the land forever..Afterwards, the river banks became flat and plain looking. That scenic spot where we used to visit every Saturday morning ( where Mom and the servants spent the whole day washing clothes ) disappeared forever..It taught me a lesson: the constant law of life is constant change. Nothing stands still. There is always motion even if you say you are sitting down on chair or lying down on a bed. The chair and the bed are moving with the earths rotation on its axis and rotation around the sun. Such is one of the miracles of daily life which we mortals sometimes take for granted. But then, we must not be afraid. Fear not, because as the hymn goes: HE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS..Amen!!!---#