I remember back in the 80s, there was a senior tennis buddy who would always delight us each morning with anecdotes and interesting tales from his trips to foreign lands. This always happened over hot cocoa and suman, inside the cramped room beside the courts where the handyman strung our rackets. The Capitol Tennis Club, once a two-court sports facility where the legislative building (Sangguniang Panglunsod) now stands, was our favorite haunt back then and you could say, that was practically where we ‘held court’.
Back then, we were a merry mix-up of teaching pros, retirees, ball boys, aspiring tennister-beginners (like me) and college students enjoying their free periods. Our composition wasn’t always the same though. On some days, our numbers would be down to five or less players, with some of us just idling around to rest after a game of doubles. As the morning wore on however, a few walk-ins would arrive and hang around for the company and a few laughs, then departing just before lunchtime. By late noon, new players would come for a little chitchat before proceeding to play, while occasionally, some employees of the city hall sit around with us to watch whatever card game was on inside our little nook.
Significantly, such had been the life for us, not only before coming of the internet (which would have provided us with a thousand topics to talk about), but more important, immediately right before the city government eventually ordered the whole facility to be torn down so as to make way for a new legislative building. Nowadays, each time I cross the junction of Recto and San Pedro to walk past the cathedral belfry, my eyes wander to that imposing office building on the left, the same one which ironically acted as tombstone to the tennis court of my younger days and happier memories.
To think, these memories even extend to early childhood, when as graders, we walked to church every Sunday with our parents, while I spied on a few old men in white wielding funny sticks as they hit an equally-white rubber ball inside a fenced enclosure. Even before I reach Bolton Street, where the entry to the cathedral is, I notice that the parks near the legislative building have already been cleared and paved cleanly, to make way for a spacious parking lot.
As I enter San Pedro, I look up to momentarily admire the absence of a thousand spaghetti-like mesh of electric and telephone wires. Don’t know what to make of the whole bit because while on one hand, the main street is made beautiful without those snaking wires above the street, the tearing down of a park for vehicles on the other makes me uneasy, if not impartial at the whole setup. A city hall employee and once-resident of our little tennis bunch told me recently, we have to sacrifice some things to make way for others. One case of it-is-what-it-is which I will never subscribe to.
