Maw told stories of her late family members and life experiences from her childhood from 2100pm to 2200pm.
Her late father, my Lolo Juan, and his eldest son, my late uncle Senyong, were the main strength of the family with my late Lola Valing pulling her weight around the house and fields, too.
- Lye soap was made with the ashes leftover from the flames used for cooking. The strings of pineapple were stripped by using the knife against the grain with one hand and pulling with the other end. The strings were used for cutting the lye soap into the normal, hand-sized bars for everyday use.
- Dental hygienic tools were used. Toothbrushes were made from roughing up the edges of a nut with a knife. Toothpicks were used from the thorns growing from the branches of a pomelo tree. Flosses were made from the strings of pineapples (see above).
- Vinegar was made from milking containers attached to the side of palm trees up in the hills from one of our `property`. Lola Juan would place those covered containers, wait for a period of time, look inside the container to see some sort of scum forming on the top or whatever and smell the fermentation of vinegar, which was used for cooking.
- Cooking with laing (the leaves of a gabi plant) was deep fried by Lola Valing and dipped in soy sauce of the `Silver Swan` brand of course. The young root of a gabi plant was harvested and sliced into pieces for frying and eating by children.
- Charcoal irons were made with takpan dahoon.
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