I haven't given up on the effort I started several months ago on this subject: defining the other side, the comical, if you will, of being a "Peemayer" (Graduate of the Philippine Military Academy). To date, this is my compilation. Unfortunately, unless I have a brainstorm which, at my age, is most unlikely, any addition to the list below would come excruciatingly slow.
The idea lamp has started to fade and is now dimly lit. I wish to thank all those from the Academy Cavaliers' Forum (ACF) who responded to my request for suggestion and/or contribution. It's been a long time since, but I am sure I can remember the many who did: Art Carolino and Lizzie Fullon. Oooops, I mean, the two that did.
Winston "Arf-Arf" Godinez Arpon, PMA '64
WArpon@aol.com
Adelphi, Maryland, USA
Yes, Sir, You May Be A Peemayer if.....
- Your idea of a feast is fighting over steamed rice and sardines on old newspapers or banana leaves spread over an office table, with the lights out, and no spoon or fork, just your bare hands, one second after the signal "Boodle Fight" is given.
- You are most likely to miss a word or a line singing the Alumni Song than My Kaydet Girl.
- You know horseback riding is Equitation, and, Surveying is Topography. And History is a time for dozing in class.
- Sincerely is what you say when you mean excessively, as in relaxing or enjoying sincerely.
- You love papait and menudo but you hate goats - because you graduated at the bottom of your class.
- Your wife does not know that your bull ring came with a miniature ring that somehow went AWOL (got lost) before you met and married her.
- You tell your children you want them to study at PMA that they may become persons of courage, integrity and loyalty; you do not tell them it would also mean you won't be paying for their college tuition.
- You are male, married and macho; at work, you are the CO (Commanding Officer); at home, you're only an Ex-O (Executive Officer).
- Your first reception at the Academy was not at a hotel but at Borromeo Field, and, everyone knows you did not have to wear coat and tie to that one.
- You can still recite: Senor, se me requiere contestar las seguentes preguntas. Even if you forget that it means: Sir, I am required to answer the following questions.
- You have no idea how it is spelled -- mistuh or mistah -- but that's how you call your classmates.
- After living in Baguio for at least four years, the only street you know is Session Road and Star Cafe, the only restaurant.
- You suddenly call it a night after you introduce yourself to your dancing partner and she responds: "My good ensign, sir, if your first name is Serapio, then mine is Kurdapya".
- You have been promised annointment as the majority party's presidential candidate but you are dropped at the last minute.
- You stand to be the only one that comes in the way of another movie actor from becoming President of another democratic country.
- To you, the 'BS' in your degree means Bachelor of Science as well as Bilib sa Sarili.
- You can lead your platoon to Hill 101 from the grid coordinates on the map in the dead of night, but you get lost in the streets of San Francisco or San Francisco del Monte in full daylight.
- Your syntax has undergone some transformation: from "You took a bath, didn't you", to, "You took a bath, is it not?"
- "Courage, Integrity, Loyalty" is your lifetime motto. Your courage and integrity you demonstrate in so many ways. And your loyalty? You simply pause, put your hand solemnly on your breast and observe a moment of silence -- each time you pass by BGH (Baguio General Hospital).
- You named your son "Oxygen" and your daughter "Nitrogen", and you justify your action by saying you did it because your father named you "Speedy".
- Your favorite amusement places in the world include the Picnic Grove and the Kissing Rock.
- You know that a poncho has uses other than keeping you warm in the Baguio air.
- You call everyone surnamed Villanueva, "Banaba"; Ramos, "Netot"; Santos, "Anto"; Mariano, "Manok"; Perez, "Perot"; Reyes, "Riot".
- Your girlfriend always addressed her letters to you using your initials, because she could never get herself to write "Serapio", and you married her anyway.
- You can boo a presidential candidate from the parade ground but can make it appear to all, except to the presidential candidate himself and his patron, that the booing comes from the grandstand.
- You can make this boast: in your class, the men were separated from the boys; the men left, the boys stayed!
- You know where Cunanan Hall is located and that it was named after a Filipino who died in the Philippines, not a Filipino-American who died in Florida.
- You graduated in the early 1900 and you take pride in telling everyone you were number 3 in your class; you make no mention of the fact that there were only three of you that graduated.
- You ordered more than one class pin but cannot remember what you did with any of them, except for the one that you gave your girlfriend who became your wife.
- You have to learn your plebe knowledge later in life because you were too "magan" to comply to your upperclassman (Courtesy of E. Fullon)
- You usually use the phrase "for that matter..." to preface a command/request to your wife to make it appear that this command/request is just a bit of an add-on to what she may already be doing (Courtesy of Rozel P. Narag, PMA '95).
- You use "the population of China" as a point of comparison, usually with something that has absolutely nothing to do with the population of China (Courtesy of Rozel P. Narag, PMA '95).
- Your tongue sometimes slips and you call your wife "Bok" instead of "Babes" (Courtesy of Rozel P. Narag, PMA '95)
NOTE: If you would like to contribute to this on-going compilation, kindly communicate with Winston G. Arpon.
