Remember when we were little, we always wanted to grow up? Now we realize it was better being a kid. Remember when we wake up early in the morning and run as fast as we can outside our house, not minding what we are wearing just for us not to miss “manong magtataho”? How about the times when we gathered different kinds of leaves and put it to our cooking set toy while imagining the leaves as our food? How can we forget playing with our friends the tagutaguan, langit lupa, tumbang preso, patintero, chinese garter and many more games and just stop when our mothers are yelling out our name at the top of their lungs because it is already late and we are not yet home. When we were a kid we always enjoy and appriciate everything, even the little things. Patintero is one of our favorite game when we were a kid. Patintero is the most widely played native game in the Philippines. It’s also known as tubigan and the object of the game is to block the other team’s players from passing. You don’t need any equipment to play it, you just need a piece of chalk and players. Patintero made our childhood days worth it, it’s one of the things we wanted to play again. Patintero remind us that childhood days will always be the best chapter in our book of life.
Patintero is played with two teams each with more than five members. The object of patintero is to get past the lines which are guided by the players of the opposite team. The playing court that is drawn using a chalk is shaped like a long box divided into three parts, with a center wall running across. One team will win if all members get past to the lines and back again without being tagged by the members of the other team. Patintero taught us to think quickly, to see ungaurded openings and to be alert. When we were little we were not aware that patintero taught us not only teamwork but also strategies and techniques. In order to win, a team should think of a tricks or strategies that can help them to get past to the lines and back again without being tagged. In doing that tricks and strategies, teamwork and cooperation is a must so that they may succeed. The game patintero also taught us that in life we should now how to be clever and watchful, how to be quick but careful. Patintero helped us to gain more knowledge and experience the fulfillment of being a happy kid.
When we were little we didn’t realize that we were making memories, we just new we were having fun. There’s something about our childhood friends and the games we were playing that time that we just can’t replace by our gadgets nowadays. We may have gadgets or technologies that made our life easier today but it is still not enough to defeat the joy we experienced while playing games when we were little. Most of our childhood is stored not in photos but in certain biscuits,leaves,chalks, and places where we used to play. We may not have a proof of how unforgettable our childhood is, we can always defend it with the memories that are made back then. It’s funny to think how we always wanted to go back in time, not to change anything but to feel the same happiness and fulfillment of being a child again. Patintero is only one of the hundred games we were playing with our childhood friends. It does not only made our childhood unforgettable but it also taught us lessons that we can bring as we go with our lives. We may be called grown ups today but it does not change the fact that we are all once a kid. We can still play the games we were playing back then because even though childhood memories are full of childish memories, our hearts constantly swings for it.
