Those Penshoppe Days

Cross over walls
Cry out with one voice
Make up no sound
Love beyond words
Open your heart
Share your soul
Let’s build bridges
And live in one world
So come on!
Just be there
Let’s make it work together
Do your share
Let’s make a pact
As we learn to just be there….*

(*Lyrics from memory. I’m not sure if I got all of them right though….)

Ah…the days of the good, the clean, and the fun. High School. I went in an exclusive all girls’ school in Baguio, and back then I consider lesbianism, or the act of engaging into romantic relations with a fellow girl, as something good and clean…not to mention natural in a male-deprived environment. Sure there were male instructors around, but they’re either gay, married, or simply maniacs.

I recalled the Penshoppe jingle while cleaning my room, which to me is some sort of preparation for the coming days of this Holy Week, between dusting books and throwing trash I have a knack of keeping and rearranging the lower contents of the built-in dresser. As I found myself singing the jingle while working, I remembered that year in high school when I heard the news about a certain Derrick Hamada as being one of the new Penshoppe endorsers on TV. (Back then, Penshoppe had reportedly conducted several screenings for models in their new TV ads, and they all want fresh faces. Derrick was part of batch 1.) He was a senior in an all-boys’ school there, and people say that he’s rich, popular, and extremely good-looking. I’ve never seen the ad yet at that time but my best friend did. I can still remember that goo-goo twinkle in her eyes when she told me one day about Derrick and hinted of planning on following his footsteps to stardom. Yep, that was so like Bet: always planning on shooting at something but never really aiming.

Inside, I wished her the best in that, though I felt a little envious because she had looks to back up what she was planning. I also wanted to tell her hey, I want to be a star, too, but I can’t help imagining that look of repulsionon her face if I said so, so I kept my mouth shut and smiled. Since then, I never cared much about the whole Penshoppe thing until I finally saw it on TV myself. And by God, Derrick was the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen in my life! My then limited sight of the world couldn’t believe that someone with a face like that existed in this city. I think I loved him secretly then.

Now, well, all I can say about that time was…they could have placed a jingle in Derrick Hamada’s Penshoppe ad. (The jingle above was for batch 2.) It could have been more memorable, more appealing to the public teens. It could have stretched this Baguio boy’s legacy more. When the second Penshoppe ad featuring batch 2 came after a couple of months, batch 1 was slowly overshadowed then totally forgotten. A couple of years after, no more Penshoppe ads were seen on TV.

Consequently, as media had evolved in itself, so were the people who benefit from them. Gone were the days of teenybopper-trendsetters, bizarre dancing on MTV, killer clogs, and the age of pre-relativism. I now live in an era where people dreamed of ousting “Her Excellency” (whom they found out to be not so excellent after all), where “wise” people should think of ways to acquire more money than think of ways to improve their relationships, and where some dull-witted man proudly confesses that his favorite book is FHM.

I don’t know which era is worse.