Mountains of my life: Forever Soldier

Laughter in Life

When I was a boy of seven or eight years, my mom would always remind me to always close my mouth when I was in public. Well, I had this habit of having an half-open mouth when listening to somebody, especially when that somebody is talking to an audience. Mom warned that something might enter into my mouth accidentally or some insect might make its crash landing. She said we had no money for a doctor.

I remember, on one occasion, when I was in the elementary grade performing as one of the seven dwarfs, we were riding on top a float, and while people were joyously watching us, I saw one of the audience along the road my mom, and she was motioning her finger to her mouth, meaning she was instructing me from afar that it was time for me to close my mouth. I did, slowly. I did not want my “co-dwarfs” to notice that my mom was instructing me to close my mouth.

In one of our commencement exercises, again I was one of the seven dwarfs. We were dressing up (our costumes) in public – I can’t remember why - meaning we did it in front of the live audience. One of my co-dwarfs was having a hard time inserting his socks. I was the first one to speak, and when I did so, I didn’t notice he was not yet through with his socks, so he shouted to the top of his voice, “WA PA GANI”, in dialect meaning “It’s not yet time.” The people, mostly composed of parents, roared into laughter. The show served its real purpose, a comedy.