Memories of my neighborhood in the 60s & 70s

You are of my generation and a certified Quezon City resident if you remember:

1. The Ysmael Steel robot on Espana Extension (now E. Rodriguez Ave.) which seemed to be 100 ft. tall. A joke went this way when I was in high school - "Gusto mo ng summer job? Malaki ang suweldo pero madali ang trabaho. Araw-araw, ipapasyal mo lang yong robot ng Ysmael Steel!" (Oh well, it was funny then!)

2. The Malt Shoppe on Timog Avenue. That was soft-serve vanilla ice cream in a blue paper bowl. You had a choice of different syrups and toppings. My favorite was caramel syrup with nuts!

3. The creek you could cross from the street behind our house to get to Sampaloc Ave. (now Tomas Morato Ave.) Once my yaya picked me up from school and we used this way as a shortcut to go home. I slipped and fell, getting all slimy and wet. Bistado ang yaya! Nagtitipid pala. We walked home when we should taken a ride home.

4. The original tiangge on Morato Avenue. It started out as a flea market selling antiques. The front of the Morato building was transformed into a flea market on Sundays. There were lots of interesting stuff which I couldn't afford to buy but I looked, anyway. Then the range of goods expanded and the parking lot wasn't enough. So some people moved to a vacant lot somewhere in front of the original site. Soon the whole length of Morato would be filled with stalls selling what have you. (One Sunday we even rented a stall to sell blankets. I think we sold one). But after a while, Manoling Morato, the man behind the concept realized he had created a monster (as in monster human and vehicle traffic jams!) and stopped his tiangge in the original site. It would last a few more months until a building was built on the vacant lot. It died but without spawning into various forms and in different locations in the metropolis.

5. Timog Ave. and Sampaloc Ave. without the restaurants, bars, and shops. These streets were pleasant, tree-lined residential areas housing genteel people in large, sprawling bungalows.

6. Vermont's Modiste Supply on the way to Kamuning market. It was a treat looking at the multi-colored threads and buttons, the notions, the odds and ends which made H.E. life more fun than it really was.

7. The original Max's Restaurant on Scout Tuazon St. When all they served was fried chicken. When you could take-out fried balun-balunan (gizzard) and atay (liver) in little paper bags. Yummy! Everyone knew where it was because when people asked directions to my house and I said "malapit sa Max, they never got lost.

Please add your memories to this list!