Lifestyle check
Published Jun 7, 2022 12:05 am
MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
Have you noticed, asked Danilo, how old fogeys like us don’t go out at night anymore?
A matter of age, then, that oldies don’t put themselves in the mood to leave the house after a long day of lolling around in their loosest, most comfy clothes, doing nothing or hardly anything. Old habits die hard, as they say, so after two years of staying in safely, the routine has kicked in. Too much trouble to, ehem, dress up.
Not with younger folks. They go out in small groups, they hold their intimate parties in a cozy bar somewhere, drinking beer or wine or rum coke, eating bar chow – why I call these get-togethers barties, where you won’t see anyone older than 52. A barty celebrates an event like a birthday, a promotion in rank (not sure if the economy since 2020 can afford pay increases), or something as compelling as TGIF. Barties continue to be so commonplace that even during the strictest phases of lockdowns and alert levels, cops and barangay enforcers were keenly arresting people in bars and loading them, cheek by jowl, in vans where they were squeezed tight against one another, as if the threat of Covid was the worst punishment they deserved.
Now that life is more or less Covid-proofed, the night life of Metro Manila should pick up, grow and glow in the dark, no thanks to the elderly. As far as millennials and Gen-Z’s are concerned, things could be better if prices didn’t spiral so dizzyingly by the day, from crisps to fries, for just as a new government is soon to make its dramatic entrance, the fun of going out has been tempered by the erosion of the people’s purchasing power. But for the young and happy spenders – whether the money comes from their parents or the sweat of their brow – it’s still more fun with friends.
Fortunately for seniors, their friends are also seniors (Danilo being one of them). Staying home after sunset without a friend or friends except for a chat on the phone shouldn’t be as uneventful as it sounds...Me, I’ll just wait for my once-a-week date with Lydia, who knows her business like she knows the back and muscles of her hands.
Jullie Y. Daza
Have you noticed, asked Danilo, how old fogeys like us don’t go out at night anymore?
A matter of age, then, that oldies don’t put themselves in the mood to leave the house after a long day of lolling around in their loosest, most comfy clothes, doing nothing or hardly anything. Old habits die hard, as they say, so after two years of staying in safely, the routine has kicked in. Too much trouble to, ehem, dress up.
Not with younger folks. They go out in small groups, they hold their intimate parties in a cozy bar somewhere, drinking beer or wine or rum coke, eating bar chow – why I call these get-togethers barties, where you won’t see anyone older than 52. A barty celebrates an event like a birthday, a promotion in rank (not sure if the economy since 2020 can afford pay increases), or something as compelling as TGIF. Barties continue to be so commonplace that even during the strictest phases of lockdowns and alert levels, cops and barangay enforcers were keenly arresting people in bars and loading them, cheek by jowl, in vans where they were squeezed tight against one another, as if the threat of Covid was the worst punishment they deserved.
Now that life is more or less Covid-proofed, the night life of Metro Manila should pick up, grow and glow in the dark, no thanks to the elderly. As far as millennials and Gen-Z’s are concerned, things could be better if prices didn’t spiral so dizzyingly by the day, from crisps to fries, for just as a new government is soon to make its dramatic entrance, the fun of going out has been tempered by the erosion of the people’s purchasing power. But for the young and happy spenders – whether the money comes from their parents or the sweat of their brow – it’s still more fun with friends.
Fortunately for seniors, their friends are also seniors (Danilo being one of them). Staying home after sunset without a friend or friends except for a chat on the phone shouldn’t be as uneventful as it sounds...Me, I’ll just wait for my once-a-week date with Lydia, who knows her business like she knows the back and muscles of her hands.