In the summer of 2006, in front of our house, lay an abandoned lot lush with green and varying insects. Deeper inside that pseudo-jungle were kids of different ages gathered around a barely recognizable bonfire discussing today’s activities.

It was the gathering of the kids in the northern part of the subdivision. We called ourselves the ‘All Star Klub.’ The All Star Klub consists of 20 kids not older than 13. Our leaders were my second cousins who were the oldest in the klub. Our activities consisted of playing tag, “agawan base”, “langit lupa”, hide and seek, and visiting friends.

Today was one such day where we decide what to play.

The neighborhood knew of our klub. Our parents left us to our own devices and have fun, but they had the gull called us ‘dwarves!’ How rude! We didn’t like that name, but it became our identity outside the klub.

Our klub did questionable things at our hideout. We fried eggs on top of plastic containers. Who knew that plastic could melt? Huh? We climb trees naked imitating monkeys. It was a bad idea there were a lot of ants. All that wacky stuff.

However, not all things last forever. For the following months, the club reduced its numbers. Eventually, the club died when my cousins moved away. The club lasted for 7 months. It wasn’t long but it felt like 2 years.

It was a weird time full of weird kids just having fun and having the time of their lives with nothing to worry about and nothing to think about.  All we could do was think of was entertaining ourselves be stupid kids.