I had an early morning walk to the sari-sari store today and I realized that it has been a long time since I bought something in a sari-sari store. Now that I could find pretty much everything at home and that a flight to the malls are much more convenient to me, I hardly go and buy something in that small and humble store. While ringing the bell for someone to get what I want, I studied the insides of the store. I can see the candies, the chips in small packets, the cheap chocolates.. etc.

But it of course brought me to a place in time when I frequently go and run to our old place's small sari-sari stores. Those that our neighbors had; I was a frequent buyer in two stores as far as I can remember. It was a fun moment back then when a single peso meant an ice candy, candies, Pirate, Goody Goody and much more that a peso could offer for a kid like me. The fun part was whenever my mom would ask us to run errands to the sari-sari store, any change meant a reward for my sister and I and we would indulge ourselves with the fun stuff that we could find in Manang Yoli's or Manang Pakit's store. It genuinely was a happy moment; when the things we wanted in life were simple and can be managed by only a few peso. It obviously changes as we grow up. Things will be a little complicated, harder and a peso reward for yourself is highly impossible at this time. And I understand that. We need more, we crave more and we hit the goals higher in life rather than goin on a trip to the sari-sari store to consume the change you saw at your house's nooks and corners. But i was wondering where it go, how it stopped, when it ended? ahhh.. nostalgia!