Way back our elementary school days, Taal Volcano erupted with a lesser magnitude, on strange clime and sentiments for us young students.

As we got up ahead of the sun to prepare for school that early morning in 1965, the news resounded over the radio that ashfall reached as far as Taal Volcano’s neighboring towns and cities including our municipality (now city) of Sto. Tomas, Batangas, with much of the ash falling down the roads and on the roofs of houses, mostly made of wood, sawali or bamboo stilts. We got the advice to keep hold of our handkerchiefs to prevent inhaling the volcanic vapor. In our time, classes were customarily suspended at the middle of calamities or typhoons.