The past three days have been a rush, not just because of the amount of schoolwork (the semester’s coming to an end, finally!) but because a video I made over a month ago for a project somehow went viral. It went on New York magazine, the Gothamist (twice, even), Buzzfeed, and the front page of AOL, among others. I’m amazed by how much buzz it got; New York Post did a follow-up article on Tracks, the 25-year-old candy seller who was the subject of the video, and did a short interview with me in the video that accompanied their article.

It’s interesting to be on the other side of the fence in terms of press coverage; I’ve seen bad examples of aggregation on sites that failed to credit me for the video and simply put screen shots, such as The Daily Mail. But then again, I’m not surprised. I also saw how the press tends to milk the most they could out of a story like that. I also encountered journalists who put extreme pressure on me to give them the number of my source so they could meet a deadline, and got very sulky when I couldn’t respond right away or gave it to their competitors first. I couldn’t exactly explain to an impatient journalist that no, I couldn’t get out of my media law class to talk. I hope to not repeat their mistakes when I’m working again.

At the same time, I couldn’t help but hope that my video could help me score a good internship (or job, why not) after grad school. I’m really excited to dive into more multimedia storytelling next semester; that video I did with Tracks was actually the first one I produced on my own, so I got very, very lucky. Being in the J-School is such a rich learning experience, I’m almost afraid for it to end.

“I may have had five of these because of the frickin’ heat,” a friend said on Facebook, referring to a slushed ice drink. “Lasa siyang Nutrilicious na may ice bits. I miss Slush Puppies from my elementary days.”

It’s been a while since I last had a Slush Puppie (at least 8-10 years, if the last time I had one was in high school), but I can still remember the distinct tangy flavor of the strawberry-lemon lime combination I always ordered. Weird, I know, but I could never make up my mind about which flavor I liked better.

Slush Puppie pump bottles. I was always amazed by how deft the server's hands were whenever students asked for an "all-flavor mix."

Once, I saw my longtime crush slip into the cafeteria (he always walked over from Ateneo to Miriam because his school bus waited there) and order a vivd blue drink, which turned out to be blueberry. After that, I ordered blueberry-flavored Slush Puppies, too. It tasted nothing like blueberries, and left my tongue blue to boot. It was no fun getting Slush Puppie during peak hours, because the ice bits weren’t fully formed yet and all we got was brightly colored liquid in a cup—boo, no brain freeze.

I heard from the same friend that they no longer serve Slush Puppies or Snowie (another frozen drink, usually Coke or Rootbeer flavored on one side, another brightly colored one in another) because grade schools are asked to offer fresh fruit shakes instead. While I’m all for healthy eating and would not let my future kid guzzle soda and other artificially flavored drinks, I can’t help but feel that kids nowadays are missing out.

Thinking of Slush Puppie made me remember the other sugar-filled treats from my childhood, and I must say that I definitely had too much fun. Still, no regrets! I make up for things now with my daily serving of veggies anyway. What did I like best?

1. Haw flakes

We pretended to hand out communion when we ate this one

Apparently made from hawthorne fruit (the only other time I saw hawthorne used was when J.K. Rowling referred to Draco Malfoy’s wand), haw flakes were a staple grade school candy. Sweet, soft and slightly tangy, I could finish a pack of it in a day if only I were allowed to. These used to sell for 2 pesos per piece in the school cafeteria (or “cafe;” for some reason, we never called it a canteen). The price went up to 2.50, then I think eventually 5. We unknowingly committed blasphemy many times over whenever we lined up in front of someone with a pack to receive “communion.”

2. Haw Haw Candy

This was my favorite when I was in kindergarten and remained one of my top choices until grade school. Haw Haw doesn’t contain a shred of hawthorne; instead, it’s milk powder in tablet form. I used to share a pile of these with my first best friend, who I never saw after third grade because she moved to Assumption Antipolo and I never knew what happened to her after. I tried this again a couple of weeks ago, and it didn’t taste as good as I remembered. Some things should be left in that little sacred place called childhood.

Read More…