Idjay Session Road Tayo: Part 1

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The old, old Session Road: none of us were born yet when this photo was taken (ca. 1940?) . It was also before the Japanese and American bombs/ grenades/ guns fouled up the city big time, and with carpet bombing. I reckon the city proper population would have been about 5 - 8,000. (Does anyone know?) The Philippines was still under American rule.

Commerce largely catered to the mines people, government employees, the handful of schools, and the military. Chinese, Japanese and Indian businesses were starting to make their mark with dry goods, hardware, vehicle parts, restaurants. Harrison Road was a close competitor for the business establishments.

One can view the Old Stone Market at the bottom of the road. Camp Allen was dotted with just a few buildings in the foreground. Telephone numbers probably had only three digits. The vehicle population was not contributing much to the air pollution, as concluded from the number of cars on this "busy" road.

The late Fernando Bautista has a vivid account of the Japanese Occupation Session Road: during the difficult times after the air raids and resistance and retreat, he discovered his flair for buy-and-sell, and soon found squatting space across Pines Theater, six meters frontage and 20 meters breadth. With materials salvaged from elsewhere, he opened a store, and sublet a portion to Mr. Jose Cornel, who sold handicrafts and woven goods. The other portion also contained a barbershop, while the family with four young Bautista boys who slept in double deck beds. They attended Baguio Central, which was badly damaged, but classes were held in tents and chairs made out of of American K ration boxes.

Mr. Bautista learned how to do barber’s work but was finished off with the hired barbers, while the older boys would shine shoes of their American solider clients. One workday a customer, Mr. Rosendo Donida, was seated at one of the five barber chairs, and chatted with Mr. Bautista, about opening a school, the latter being a UP professor before the war. ‘Problem is, I said, I don’t have the capital. And the man says, No problem, I provide you the classrooms and you get the permit and you teach.’
(In: http://tatay.ubaguio.edu/?page_id=85)

And that was how Baguio Tech started. How many other Baguio successful ventures were incubated in Session Road? I just don’t know.

Do you have any recollections or stories to share, on Session Road as you knew it? Much obliged, if you could forward them for blogging. Thanks in advance.