Summer is coming to a close; cooler nights and changing evening light have me reflecting, with a kind of summer melancholy, on childhood days in the Philippines. I remember running our little halo-halo stand, a popular and colorful cold dessert made with shaved ice, milk, and various sweet toppings.
The picture I was able to find of a halo-halo is a depiction of what it should look like, but I can’t remember if we served it the way it should have been – after all, we were just kids.
The front of our house served as our carinderia (a small eatery where my mom served home-cooked meals), with a tin roof that opened every morning and a bench worn smooth by shoe factory workers who ate their breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the same seats, day after day. When summer came, my sister and I would set up our halo-halo table right out front, where anyone walking by could see it. That was the whole announcement — no sign, no calling out, just the stand itself telling the neighborhood we were open for the season. No one questioned why kids were selling halo-halo. As I later learned, it was our version of lemonade stands here in the US.
We shaved the ice by hand with an old aluminum shaver that made your arm ache after enough cups and your hands grow cold. But I didn’t mind — this was ours: our stand, our summer, our own little business.
I didn’t think of it as work back then. It was just what summer was like growing up and how you’d beat the unbearable heat of Manila summers.
Reflecting on it, I always smile thinking about what that small stand taught me. Throughout my adult years, I’ve focused on working and creating—first a job, then a business, a plan, and always a next step—and I believe some of that started right there, with a homemade stand and an aluminum ice shaver. It was there I learned that when you showcase something good where people can see it, they will come.
As summer winds down for you too, I’m curious: what did your summers look like growing up? Was there a job, a routine, or a small tradition that may have shaped more of who you are than you realized at the time?
I’d love to hear about it — tell me in the comments. Here’s to whatever season is next for all of us. 🌻
Vian Wheatley 