As a consequence of opening the Roca butter crunch candies at Gwammy's place, the conversation inevitably segued to the oft-repeated story of the Ely Ramos chocolates. Together with Fernando Poe, Sr., Ely Ramos was a matinee idol and LVN contract star in the late thirties. He happened to gift my grandmother with a box of Whitman chocolate samplers sometime in late 1938. My lola put the box atop a dining room shelf, waiting for an opportune moment to open it, like when the whole family was together for some celebration.
Ever the chocolate lover, Gwammy would look at the box daily, dreaming of the time that the box would be opened. Gwammy would pester her mother to open the box, to which lola would reply (in Spanish) something like, "Not today, but perhaps during a special occasion." Now this went on weekly for several months, and sometime in the middle of 1939, lola finally decided to open the box.
To their dismay, the chocolates were half-consumed by weevils and/or ants! And despite how lola tried to locate and carve out edible portions, Gwammy and her siblings just lost their desire to eat the Whitman chocolates! And since then, my grandfather decreed that the family should, "Eat while the eating is good!" To this day, whenever we decide to open some chocolate goodies, we are reminded of this particular incident, and the wisdom that Ely Ramos brought upon the family. To the chocolate lovers out there, note that Whitman's still sells the sampler in the same packaging today as in 1939! I find the brand a bit too sweet for my taste though, but all in all, it's the memory that counts.
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| Giliw Ko (1939) with Fernando Poe, Sr. |
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| Maynila (1946) with Tita Duran |
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| Sumpaan (1948) with Norma Blancaflor |
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