Table Talk: The Tale of the Preschool Table

I went to pay our Meralco bill near the Makati fire station and from just across the street, I saw a man selling wood tables.

I immediatedly approached him and inspected his tables, some of which he was still sanding to a smooth finish. He told me his name was Mang Danny and that he was from Bagong Barrio Caloocan (which means The New Village in Caloocan). Mang Danny looked really tired as it was really hot that day and Caloocan where he lived was around 2 hours from where we were. But he was gracious enough to answer more of my prodding questions.

I asked him, why I hadn't seen him before near Meralco. He told me he carries the tables around from spot to spot wherever he is permitted to and not shooed away by security guards. He is like the Aparador sellers (Cabinet sellers) the ones that carry huge shelves or beds on their backs peddling from street to street. This thought really tugs on my heart strings, such labor is not easy to endure. But as Mang Danny puts it, at least he has work.

On closer inspection, the tables look rough and raw on the edges. The kind I like because they really look handmade. Then Mang Danny started sanding the table I was checking up close. I told him not to bother because I like his tables as they are. For they look natural and wonderful!

The table may look rough, but not that bad that my son would get splinters from it. I think it's the perfect portable preschool table for my boy. And it only cost me P350! ($7.50) I think that's rather cheap for a wood table considering the alternative would be a plastic table which I'm not so thrilled about.

Next month, I hope to find Mang Danny sitting on the same spot under the tree. As I hope to buy more wood tables from him. He has bigger ones that fold, such a table would be perfect for my laptop when outdoors or as a craft table when I'm sewing.