“Te” for “Auntie”

I had dinner with some of my girl friends at True Brew almost a month ago. It has been ages since we last saw each other and we had a lot to say with our ordinary lives.

We spoke of how time flew this year and moaned that we shall be thirty-something next year.

Nikki related how she was walking to work one day when the young trisikad driver called out “Te, sakay ka ‘te?”. I think she wanted to walk to the highway to catch the jeepney that she said no. Then, the young trisikad driver said “AUNtie pod oy!”. Nikki said she was fuming being called AUNtie. I said, “ha, AUNtie? Dili Ate?”. Cathy said “AUNtie na uy, tigulang na ta!”.

Wait a minute. Our local neighborhood kids always address me as “TE” when talking to me. Did they just call me AUNtie? They call my husband “cle”, so was I an AUNtie? I told my friends next time the kids in my neighborhood talk to me, I’ll ask them.

This morning, some neighborhood kids begged my husband to let them clean our yard for a fee. When they finished cleaning, they called out, “Cle, adto na mi cle”. Since my husband was in our bedroom and I was in the kitchen, I was the one who saw them out. When I went back to the house, the kids called out, “Cle, puwede mi mangayo ug saging?”. Again I was the one who answered them and said, “Unsa?”. Seeing it was me, they repeated their request at the same time pointing to the banana lying in the corner of the garage which was delivered the other night from my husband’s family farm. Then I remembered the “Te” part. I called out – “Unsay Te?” Then they said it: “AUNtie, puwede mi mangayo og saging?”

WHAAAAA! All this time, I really thought they were calling me “te” for “Ate” when they were talking to me. They meant AUNtie. I’m now an AUNtie??? or Ahjumma???? Not “Ate” or “Noona”? It’s like being called Mrs. than the usual Miss (I don’t look like a missus, hahaha!). When I got married, I did not like being called Mrs. I even told my husband to introduce me as his “wife” and not his “mrs”. Hearing Mrs. makes me feel old. Like this AUNtie thing.

Nobody calls me AUNtie. My nieces and nephews call me Tita. Or Mommy Yen. AUNtie feels old. I call my aunts Aunties and maybe that’s why I don’t like to be called AUNtie.

I’m not ready to be called AUNtie by kids who are not even related to me. Next time, I see those kids, I’ll tell them to call me Ate. Or they can call me Ma’am, hehehe.

Ok. I’ll settle for the usual Miss I’m accustomed to. ^_____^

Definitely, not AUNtie.