It was only as I was writing my memoirs that I had come to realize that
the living quarters we occupied at the Cavite Naval Base and at Plaza
Militar were all modified
quonset huts, handed over by the US Navy as they vacated the premises.
Ordinarily,
quonset huts would be erected with it's flooring resting on the
ground, but the quarters we lived in were all elevated about 3 feet
from the ground since the structures were supported by metal beams and
concrete piles or columns underneath its floors. Also, the
semi-circular roof did not curve down to form its wall. Instead, we
had wooden walls, the upper part of which were wide open windows
covered only with screens. These open windows would surround the whole
house and are equipped with a roll-down canvas for protection
against rain. I don't remember too much the layout of our first
quarters at the base and the only thing I could recall with that one
at Plaza Militar was that it had entry/exit stairs at the front and
rear of the house. However, I can still vividly remember the layout
of the last
quonset hut home
we occupied. It was L-shaped because of an extension for a master's
bedroom at rear left side of the house. It has 3 other rooms, a big
playroom, a servant's room beside the kitchen, and three
toilet/bathrooms. A corridor from the sala and dining room leads to
the bedrooms and the entry/exit stair at the left end of the house
where the garage was situated. There were two other stairs, the main
one leading to the sala at the right end, and another one at the back
where the kitchen was. A roofed space right behind the kitchen served
as the laundry area.
To cover the empty space beneath the
house from view and to beautify the front lawn, my Dad made 2-tiered
plant stands for the entire length of the house on which my Mom
placed her pots of different flowering plants like the roses and
bougainvillea of assorted colors. I miss that bamboo hut with nipa
roofing underneath a tree that we had at the left side of the lawn,
where I used to study my lessons and took my siestas because of the
cool breeze passing through it.
Our quarters, from now on, would
refer to this last quonset hut we occupied inside the Cavite Naval
Base. It was the first of several
quonset hut homes for
officers and their families lining the seawall off Bacoor bay. It
was about 5 meters from the seawall just like the rest, and situated
just beside the base's Public Works Office, and directly behind the Shore Patrol building at the base's main entrance.
[The Legacy Of The Pontoon Barges] 
