Mom’s story – Tim’s story (draft) by Tim Balambao
My recollection of my mother Perfecta Beatrice Wolfe, Mejia, Balambao.
AKA Mary Drake… Zorro’s fan club
Mom told the story of leaving Texas when she was 16 (1935) and running away, She had run away a number of times, before making the drastic move. Becoming discouraged, early in her childhood by the fact there were so many siblings, suffering, washing diapers, dishes and cleaning up, she felt life could be and do better. To top it all off she was only allowed to finish school through the third grade. So, Mom and her girlfriend took on some aliases, claimed to be sisters and headed for California hitchhiking all the way. Mom’s alias was Mary Drake. The story went, while on their way to California, a driver that picked them up in Texas, got a little too frisky, so, mom pulled a knife, telling the guy to pull over and let them out. Being out someplace in the middle of the highway and being so cold that her girlfriend was slapping her, trying to keep Mom awake, knowing if they fell asleep, they wouldn’t wake up. Sitting there on the side of the road, some trucker pulled up. Luckily, he was a nice guy. The trucker asked why they were being so foolish and where were headed, Mom said Hollywood. Ending up with her friend someplace in Los Angeles or Hollywood, she worked various jobs, mostly domestic work. One job she really sought after was working at the Brown Derby restaurant. The Brown Derby restaurant was in Hollywood, catered to and was frequented by many famous movie stars and producers. She always dreamed while, growing up, she would one day go to Monterey to find Zorro. I guess that started after she saw Douglas Fairbanks in “The Mask of Zorro”. It crossed my mind more than once, that I might be here if hadn’t been for Zorro. One of her other early heart throbs was the movie star Rudolph Valentino. Going to the movies and imagining what it was like, thinking she wanted to be a movie star someday only drove her sense of adventure. She was a good-looking lady and believed in herself.
Mom met Mr. Mejia probably when she was 18 or 19 years old. Soon after my sister Dorothy and later my brother Freddie were born. Dorothy and Freddie can pick up that part of the story. I only remember sporadic stories Mom told me. She always reminded me to treat a woman with respect, as her marriage to Mr. Mejia was a physically abusive one, but, “Mejia” was, “The One and only, true love of her life”. After moving to San Francisco, with World War 2 raging, Mr. Mejia joined the Merchant Marines and headed for the Pacific, crewing on cargo ships. There were letters back and forth and my mom was certainly missing him. Mom told the story of standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, waiting for the ship to pass under, so she could wave goodbye. Mom always described the scene with Freddie, pretending to shoot sharks while she and Dorothy, tears streaming, watching Mejia’s ship sail out to sea. She just remembers it didn’t impact Freddie, that his father was leaving. She was sad about that moment and always remarked how she couldn’t understand it.
Mom never saw Mejia again. Some of his shipmate friends visited. They told her that he was playing baseball and went up for a fly ball and apparently fell into the ocean and disappeared. He was gone and she didn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it and kept looking for any evidence that, maybe, he was alive. She told me the sharks got Mejia’s ship sail out to sea. She just remembers it didn’t impact Freddie, that his father was leaving. She was sad about that moment and always remarked how she couldn’t understand it. Mom never saw Mejia again. Some of his shipmate friends visited. They told her that he was playing baseball and went up for a fly ball and apparently fell into the ocean and disappeared. He was gone and she didn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it and kept looking for any evidence that, maybe, he was alive. She told me the sharks got him. Years later I did see the letter from the from the Coast Guard with a description of the accident. That’s as much as I know about that episode. The story of how Mom met my Pop, “Nobby”, nick name for Navarro Fredirico Balambao, came down to Dorothy wanting a father and siblings too. Mom met Pop while they were both working at a hospital. He was cleaning and pushing a broom, she was working a cafeteria line when she took a liking to him. Dorothy, of course, loved him and helped to convince Mom to keep him. Married, they had Terry and then me. Mom always used to tell us that Terry was mistake. And after that Dorothy convinced Mom she needed a sister. They had it so well planned, right down to the room decorated for a girl. I guess I was a mistake too. That always made me feel that I was a disappointment.
My first memories are of 152 Blythedale in San Francisco. It was and is still the projects. Sort of a nice place to live, I guess. It was a lot of people living very close together in small apartments. I remember the big parking lot out front. I remember peering through the skeleton key hold. Back then they had skeleton keys, before the days of these new Schlage locks and things like that. I remember standing there looking through that keyhole, smelling the fresh air feeling the anxiety of wanting to be outside. Dorothy and Freddie were still home, for me, Freddie was always fun to have around, always teasing and a joking. He’d throws around, beat us up, tell us about his adventures, take us out for walks. While being a great Big Brother he was always getting into trouble. He always had something to say and do. Mom was always upset with him for some reason. Dorothy on the other hand was responsible, going to school, working at the phone company as an operator and taking dance lessons . Mom worked in the city as elevator operator (Flood building on Market St., The Emporium), cafeteria worker. At some point she worked at shipyard during the war cleaning up after the welders constructing the ships steel structure. She worked as a seamstress at some of the sewing factories,
More to come
