Balboa Rendezvous

I didn’t know this picture existed, but she told me the story of where it was taken in complete detail one afternoon, only months before she passed. By that time, our conversations would entail me answering the same questions from her about my life every 5 minutes it seemed. I answered like they were fresh. But on this particular day she launched into a detailed remembrance of her youth.

She had just graduated high school a couple of months earlier. She had saved up enough, and along with her sister Marguerite and cousin Frances Schneider, they rented a beach bungalow in Balboa. She spent months designing and then making the summer dresses for her and Frances. My guess is she is wearing one of them in the picture.

The entire plan, was the beach during the day and dancing at the Rendezvous Ballroom at night. She was excited once again retelling this part. The Rendezvous had a troubled history with fires, but it was flourishing in 1945 with the big – band orchestras of the era. She couldn’t say who was playing that week, but it was someone huge, because the kids overwhelmed the dance floor and turned it into a concert venue. She was very distraught at not being able to dance to these bands.

But it was still a great vacation with her sister and cousin. She mentioned that one day coming up from the beach, they were near the Pavilion and Fun Zone when they heard a lot of commotion. People were honking horns and she said a lot of people were kissing, and then kissing someone else. She said she couldn’t make sense of it. Finally, they got someone’s attention, and that person informed them that the Japanese had surrendered. She said there was a lot of dancing that night!