When I was doing research on Maymie Cowley, the madam at the Miramar Beach Inn, a friend suggested that I write San Francisco columnist Herb Caen. “He knows everybody,” the friend reminded me. I did write Caen, asking about Maymie, and Caen’s assistant looked into the files and came up with a story linking famous attorney Vincent Hallinan with Maymie Cowley. The story, a small clip, reported a government raid on Maymie’s roadhouse during Prohibition–and that Vincent Hallinan was representing her.
But when I wrote Vincent Hallinan in 1976, hoping he would hand me a big story, it was many, many legal cases after his brief connection with Half Moon Bay’s madam.
Dec 23, 1976
Dear Miss Morrall,
Please remember that my representation of Maymie Cowley occurred almost 50 years ao and would be one in thousands I have represented or consulted, etc.
Actually, her name rang a slight tinkle in my memory but not enough to recall any circumstance concerning her.
Last Saturday I drove down to Pebble Beach along Highway 1. It was the first time in 25 or 30 years I had seen Half Moon Bay and its environs. The chief recollection was of artichokes and rumrunners.
Sorry, I can’t help you in your research but that’s it.
Feeling a little blue? Do you feel like staying when you want to go? Or do you feel like going when you want to stay? You can travel all over the globe and I’ll bet you never forget the Coastside.
On The Coastside (by Neva Reece, copyright 1980)
Stick me in a pocket down by the sea
If you can’t find me, that’s where I’ll be
On the Coastside, diggin in on the Coastside
—–
We’re proud to say we’re not L.A.
San Francisco nor San Jose
We’re just a string of little towns
Down on the Coastside
——
The City and Marin are flashy and fun
They’re as crazy as anyone might want to be
That’s why you’ll find me on the Coastside
When I’ve been away for over a day
When I drive down the Slide
You can hear me say
I’m back home again, back home on the Coastside
——–
Sandy beach, blue horizons
Meeting me everyday
Is it really surprising
This is where I’ve come to stay?
———————–
Neva says:
I would love to write something – of course by the time I get through cutting out the parts that I would be embarrassed to share on a public space it will probably be – “I came, I hung out, i played guitar, I sang, I moved, I visited”….or something like that – ha!! I will have to develop some delicate nuances as some writers do – hint at spiritual states instead of specifics, I guess?!? I will talk to Mickey, I will actually be seeing him and Lizzie next week in Port Townsend. Last I heard of Denise [Steel], she moved to Hawaii and we haven’t heard from her since. I was asking Lizzie about her on one of my more recent visits and she didn’t know either. I will get back to you soon and will be sure to let Mickey know you would like to hear from him. See how wonderful your work is? Helping to bind friendships together through decades and over thousands of miles. you rock!
I wanted to share these photos of the day Fred and Dorothy met. It was a very interesting day. with a pack of Jack Russells attacking a goat. Playing in the park. And possibly the only day Dorothy ever let someone else drive her vehicle. I remember it all so well.
Elaine Martini Teixeira was a kid growing up in Moss Beach during WWII. In a series of interviews, she has generously shared her memories with us.
(Elaine, wearing white, with sister Loretta)
HalfMoonBayMemories (HMBM): There was a movie theater in town, right?
Elaine Martini Teixeira (ETM): The local HMB movie theater, owned by Alvin Hatch, was a big treat for all of us. The first theater was on Main Street, corner of Miramontes, where a cafe is now located. Later, a new one was built, across the street,facing the shopping center on Miramontes St. The movie house is gone; now there are a few businesses, located in the bldg., per my brother, Raymond.
There were special evenings when the movie house people had drawings and awarded money to the general public. One time my brother won but he wasn’t supposed to be out, so he sent me up to claim his prize! Same thing happened with Aunt Lil, who was a bit shy about walking up to the stage. Sometimes they gave out dishes; it helped kept people going on those evenings .
HMBM: What movies did you see?
EMT: I saw so many movies over the years, not easy to list them or recall, I know we all enjoyed, “Gone with the Wind”, saw lots of westerns, and one, “The Cat People”, now a classic, scared the devil out of me. I had dreams about it. June Torre and I had a big crush on Tyrone Power, Aunt Lil was smitten with Robert Taylor and my older sister Gloria was a BIG fan of Clark Gable. We all loved the Bette Davis movies.
We (Gloria, Lil and I) got rides with my brother, Raymond, when he borrowed the car from my dad, an old four door, Chevy. Raymond was a wise one, would get Lil to treat him to the show; Gloria had to treat for ice cream but I was too young to have money, so I got a FREE ride! Raymond was also was able to sit with his girlfriend at the show, his wife in later years, Shirley Joseph, who lived right in town.
HMBM: Did you go see movies in San Francisco?
EMT: The family and most of the locals, did not drive to SF for movies, that I know of, I went with Aunt Lil to see movies and stage shows at the Golden Gate Theater. We took the Greyhound Bus (which was the only one going to SF) which left the Coastside at 6:30 a.m. and returned in the evening about 6:30 p.m. I remember seeing the Harry James Band with vocalist Helen Forest during the “big band era” when she took me to SF. Others we saw, Jimmy Dorsey and Sammy Kaye bands.
HMBM: What about school holidays? You went to the city with your friends?
EMT: June Torre and I met our high school friends on the bus in Moss Beach (the bus was filled with people commuting to SF to their jobs).
We tried to schedule it so we could see two double bills – can you imagine, we ate breakfast on Market Street, then waited for the theaters to open around 10 AM: after the first double bill, we ran like h— down Market Street to make it to the second theater and then ran to catch the bus to come home! If we missed it, were stuck in San Franciso.
Seeing two double bills, with the first the main “A movie and the second a “B” movie, I’m not sure if we remembered what we saw!
The theaters were the Fox, now gone, the Warfield, Golden Gate, and Orpheum, the State Theater and I believe one was the Paramont, no longer there.
I remember seeing “Crash Dive” and “Razors Edge.” At the Golden Gate, we saw stage shows starring Frank Sinatra and Jane Russell, there was usually an I opening act and band.
I do remember on one occasion going to SF with Gloria and her future husband, Russell Bernardo, to an event, maybe a movie, in SF. It was during the war years, there was an air raid, when an air raid alarm sounded, it really scared us, had to pull over on the street and park, turn out all lights. Overhead, we soon heard the motor of an airplane, and there were several search lights shining up into the sky. Eventually, the alarm went off to indicate it was over. Thankfully, it was not a foreign plane.
Other special events in SF were to visit playland, on the beach or swim in the pool, both located near the Cliff House.
j
In later years, when the movie theater in HMB had closed, people drove over to the Peninsula for movies and special events, including the San Mateo County Fair. In those days, new movies moved up and down the peninsual to the different theaters (most of the cities had at least two theaters) and stayed around for a month or two. Also, Tony and I attended dances held at at Playland, with name ochestras, we would meet several couples from HMB.
We drove to San Francisco, saw “South Pacific” with my husband, Tony Teixeira, and Aunt Eva and her husband, Albert Quilici. Also, we attended dances were held at at Playland, with name ochestras.
At Half Moon Bay High School, if you were a good student, and in the honor society, the teachers would take you to plays or musicals at the Curran and Geary Theaters in the City. The first musical I ever saw was “Oklahoma,” and after I got married, I joined the Civic Light Opera in San Francisco, and with several friends attended many musicals.
A few months ago I received a fascinating email from San Francisco artist David Gremard Romero. He wanted to know more about the Coastside “outlaw” Indian Pomponio–because he wanted to paint him. In the meantime, David continued his research and the painting that he imagined is now a reality, part of a show of his latest work at the Bucheon Gallery, 389 Grove St, San Francisco. (415.863.2891…email [email protected]) David’s show opens on Friday, July 27, 7-10 p.m.
(“La Caida” 2008. Pastel and Gold Leaf on Paper. 56×38 inches)
————-
June, ….I would like to do more on the Pomponio theme, though. He is a background figure, so I am sending you a picture of the whole painting and also a detail of just the Pomponio figure. It’s a large pastel. The figures are almost life size. It is called “La Caida.’ It is a self-portrait.
I am the figure in the middle, bending over with the red cape. I am wearing the mask of St. Thomas Moor Killer, or Matamoros, who was believed to help the Spanish when they fought the Indians, and on my leg is painted Father Junipero Serra carrying Carmel Mission in his arms, with the rest of the missions scattered as Tattoos across my body. I mean to suggest that I am embodying the idea or spirit of both Junipero Serra, a man I believe tried genuinely to do good but who had an ambivalent effect on California history to say the least, and the malign idea of a Saint who kills Indians, both of which were brought to California and are integral to our history.
The man on the floor is a figure who appears in many of my paintings. It is unclear if he has been knocked out by the Serra/St Thomas figure, while also being aided by him.
The woman is the Aztec goddess of Mercy, Tlazolteotl. Her symbol was her black mouth. Her name literally means “Filth Eater.” In Aztec culture, you had one opportunity to confess your sins in your life, and when you did so, Tlazolteotl ate them and released you from their burden. I was thinking of her as being sort of the referee.
And in the background, to the far right, you see Pomponio, another ambivalent figure, but one whom I prefer to think of as a resistance fighter.
I read in another source that at the end of his life, Pomponio was brought in chains to the Presidio, and at night he cut off his heels to escape his shackles. They caught him by following the trail of his blood. I have also read that this is probably a later myth, but it is a powerful image, and since in much of my work I think of history as being a sort of myth, it applies well; on his shorts you can see him squatting down and cutting off his heels.
From the wound spring both blood and water, symbols of life, death, and also renewal. His boots are crocodiles–in Mesoamerican myth, the crocodile was thought to be the base of the world. This thus transforms him into an axis mundi, the world tree and the center of existence, which he is, as our ancestor (whether, in some genetic sense, if one were Native American, or Spiritually, as a forebear in this same land we now inhabit).
In the middle, on his legs, is painted a skull from which Pomponio emerges again, and again cutting his heel. From the mouth also emerges a world tree, which is also a path marked by his bloody footprints, leading to Chicomizoc, the Aztec place of birth and beginnings, and which is often thought to have been a place somewhere in the United States.
I often equate the bloody acts of our ancestors as a sort of sacrifice, however unwilling on the part of the victims, from which sprang the world we now inhabit, and which would have been impossible without that initial bloody scene. Along the path are scenes of conquistadors and massacre.
The last figure is Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec god of Change through Violent Conflict. The whole piece has been inspired by Mexican Lucha Libre. In my paintings contemporary individuals wear wrestlers costumes inspired by Pre-Colombian Gods, and by the historical figures so important to Mexican and California history, and they wrestle and act out these struggles which still have ramifications in our own day.
Anyway, those are some of my thoughts on the painting. I hope you like it, and I would love to hear your thoughts.
The following interview with Coastside carpenter, Paul James written by Bill Hendricks, appeared in Transitions, Montara to Pescadero, an oral history (1977), inspired and edited by Canada College teacher Aida Hinajosa.
Photo of Paul James by Katie Murdock.
In the 1800s a man named James Johnston came to settle in the area now called Half Moon Bay. He came to build his dream house and to take part in the history of California. His house’s construction and the varied ways he brought in his building materials to the isolated area seemed rather bold and unheard of to the local inhabitants. His stylish Victorian lifestyle and his determination to realize his life-long ambition earned him a very noteworthy mention in this area’s folklore.
In the shadow of this great American pioneer now comes another man, who, like Johnston, has started his “dream house.” Although years of change in society and lifestyles have taken place, Paul James of Montara, California, still adheres to Johnston’s philosophy of hard work and blind ambition to see his vision through. Paul’s aptness in the fields of carpentry and architectural design are evident in his Victorian creation a few yards off Highway One in Montara.
As the rough frame and outside shell are painstakingly assembled, Paul, his volunteers and his friends sign the masterpiece with their methodical attention to detail in reproducing a Victorian house. Being a long-time lover of Victorian construction and the beauty of that time which so rapidly disappeared, Paul has retained a high degree of polish that accompanied that age. Starting with his own basic thoughts of what his idea of a house should be and interlacing them with his observations of California Victorian construction, Paul is carving out his own niche in coastside history.
Not only is the house of his own particular design, he also intends to do most all of the construction himself. His method of securing used building materials from salvage jobs in Oakland and San Francisco closely parallels the unorthodox ways of the legendary Johnston himself.
Working with limited financial resources, Paul purchased his land with a low down payment and a self imposed voluntary servitude to his carpentry work in order to start this colossal task of his dream house. He purchased a small flatbed truck, a chain saw, wrecking bars, and other pieces of demolition equipment and went out to secure his building materials.
The complexity of the house’s design itself lends to the overall beauty of the Victorian. Paul’s plans for his witch’s tower for observing ships at sea and other elaborate, ornate construction all remind us of that forgotten age of craftsmanship when time was taken to insure the quality of the work.
As Paul talks of his fascination of the Victorian period and its charm and romanticism, one can feel the excitement within him which pushes him on to complete this monumental project. Being a carpenter and ship builder by trade, he has earned notoriety in building this house and with it has come offers to do specialized wood construction which constitutes the financial support needed to live on and to perpetuate his aspiration. Paul can truly be considered a pioneer and leader in his search for new ways to invest his life with a worthwhile project regardless of his financial circumstances or mode of living. He indomitably develops varied new ways to pursue his interests. His lifestyle and his warm and friendly personality provide a welcome change from the typical everyday madness we all seem to bring on ourselves in the fast pace race to live higher-on-the-hill than the other person. He assimilates his modern technology into the meticulous attention of a craftsman of the Victorian Age.
He has set out to recapture that lost sense of quality and concentration of detail which is now often sorely missed in home construction today. Paul’s plans for living in the house and his tentative plans for the building of a sailboat and possibly the construction of another Victorian for someone else all show us his belief that physical work stimulates the body and the concentration provides the much needed escape from life’s modern day problems.
Paul and his small band of faithful workers are all proud of what they are accomplishing–and without blowing their own horns about it. They have sought to break away from the plastic world which surrounds them and to occupy themselves with a notworthy and worthwhile project.
and Laura’s great-great grandfather was Gabriel Sibrian.
(I told Laura I am not familiar with the Sibrian name. Are you?)
In Half Moon Bay, the Miramontes name is ubiquitous: it’s the name of a street where real members of the Miramontes family reside. It’s the name of the southern point of Half Moon Bay. (Pillar Point is at the northern edge). And—the town of Half Moon Bay sits on the original Miramontes grant.
Marian Miramontes, wife of Bill, was the first telephone operator in town and she was very active in the local historical society.
They’re a huge family, the Miramontes’s, spread all over the country–to get a feeling for there’s a wonderful photo of the family celebrating an anniversary near where the San Benito House stands.
Laura, who lives in the East Bay, is tracing the history of her great-great grandparents and is looking for new leads.
She says: “…I also have a very old photo of I believe my great great grandpa Sibrian he was riding a Stage Coach in what looks to me like either sand dums or snow. I’m told that it is sand from the coast in Half Moon Bay ( Spanish Town)….”
When I first moved here, the only bookstore in town, Coastside Books, was owned by Diane Gates.
The following interview with Half Moon Bay bookstore owner Diane Gates, written by Anne Gawronksy appeared in Transitions, Montara to Pescadero, an oral history (1977), inspired and edited by Canada College teacher Aida Hinajosa.
(Photo: Diane Gates)
“I always wanted to have a bookstore. I think there must be hundreds of people around that have this dream in their minds.”
Diane Gates, petite, dark-haired, dark-eyed owner of the only bookstore in Half Moon Bay, Coastside Books, speaks quietly and gently of how it came about that she owns a store, how she feels about books and people, and how she feels about living in Half Moon Bay. Carefully feeling out for the right words to express her thoughts, she continues:
“I think the people that are book lovers are more interesting all the way around.” And adding an explanation of her opinion, says, “That seems sort of an uninspired thing to say, but it just seems sort of natural to me.”
Being surrounded by books, and not just any books, but well and carefully chosen books, Diane seems to be in her natural environment. She has her own definite feel for the specialness of books stemming from her library training which sharpens book-selection skills. Also, she has experience from working with books for several years.
“I worked four years as a librarian for the County. I studied library science at Berkeley, and started out on the San Mateo Bookmobile, and that was really fun. They had at the time two small Bookmobiles and one large one. It was a really interesting job.
“They also had a permanent library then in Half Moon Bay and I worked there, too. This old library was in a building on Main Street. The library itself wasn’t even on Main Street; it was part of that house in the back of the building, so none of the major traffic could see us, so nobody knew it was there! And it was small than my bookstore!”
Diane gestures toward the cozy space of the shop with its walls stacked high with books. (This interview was held in the wonderful, small, old house that was the first location of Diane’s store.”
“The old library was really teeny-tiny, so if you had more than four patrons at once, you were bumping into each other!” she smiles. “But it was fun.”
However much Diane enjoyed her library work–and she was very happy being children’s librarian in Half Moon Bay–the dream of owning her own store was always with her; four years ago, to her delight, this dream became a reality and she explains how she and her husband began on their enterprising venture:
“A combination of circumstances worked out in my favor. Just about the time I was looking for a new kind of job, this building came up for lease. That was in 1973. I was working at the library at the time and driving by here every day and I saw the sign and called right away and got the building. My husband had gained some valuable experience working for a Berkeley book wholesaler at the time and we had saved our money ’cause we knew we wanted to do something like that some day. We started out really small, and we’ve been putting just about everything back into it as we go, and it’s been growing quite a bit in the four years now.”
But as well as these necessary material pre-conditions for the existence of the shop, its life and success can be attributed both to what Diane is as a person, and to what she believes. She is very approachable, friendly and will give sound advice to the customer who requests help in making a selection. On the other hand, she will leave the customer to browse and look through the books, posters and cards on display.
Her interests as a shopkeeper do not lie in profits and expansion. On the contrary, she feels strongly about the importance of the small shop where the customer and his or her needs are all important. The shopkeeper and the customer can meet face-to-face and an exchange can take place, a sharing of ideas and, in this instance, a common love of books. The serving aspect of shopkeeping can be more than merely functional, and the shopkeeper can give the customer the personal attention and time that are sorely lacking in the more commercialized shops where the customer often times comes away feeling harassed and alienated.
“In the sharing aspects, in the personalization, lie one of the delightful things about having a store; and I think this is true of work with the public in general,” maintains Diane.
“I really love having the store,” she tell us, “and also I think this situation is ideal. I wouldn’t enjoy staying at home all the time, so this way I get both things; when I’m home, I’m home, and when I’m at work, I can devote my attention to that. And I enjoy this so much. It’s almost–well, I don’t want to be too misleading–sometimes it’s frustrating, and sometimes I’m tired, but most times it’s a very rewarding kind of thing, working for yourself.”
The depth of Diane’s interest in books is reflected in the excellent quality of the selections on display in the store, and the breadth of her own reading interests is mirrored in the diversity of the categories represented. Herein she hopes to cater to all the possible interests of the coastside reading public. “We try to have as wide a subject range as we can,” she says. “A lot of the time we may have only one copy of a book, but we do try to have as wide a range as we can.”
And while there is a demand for a varied range of subjects, according to Diane, “One of the main things we sell is books of local interest, local history. Our best selling book is called, The Last Whistle. That’s the one that is the story of the Ocean Shore Railroad that ran from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. The publishers of that book are a local company out at Berkeley and they do nothing but railroad books, but in our situation, The Last Whistle is the one we’re really interested in.
“On local history there are several books that have been written that touch on our area, but there’s no one book I know of right now that really gives a well-rounded history of Half Moon Bay, or even of this area of the Coastside.
“Combing the Coastcomes closest to that, but it was intended to be a guide book, I think. It has a lot of history in it, and interesting tidbits, but it mainly tells you, if you are going on a drive, what to look for.
“But people often do ask me for a book about Half Moon Bay. Maybe they want to send it to their relatives back east, or even in Europe somewhere, to let them know where they are, and what’s happened in the past, and pictures of how the place looks right now.”
“I have found a book that comes close to fulfilling that need. I don’t know if you know about A Separate Place; it’s just about La Honda, San Gregorio and Pescadero. It interviews a lot of people, and has excellent back-and-white photos. Everything is recognizable, people, old barns.
“And then an interesting thing, too, when I was new here, I read South from San Francisco, which is an excellent history of San Mateo County. The author is Dr. Frank Stanger of the San Mateo County Historical Association. His writing is so much fun. He’s obviously a really lively person. He just has a lot of humor, and a really good way of putting together detail. So often history writing is dull, or emphasizes things that are very interesting to the historian, but not quite so much to the lay person who just wants to get the feeling for the area.
“It makes you feel in a way like you’ve found your roots because this is going to be your home.
“Then you suddenly see why–names, for example, like Pulgas Avenue, the fleas, or the names of the wealthy people which are now names of shopping centers or something in the landscape. You see why it’s there, and it’s really fascinating to figure out the backgrounds of people and what prompted them here, and what it was like in those days for them.
“History plays a really important part to a new individual in the area, and I think a history book is the nicest gift you could give someone new here. In particular, I like South from San Francisco. It isn’t in a very attractive cover, but it has the most information.
