thoughts of pinay power

shared by Marlo R. Beall, her sister

Earlier this month, a friend from college passed away suddenly. Her name was Dawn Bohulano Mabalon. We were at UCLA together in the 90's and were both involved with the on-campus Filipino organizations there.

Dawn went on to become a History Professor at San Francisco State University; but more importantly, she became a mentor and inspiration for countless members of the Filipino/a community through her research, her teaching, her activism and just being her wonderfully fun-loving, brilliant self.

I don't remember whether Cindy ever had the chance to meet Dawn, but they truly remind me of one other. I'm fairly certain that Cindy knew who Dawn was, and that if they had had the chance to spend even a few moments together, they would have been big fans of each other. I'm confident that Dawn and Cindy are now becoming fast friends in heaven. #dawnmabalonisintheheart

thoughts of foil ball

shared by VJ Rabuy, her sister

Growing up, we lived in a cul de sac, and there were several families with young kids in our neighborhood. We would often all play outside... games like tag, kickball, and four square, to name a few. 

Another game that Cindy and I played, often just the two of us, was called “Foil Ball”. We didn’t have the experience or equipment to play baseball, so Cindy had invented Foil Ball as an alternative. We used a large wad of foil as the ball, closer to the size of a softball rather than a baseball.

We had a miniature, wooden, toy bat that was painted silver, and its handle was covered in some sort of black grip tape. The fun part about it was that the longer we played, the smaller our ball became. So whenever that happened, we would just apply more pieces of foil, until the ball become the right size again; then we would resume playing.

We used the manhole covers on the ground as home plate and second base, and estimated the distances for first and third. These days, when I occasionally park my car in front of our parents’ house, right by home plate, I think back to our childhood days and our good ol’ Foil Ball games.