The Window to 1959

When I stop into a Swap Meet, I feel like I can hear a thousand voices talking at once, telling the stories of the energy imposed into the items for sale.  All of these things were left behind or unwanted by the previous owner, by death or choice or force.

Rarely does a window open so clearly into a basic piece of the past as it did for me on this past Sunday at the Long Beach Flea Market.  Drawn to a vendor selling pictures---which is almost always a bad idea---I picked for an hour through some of the most evocative pictures from the 40s and 50s I have ever seen, especially considering there were pictures of strangers.

Next, at the bottom of the last box I picked through, was an envelope addressed to one C.M. Burnett of San Diego, CA, sent from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.  Inside was Chamber of Commerce tourism information from 1959 and before I ever knew how much I would be charged, I knew I had to have it.

Once home, I carefully pulled the information out, and found:

• Helpful Driving Tips: a brochure alerting visitors to One Way streets, parking on hills, jaywalking, and tow away zones.
• Gray Line San Francisco Tours Advertisement: Choices for which tour.  The Burnetts have put a check mark next to Tour 1.
• Calendar of Events for all of 1959: The Burnetts have a check mark next to July 7, 11, 18, 21, 25, 28 for the Municipal Pop Concerts
• San Francisco Hotels and Restaurants List: The Cliff House Restaurant is checked, but nothing else
• Your Guide to San Francisco and its Nearby Vacationlands: The Burnetts have checked off Bus Tours, Bay Cruise, Cable Car Rides, The Embarcadero,Golden Gate Park, Presidio, Seal Rocks Playland and Zoo, Nob Hill, Maritime Museum, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill, Chinatown, and then further out Yosemite National Park and Sequoia as well as Monterey Bay Country.  
• Avis Rental Car Ad

San Francisco Chamber of Commerce ad, plus other incredible photos I couldn't leave behind.

I love the little pen marks. 

They had a lot planned for their trip, certainly, and I don't know how much they actually saw or if they even made it, but affording a glimpse into a regular family planning a vacation in 1959 feels like I opened a private window.  I know that the little envelope from the Chamber of Commerce wasn't meant to sit around until 2014 and be purchased by a stranger, but in in the end, we are just stories, and we never know what part of our stories will live on...and which ones will be boxed and carted around swap meet to swap meet, anonymously.

Skeptically Yours,
Bigskeptic