Thursday, August 20, 2009

Treasure Chest Thursday - Happy Holiday Souvenirs - California - 1958



Treasure Chest Thursday was the idea of Leslie Ann Florida over at Lost Family Treasures. She's invited other genealogy bloggers to join in and so I decided to use my Treasure Chest Thursdays to blog about some of the wonderful (to me) and the odd (to them) 'family treasures' around me so that my kids will know more about these things and so that some of the information that's only 'in my head' will be preserved.

Today is just for fun really, but someday my daughter may wonder why this lone sea lion or seal charm is in my jewellery box. Yes, I used to have a silver charm bracelet - they were quite the thing in my day. When we went somewhere, even to Vancouver Island, if things were good, I was able to add a charm to my wrist. Somewhere the bracelet was lost, but the seal had fallen off some time before, so it's all I have left.

The charm was a souvenir from San Francisco, California, one of the many cities I'd like to see again, although it must be very different from when we were there in 1958! San Francisco has its own interesting history, of course, but it also has many historical links to British Columbia where I live and even in 1958 I was very keen on history.

As I looked at it yesterday, I did wonder how the sea lions and seals are doing in the San Francisco area now, and found these articles if you are interested. In my day, I don't think we went near enough to disturb them too much, but they were a tourist attraction all the same. I can imagine that they have been under many environmental and other pressures since, the same as populations in B.C.

Back to souvenirs. Luckily for me, my mother was a saver and my father was a stamp collector. I think it was Mum that hung on to this, but Dad would have appreciated the cancel on the back of this postcard my brother and I sent home from our California trip. (He rarely went on vacation, but stayed home to look after 'the business' and 'the cat'. No doubt, he enjoyed some quiet time while we were away. )

I especially like this card.

First, the front shows the Capitol Record building and in 1958 I was very into the latest music - 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes', 'Maybe Baby', 'To Know Him Is To Love Him', 'Hard Headed Woman'!

But secondly, it's obvious, at least to me, that I wrote almost the whole thing. My brother contributed one 'D', that's all!




5 comments:

Leslie Ann said...

That's cool that you still have a postcard you sent to your dad!

Linda Hughes Hiser said...

Loved your little silver seal. Yes, I remember those charm bracelets. I collected them, too and still have mine.

Donna Messerly Brown said...

Your little gems of information are surely treasure! Since you have such a following, I thought you might appreciate knowing about the 2009 California Family History Expo in Redding, Calif., Oct. 16 & 17. This expo is presented by Family History Expos, http://www.fhexpos.com, a well-established Utah-based company.

M. Diane Rogers said...

Thanks, Donna. I hope there is a big group of genea-bloggers at the California Family History Expo in October. The sessions sound great -especially "The Chicken Walked Here"! Wish I could be there myself, but not this year.

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