“The San Joaquin Valley is the ‘Raisin Basket’ of the world, producing over one half of the total world’s supply. After two or three weeks of drying in the sun, these grapes will become delicious raisins.” I never did care for raisins. I mean, you’ve already got grapes; why go out of your way to make them dry and chewy?

This is a modern “Colorscope Photo Prints” card, published by Scope Enterprises of California; the photo is by Arnold and Carole Compolongo.

Ramona was an 1884 novel by Helen Hunt Jackson which described the travails endured by our young half-Scottish half-Native American heroine, mostly due to racial discrimination. It was immensely popular, and many places in San Diego jumped on the popularity bandwagon, claiming to be the places portrayed in the novel. The Camulos Ranch, pictured above, had a valid claim; the author is known to have visited there during her research, and describes particular furnishings and other items at Camulos in great detail, despite having stayed there only a few hours.

This card is one among a group of six cards purchased at Ramona’s Marriage Place, another attraction, that I found in a shop as part of a lot of several California cards. Each of them has a “From Ramona’s Marriage Place” rubber stamp on the back, and were probably purchased at the same time by the same tourist.

None of the cards appears to be any newer than around 1915 at the very latest. This particular card is a very early Curt Teich “C. T. Photochrom” postcard, number A-33852, published in 1913.

For Postcard Friendship Friday, here’s a postcard mailed to a Friend.  Postmarked Santa Monica, California, 13 December 1938, this real photo postcard was dispatched to Mr. Friend P. Williams of Albany, New York.

Let’s talk about our friend Friend; I was able to learn a great deal about him from a variety of sources.  Originally from Olean, New York, Friend graduated from Cornell University in 1899 with a degree in civil engineering.  He spent most (if not all) of his career working as an engineer for the State of New York.

In 1906, he became engaged to a Miss Alma Horton, the daughter of Mr. F. M. Horton of 97 Gates Avenue in Brooklyn.  (I can’t help but wonder how they met; I can’t find any evidence that he spent any significant amount of time anywhere near NYC.)

He worked on the “Barge Canal” Project, which was a series of major improvements to New York’s canal system, which began around 1903 and lasted for decades.  By 1914, he was the division engineer for the project’s Western Division and, from 1919-1921, he served as a Special Deputy State Engineer, still with the project.

Ultimately, his career progressed until, by 1935, he was the Engineer-Secretary of New York’s Division of Water Power and Control.  When he received this card in 1938, I imagine he would have been about 62 years old and close to retirement.  His work certainly explains his residence in Albany, the state capital.

So friend Friend is no mystery.  The message, however, has resisted analysis:

Our writer uses a postcard featuring one of Oregon’s natural wonders to extol the virtues of California. “Californians are very proud of their state (justly so) and have shown us every square inch, or so it seems. We have been from San Diego to Portland, Oregon, and Dororty has done her duty, lecturing and signing books. We love California, but cold old Albany will look pretty good to us. We shall have a lot to tell you!  Just today we visited the Kellogg Arabian Horse Farm, and you know how much I enjoyed that. There were some beautiful horses there — pure white stallions. Our love to you and the girls. T. H.(?) Santiago.”

You would think that a woman with a name like Dororty and who is obviously an author and lecturer would be easy to find; I found a few, but none of them seemed to fit in with this message. Nor was I able to find Mr. Santiago.

Be sure to check out the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday.

“The lone San Diego Mission Palm is the one remaining of the original four planted in 1769. Two were sent to Chicago to the Worlds Fair in 1892 and the third was blown down in 1913 while the fourth is pining for its mates and is losing strength rapidly.” This description comes from the back of this Curt Teich “C. T. Photochrom”, number A-48679, published in 1914. I am not able to find mention of this mission palm in any contemporary accounts, and am forced to assume that it no longer exists.

This card is one among a group of six cards purchased at Ramona’s Marriage Place, a tourist attraction, that I found in a shop as part of a lot of several California cards. Each of them has a “From Ramona’s Marriage Place” rubber stamp on the back, and were probably purchased at the same time by the same tourist. None of the six cards appears to be any newer than around 1915 at the very latest.

Porpoises and dolphins are technically two different species, though they have a common land-based ancestor.  Seafaring fishermen tend to use the word “porpoise” to describe porpoises as well as any small dolphin.  This is a “Color King Natural Color” card, published by the W. M. Cline Company of Chattanooga.

Have you seen the “Dolphin Bubbles” phenomenon?  I first saw it online a couple of months ago and can’t get enough of it:

Nobody seems to be sure exactly how they learned to do it but, apparently, they’ve been teaching each other how to do it for quite some time. I also understand that it’s primarily the females who engage in this behavior, because the males are apparently too busy telling each other fish stories, bragging to each other about the one that got away. (OK, no, not really, but the males seem more concerned with social interaction than with self-amusement.)

My family and I have swam with the dolphins on a couple of occasions and, while one is immediately impressed with how intelligent they are, I am under the impression that nobody has seen this behavior in the wild before. I guess great minds require cool toys.

You can see some very cool still photos of the dolphins at play (and hopefully more videos to be posted soon) over at the Dolphin Bubbles website. I can’t wait to show the grandbabies!

Ramona was an 1884 novel by Helen Hunt Jackson which described the travails endured by our young half-Scottish half-Native American heroine, mostly due to racial discrimination. It was immensely popular, and many places in San Diego jumped on the popularity bandwagon, claiming to be the places portrayed in the novel. The Camulos Ranch, pictured above, had a valid claim; the author is known to have visited there during her research, and describes particular furnishings and other items at Camulos in great detail, despite having stayed there only a few hours.

This card is one among a group of six cards purchased at Ramona’s Marriage Place, another attraction, that I found in a shop as part of a lot of several California cards. Each of them has a “From Ramona’s Marriage Place” rubber stamp on the back, and were probably purchased at the same time by the same tourist.

None of the cards appears to be any newer than around 1915 at the very latest. This particular card was published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco.

Molly has the dubious distinction of drawing my name at random for her very first official Postcrossing card. She writes: “I’ve been enjoying the people, food, culture & beautiful scenery here for the last three years.” Thanks for the card, Molly, and I hope I don’t spoil you — not everyone is going to devote a blog post to you….

This card ostensibly depicts the very first stagecoach in California but, given that it was located at a well-known tourist trap, I am hard-pressed to believe it.

This card is one among a group of six Ramona-based cards that I found in a shop as part of a lot of several California cards. Each of them has a “From Ramona’s Marriage Place” rubber stamp on the back, and were probably purchased at the location itself, at the same time by the same tourist.

None of the cards appears to be any newer than around 1915 at the very latest. This particular card was published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco.

“Stanford Memorial Chapel — located on the Campus of Stanford University, is considered one of the most beautiful churches in America. The extensive use of art mosaics for mural decorations combine to make it a structure more than unique in character, worthy of visiting and well remembered. This church was built as a memorial by Mrs. Stanford to her husband Senator Leland Stanford. Dedicated in January 1903. Only non-sectarian services are held.”

This is an obvious Curt Teich card (number 0B-H123, produced in 1940) but is marked only as being copyrighted by the Stanley A. Piltz Company of San Francisco as part of their “Pictorial Wonderland Art-Tone Series”. There is a little wear on the corners, but otherwise this card is in excellent condition. You should definitely click on the picture, so that you can marvel at the painstaking detail of this card’s colorist.

Here is a cheaply made, unvarnished postcard, circa 1960, from the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. At its heyday, it could seat about 4,000 worshipers. The building is no longer in existence, having been demolished in the 1980s due to earthquake damage. However, the church still survives today in its new home in Glendora, California.

This card is one among a group of six Ramona-based cards that I found in a shop as part of a lot of several California cards. Each of them has a “From Ramona’s Marriage Place” rubber stamp on the back, and were probably purchased at the location itself, at the same time by the same tourist.

None of the cards appears to be any newer than around 1915 at the very latest. This particular card was published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco.

In honor of the Marine Corps Birthday, here is one of the few (and proud, I suppose) Marine Corps cards in my collection. The colors on this card are great, despite being a bit faded from age. There’s some wear on each corner; it might have lived inside an album for a time. I’m going to guess that it was manufactured around 1945; the card is postally unused. It was made by the E.C. Kropp Company of Milwaukee.

Here’s what the Official Website for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton has to say about the site’s history:

In 1769, a Spaniard by the name of Capt. Gaspar de Portola led an expeditionary force northward from lower California, seeking to establish Franciscan missions throughout California. On July 20 of that same year, the expedition arrived at a location now known as Camp Pendleton, and as it was the holy day St. Margaret, they baptized the land in the name of Santa Margarita.

During the next 30 years, 21 missions were established, the most productive one being Mission San Luis Rey, just south of the present-day Camp Pendleton. At that time, San Luis Rey Mission had control over the Santa Margarita area.

In 1821, following Mexico’s independence from Spain, the Californios became the new ruling class of California, and many were the first generation descendants of the Portola expedition. The Mexican governor was awarding land grants and ranchos to prominent businessmen, officials and military leaders. In 1841, two brothers by the name of Pio and Andres Pico became the first private owners of Rancho Santa Margarita. More land was later added to the grant, making the name Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, and that name stayed with the ranch until the Marine Corps acquired it in 1942.

In 1863, a dashing Englishman named John Forster (Pio Pico’s brother-in-law) paid off Pico’s gambling debts in return for the deed to the ranch. During his tenure as owner of the ranch, he expanded the ranch house, which was first built in 1827, and developed the rancho into a thriving cattle industry.

Forster’s heirs, however, were forced to sell the ranch in 1882 because of a string of bad luck, which included a series of droughts and a fence law that forced Forster to construct fencing around the extensive rancho lands. It was purchased by wealthy cattleman James Flood and managed by Irishman Richard O’Neill who was eventually rewarded for his faithful service with half ownership. Under the guidance of O’Neill’s son, Jerome, the ranch began to net a profit of nearly half a million dollars annually, and the house was modernized and furnished to its present form.

In the early ‘40s, both the Army and the Marine Corps were looking for land for a large training base. The Army lost interest in the project, but in April of 1942 it was announced that the rancho was about to be transformed into the largest Marine Corps base in the country. It was named for Major General Joseph H. Pendleton who had long advocated the establishment of a West Coast training base. After five months of furious building activity, the 9th Marine Regiment marched from Camp Elliot in San Diego to Camp Pendleton to be the first troops to occupy the new base. On Sept. 25, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived for the official dedication.

Ramona was an 1884 novel by Helen Hunt Jackson which described the travails endured by our young half-Scottish half-Native American heroine, mostly due to racial discrimination. It was immensely popular, not just for the storyline itself (sort of a Native American Uncle Tom’s Cabin), but for the romantic descriptions of 19th-century California, and the Spanish land aristocracy. It remained popular for decades thereafter, in part thanks to a 1910 D.W. Griffith film starring Mary Pickford, a 1928 version starring Delores del Rio, and a 1936 version starring Loretta Young and Don Ameche.

Consequently, many places in San Diego jumped on the bandwagon, claiming to be the places portrayed in the novel. Many of them had valid claims, as it was known that the author visited these places during her research. They were assisted by the fact that train travel to Southern California had recently become relatively easy and inexpensive, creating a tourist boom.

Ramona’s Marriage Place, previously (and once again) known as the Estudillo House, was unique in that there was no documented visit by the author, and that the location of Ramona’s marriage in the novel is not well described. Nevertheless, they marketed themselves as such and enjoyed a great deal of popularity.

This card is one among a group of six Ramona-based cards that I found in a shop as part of a lot of several California cards. Each of them has the “From Ramona’s Marriage Place” rubber stamp on the back, and were probably purchased at the Estudillo House, at the same time by the same tourist. None of the cards appears to be any newer than around 1915 at the very latest. This particular card was published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco.

Ramona and its tourist consequences can probably be credited with keeping much of Old Town San Diego out from under the wrecking ball over the years, and can also be credited with (or blamed for, depending on your point of view) popularizing Mission Revival-style architecture.

This is an unvarnished card, probably circa 1960, from the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. The church was probably most famous for its red neon “Jesus Saves” sign on the rooftop. According to the card, the church had a seating capacity of approximately 4,000.

Unfortunately, the church building was damaged irreparably by earthquakes, and had to be demolished in the late 1980s. The “Jesus Saves” sign was saved, however, and now sits atop the Los Angeles University Cathedral. The church is also still in existence, having moved to Glendora, California in 1985.

The card also mentions J. Vernon McGee as the teacher of a weekly “Downtown Bible Study Class”. Dr. McGee was the church’s pastor from 1949-1970. He also created “Thru the Bible”, a five-year-long series of radio programs which teaches the Bible, cover to cover, 30 minutes at a time. Though Dr. McGee passed away in 1988, the program can still be heard on over 100 radio stations in North America, and via podcast and shortwave.

I can’t help but marvel about how, once upon a time, this scene (published by Tichnor Art Company, Los Angeles) was beautiful enough to market on a postcard. I try to resist the urge to talk about politics, but I am thrilled about how the Democrats were forced to cave in and allow the 25-year offshore drilling ban to expire.

Unfortunately for those of us who purchase gasoline and heating oil, this does not mean that anyone’s going to be drilling for new domestic oil anytime soon. In California, you have a majority of residents in favor of offshore drilling, but the Governator and a majority of the statehouse opposing it. In Florida, much of the Gulf Coast remains off limits until 2022, thanks to a separate Federal law passed in 2006. And before the ban had even expired, Democrat Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced legislation to “protect” much of the New England coast from drilling.

Don’t think that the Democrats in Congress have given up, either. Even though they had to take this one in the teeth for now, I’m sure they are hoping that the ban can be reinstated quickly under a Democrat-controlled Congress and a still-theoretical Obama administration. Nancy Pelosi has already said that she looked forward to re-addressing the issue “with new leadership in the White House.” After the elections are over, the Democrats won’t have to worry about losing office over busting the chops of the American consumer in the short term, and they’ll have at least a couple of years to figure out how to blame it on the GOP. And Pelosi? She’ll be fine; I’m pretty sure San Francisco isn’t going to vote her out in favor of a Republican.

Hell, even Barack Obama favors “limited” drilling, or at least is saying that he does, in order not to alienate the moms who have to drive to soccer practice. But don’t count on it.

Even if all of that is overcome, even if people start paying enough for gas to overcome the NIMBY syndrome, and even if the Democrats stop caving to the small but very vocal minority of environmental wackos on the Angry Left out of fear of being voted out by angry consumers, it will still be at least until 2011 before the Interior Department can ramp up and start auctioning off leases.

You people want change? You changed to a Democrat-controlled Congress two years ago. Think about that on your walk to work.

An interesting feature of this card is that the image on the front is off-center. Prior to 1907, when it was illegal to write anything but the destination address on the back of the card, publishers often left white space on the front to allow a message to be written. But this card was posted in 1955, and was probably published around the same time.

The really interesting feature, however, is the message. Our suitor, Donald, writes to one “Mademoiselle” Gail Bautam of Bloomingdale, New Jersey: “My deerest one: Say, you, my aunt Esther tole me youse have annodder feller, you fickle but booful girl. Now, I’m jest about thru wit youse, but i still love youse. Avec mon amour, Donald.” Doubtless they married and had silly children.

The first Motel 6 opened off the Santa Barbara beach in 1962 (and is still in operation today). This is Motel 6 #2, also still in operation, and also in Santa Barbara, but uptown. It looks better today that it does in this photo, perhaps due to the white paint job, but I can’t help but notice that they still have the same teal-colored doors on the rooms.

I’m guessing this photo was taken during the late 60′s or early 70′s; that looks to me like a 1968 Pontiac LeMans in the lower right corner. (Please, correct me if I am wrong.)

I have no recollection of where this unused postcard came from; I have never been to California, and while my wife has been there a few times (the first at least 10 years after this card was published), this motel doesn’t fit her recollections either.