This afternoon I found an old box in the back of a closet that took me flying back to the “olden days.” Among other items, the box contained:
The only letters I’ve ever received from my brothers - one from each of them. The letter from my older brother in 1971 (I was just out of high school) is addressed “Susan _____, FCB” FCB stood, unfortunately, for Flat Chested Bitch. In it he laments his lost girlfriend with these haunting words: “I miss Pat so much I could eat shit and bark at the moon.” It’s a treasure for sure. (they’re his words, folks, not mine)
Letters I’d written and/or received with stamps showing the postage changes over the years - starting with 4 cent stamps in 1959/1960 up to 13 cent stamps in 1976.
The ticket stub to the first professional baseball game I ever attended: Los Angeles Dodgers, April 10, 1970. Ticket price - $3.50.
The ticket stub to the one and only World Series game I ever attended: Baltimore Orioles vs. Pittsburgh Pirates in Baltimore, October, 1971. Game 6 pitched by gorgeous Jim Palmer. Ticket price - $10.00.
The “hippie bell” necklace I bought in California in 1968 and wore (or tried to wear) around my little hometown in southern Utah where instead of being recognized as the local groovy chick, man, I was teased about cows.
Sigh…it all took me back to some great times. Now if I just had a turntable to play all my old records…
susnfx—It sounds like we are just about the same age—I graduated from high school in 1971. I lived in SLC from the 2nd grade through the 8th grade (about 1963 I think) and then my dad got transferred to CA.
The last few years we lived on 6th Ave. between L and M. I have such great memories of that place. A few years ago we happened to spend a week there and I finally found my old best friend from those days and our old landlord, who was still at the apartments we lived in. It was so neat. It was just like 40 years (or more I guess really) had not gone by. We just chattered away for hours.
We used to go play in the City Cemetery and at Lindsay Gardens. For a big treat we would go to Lagoon (don’t know if it still exists, it was an amusement park), or on a picnic in Liberty park. And see fireworks at Dirk’s Field.
It is all very different now----the lower avenues are so pretty and fixed up. When I was little, the high avenues had new modern houses and we thought they must belong to really rich people. We would walk all that way uphill thinking we’d get better candy up there. We never did. Now it looks like the lower avenues would be at least as fancy.
You say your “hometown in southern Utah” and that you were there in '68, so you didn’t live in SLC in those days. Oh dear. My mind is turbid. But SLC is such a beautiful town, and the mountains around it—I envy you.
Hey Cynth - I drive through the Avenues every day on my way home from work. A lot of the older homes have been really fixed up and are just beautiful. Lagoon is still an amusement park - getting bigger (and more expensive) every year. Liberty Park is still beautiful, but you can’t drive around the whole thing in a circle over and over checking out guys any more. And the teenage guys don’t go there on Sunday to wax their cars and check out girls. Dirk’s Field is now Franklin Quest Field and has been renovated into one of the nicest small ballparks anywhere. Life goes on…
I grew up in Kanab but had lots of family in Salt Lake and spent lots of time here, dragging State Street with my cousins, meeting guys, and generally having a blast. I really had a good time as a teenager.
