Looking back takes a measure of imagination. Even if it was you back then, time and distance change the story. The past isn’t exactly what we remember, especially when the memories aren’t even ours.
What happens when the evidence is all that is left?
Today’s time travel includes names, exact dates, even a Greyhound itinerary. In the collection, we’ll see images of two women with young children who may be grandparents now. If you’re familiar with California and its famous redwoods, this might look like a photo album of your own. Travel ephemera include maps, tickets and brochures, the lunch menu from Camp Curry, and a tiny recipe book from Fisherman’s Wharf.
This isn’t a family vacation, at least not ours. The genealogy is discoverable, but that’s not our aim. The arms-length context gives us another way to look back, a wander through the American West by bus in late summer 1955.
These photos were carefully fixed into a well-organized keepsake album documenting the fun-filled vacation, a roundtrip bus ride from Phoenix to San Francisco with a stayover at Camp Curry in Yosemite and a tour of Chinatown nightlife in the city.
A meticulous hand-penciled numbering system helped me put the trip timeline together and the photo locations in order. Zooming in added more connections, including two images by Moulin, the famous photographer of San Francisco and its surrounds.
No doubt this collection came to us because of the postcards, which provides a lovely windows-down cruise up the West Coast with all the scenic stops.
Days of California Dreaming. 
Signal Hill, Long Beach 
Bixby Park, Long Beach 
Redondo, Hermosa, and Manhattan beaches from Palos Verdes Estates view. 
Union Station in Los Angeles 
Los Angeles International Airport, circa 1955. 
Los Angeles freeway interchange, circa 1955. 
Merced, CA, looking west on Seventh Street. 
Lake Yosemite, near Merced, California. 
Arch Rock at Yosemite National Park 
Yosemite national Park Entrance Gates and Ranger Station on Highway 140 
Yosemite national Park, Half Dome and Sentinel Bridge over Merced River. 
Yosemite National Park, panorama view from Wawona Tunnel. 
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park. 
Yosemite National Park, the Four Falls: Nevada, Yosemite, Vernal, and Bridal Veil. 
Yosemite National Park, Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. 
Sequoia in the Mariposa Grove in the south entrance, Yosemite National Park. 
Yosemite National Park, Big Trees Lodge. 
Yosemite National Park, Wawona Tunnel Tree. 
Nevada Fall with rainbow. 
Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Lodge. 
Yosemite National Park, the beautiful Ahwanee Hotel. 
The Firefall that flares from light hitting Glacier Point. 
Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936. 
San Francisco City Hall, modeled after the US Capitol. 
Mission Dolores in San Francisco, founded in 1776. 
Panorama of San Francisco from Twin Peaks. 
Golden Gate Park Conservatory, San Francisco 
Portals of the Past, a relic from the great fire of 1906. 
Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park 
Steinhart Aquarium, circa 1955. 
Fishing Fleet, photo by Gabriel Moulin, 
Alcatraz Island, photo by Gabriel Moulin. 
Union Square, San Francisco, circa 1955. 
Mission Santa Barbara founded in 1786 
Coit Memorial Tower on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.
Included is a night in Chinatown, as the itinerary promised. These rare, real photo postcards signed front and back may require more research.
For the summer of 1955 (and for many years after, I hope) these mementos stood in for all the laughter, mystery, and adventure that two gals can gather in a lifetime. Though the photos and memories are not our own, the little joys of summer still shine through. After all these years, the collection still reminds us to get on the bus and go.
