Thursday, November 29, 2007

Balboa, Balboa Island, etc.

Jeff Delaney's new book, Newport Beach's Balboa & Balboa Island, will be available Dec. 3rd. It's one of the "Images of America" books from Arcadia Publishing. To find out more about the book and to see a bunch of vintage Balboa views, visit Jeff's website

Today's image (above) shows Marine Ave. on Balboa Island in the 1950s. What's the single most shocking change between Balboa Island in the 1950s and today? They had parking back then! Heck, you could park a whole bus in front of the post office! Today you'd have to wait for low tide, park out on the wet sand, and then rush to buy stamps before the tide came back in. 

The other day, an anonymous reader left a nostalgic comment on one of my early posts about Villa Sweden Restaurant in Huntington Beach. I thought I'd post a link to the comment here, since it's otherwise hard to find. 

Unrelated note: After a couple years of blogging, I finally got around to completing the About Me/Profile page here on the O.C. History Roundup. I doubt you really care what my favorite movies are, but at least you'll always have reliable links to my email address and my (non-blog) website.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Chris, I always find your posts fascinating. It doesn't matter what part of Orange county I'm looking at, there are some items that you have posted. Thanks-they are always fascinating.
Yes, I do remember Balboa in the late 1950s and best recall the refreshing frozen bananas and the truly wondrous Balboa Sweet Shop where we bought our Christmas candies.
Jane M