Photos from the Vault

1964 Skateboarding

January 11, 1964

Couldn’t find a clipping to go with this photo.


My guess is this is Palm Street next to the courthouse annex. It looks like one of those weekend found feature photos that did not always find a home. Before the paper started publishing a Sunday edition a lot of information could pile up by the time the Monday afternoon edition printed. Often feature photos were the first to get left behind.
This was early in the skateboard era, metal wheels were durable but it took skill to navigate the small solid wood boards around rocks and cracks. Failure brought an instant stop to the board while the rider often continued at the same speed until he or she hit the pavement. Clay wheels were an improvement, but when they cracked the failure had the same catastrophic results.

Like the hula-hoop, skateboarding seemed to be one of the many fads tried and discarded by children of the 1960’s.

The invention of urethane wheels in the early 1970’s would lead to the resurgence of skating and the creation the industry and subculture we know today.
There was plenty of news in the paper on the 11th.

Smoking, as it turns out, is linked to cancer. I suspect that a smoker wrote the page two headlines. Pictures of the newsroom of that era show full ashtrays.

Smoking- Report’s effect to be temporary
Smoking cut could hurt economy
Tight security for a hot document
Research not original

Photographer Neil Norum and reporter Dorie Bentley had a story about the big construction projects in the south county including the 101 freeway.