Nov 07
Would over 500 people line up today to dig oysters out of the mud? A big crowd showed up for Morro Bay’s first Oyster Festival in 1969. It was billed as an annual event then but the Harbor festival founded in 1982 has top billing now in Morro Bay. The oyster beds had been the …
Sep 10
About once a week folks e-mail or post a comment asking if I can find an image in the files. If it were only that easy. Our image files before 1970 are scrambled. In addition, before the first full-time photographer was hired in 1962, reporters would shoot a roll of film, have prints made at …
Oct 16
October 2, 1989 We were just talking about festivals falling on the same weekend. This year the Clam Festival and Colony Days fall on the same weekend. At least they are close alphabetically. Clams used to be so plentiful that ranchers in the early 1900′s could bring a hay rake to the beach and …
Oct 14
October 19, 1981 Atascadero used to have an event called the Mudhole Olympics featuring wacky events and radio DJ’s. Now it is hard to find a real live local disc jockey and impossible to find the Mudhole Olympics. Perhaps they are on a four year cycle like the more famous Olympics but I doubt it. …
Oct 08
FLAMBOYANT–The Barbary Coast Girls ride in Paso Robles’ Pioneer Days Parade. October 11, 1970 As reported in the earlier Harvest Festival post, the planners for weekend festivals did not coordinate well in 1970. The Harvest Festival parade was going at the same time as the Pioneer Day parade. Back in the day the then …
Oct 06
April 8, 1968 There used to be a luxury overnight train, the Lark, that traveled between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Southern Pacific lost interest in passenger service as America fell in love with the automobile. The postal service had abandoned rail-mail transportation in 1965 and now final bell tolled for the Lark. The UPI …
Oct 02
October 16, 1983 Check my math. If this 1983 Telegram-Tribune story is correct the second annual Morro Bay Harbor Festival was held that year. Let’s get out the calculator…2009 – 1982 = 27. So why do the posters for the Harbor Festival say this is the 28th annual? Were there two festivals in one …
Sep 23
Abandoned Cuesta Grade tunnel in 1979, photo by Tony Hertz Morning Tribune editor Benjamin Brooks must not have liked to mix his flavors. The front page was almost always reserved for big advertisers and national news. Big local news was almost always relegated to page 3. Many of the advertisers were the same from day …
Sep 21
October 10, 1970 Chalk it up to poor planning. Both Arroyo Grande’s Harvest festival and Paso Robles’ Pioneer Day fell on the same date to start off the 1970′s. Since today’s organizers plan better Photos from the Vault can run the photos on different days. The 33rd grand marshal was someone who had traveled in …
Sep 10
A 1953 photo shows the San Luis Obispo roundhouse filled with steam engines, turntable in the center. Photo courtesy the San Luis Obispo County Historical Society As reported in a previous post, the area has a spotty record in preserving railroad history. You will have a chance to reverse that trend at …
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