Category Archives: The Golden State

Dear Reader,

Now it’s time for the real golden age of California. The 80s. Here is a Joan Didion quote about how we conceptualize places (as I have conceptualized California):

“A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.”

- Joan Didion

So onto the golden 80s.

Here is a picture of my sister and my cousin in my grandmother’s house. That wallpaper is horrifying/awesome.

My mother at a friend’s house. The carpet, the lamp, the chairs. All amazing.

That’s me on the left. I’m totally jealous of my sister’s awesome t-shirt.

My parents gutted their kitchen in the 80s. This was the height of kitchen glamour. Some of it still works – I’d totally have those pendants in my house.

Californians in the 80s loved visiting New York (where we are here). I love my mother’s hair.

I would totally wear my brother’s “Hot” ensemble in this picture.

I love these old stacked stone walls, this one is on my great grandparents property in Upstate New York.

Hanging out with my dad in our front yard, looking for insects.

That’s me listening to the radio.

Californians love family portraits and often rely on props to tell the proper story.

Baby in a bucket.

My first birthday party. Californians love a good excuse to throw a huge party.

Classic my mother (that’s me in the backpack).

I’d like to go back in time so I could kidnap myself and dress me just like this.

In California, we bike everywhere.

My mother made all these costumes. Californians know that you really love your children you can never give them anything that’s store-bought or prefabricated.

My brother holding me. Then my head fell off.

Baby in a backpack. Enough said.

I love my mother’s dress here. She made it herself.

Californians in the 80s liked to grow their own vegetables. Just ask Alice Waters. We also had chickens. My parents hated them.

First day of school. Love those clothes!

I imagine that my mom made this shirt (she made a lot of our clothes) and I want another one.

This is when we moved into the wilderness, Yosemite National Park.

Total 80s wedding. Glamour.

My parents toasting their new house. In a denim skirt and vintage Patagonia.

Shoveling the first snow (this got old real quick).

My parents, always outdoors, cross-country skiing.

My siblings in our Yosemite backyard.

Dressed for an Easter wedding. Again, I’d totally wear this now.

Ok, so that’s 80s California according to my family.

Love,
Orlando

Dear Reader,

It’s time to re-enter my family’s California photo archive. Now it’s onto the 70s. I feel a Joan Didion quote coming on:

“California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension; in which the mind is troubled by some buried but ineradicable suspicion that things had better work here, because here, beneath that immense bleached sky, is where we run out of continent.”

- Joan Didion

“Chekhovian loss”? Why so lighthearted, Joan? Anyway, here are my aunties and uncle in front of their childhood home.

Ok, just a warning that there are going to be a few pictures of babies in backpacks. Basically the only reason I want to have children is so that I can put them in a backpack. Is that wrong? Pictured here is my mother with my older brother.

I love this old courderoy sofa. In real life it was green.

One thing that defines California life is being outside. Preferably with a baby in your backpack.

My parents at Lake Tenaya in Tuolumne Meadows (California’s Eastern Sierras).

My mother with her mother and sisters. A bunch of powerful ladies who taught me and my siblings to be feminists.

My father riding to work. Behind him (on the left) is the house where I was born.

My father hiking with my auntie Julie (who looks a lot like my mother).

Californians love tubbing with their babies in huge wooden barrels.

My parents. How awesome are their outfits?

My mother with Joni Mitchell hair.

This is my dad graduating from either Berkeley or UCSF. With my proud grandfather.

Look at my mother’s little dress!

Hiking. Sadly, no baby in the backpack.

So that’s the 70s according to my family. It must have been dreadfully boring because I wasn’t born yet. Stay tuned, coming soon is the 80s in California! True glamour.

Love,
Orlando

Dear Reader,

It’s time for more vintage images of California, this time from the 1960s. These are some of my favorites. The fashion, the glorious matte colors, the oppressed look in everyone’s eyes. Since I love quoting Joan Didion, here’s what she has to say about California:

“The apparent ease of California life is an illusion, and those who believe the illusion will live here in only the most temporary way.”

- Joan Didion

Of course my family doesn’t necessarily believe this illusion – we’ve been in California for generations. All these old photos express a carefree, glamourous lifestyle lived in big houses in the shining sun. However, everyone knows that all families have problems and worries. I prefer to imagine that things were as golden as they look in these images:

I love this picture of my mother, who now is obsessed with terrariums and bonsai.

This is my grandmother’s backyard, where I spent much of my childhood playing and looking for pennies to buy slurpies at the nearby 7-11. Her neighborhood was pretty much identical to the one in ‘Edward Scissorhands.’

I love these fashionable coats!

My mother and her twin.

My grandmother somewhere Back East.

I hope you enjoyed the 60s in California through the lens of my ancestors and all these pastel-filled photographs.

Love,
Orlando

Dear Reader,

Sometimes, whilst I browse for furniture and accessories at flea markets, I find myself attracted to the mysterious old photographs that some vendors are selling. I think the fascination comes from the beauty of old photographs. They have so much warmth and history to them. I’m still up in the woods right now, visiting my parents, and I discovered some old family photos I thought I’d share. I love looking at how everyone is dressed in these old photos (so formal!) and how stark some of the interiors are (true mid-century minimalism). I myself am obsessed with photographs (I studied photography in college). I never understand people who don’t care about looking at other people’s photos. I’m the kind of person who will snoop around in your house until I find your family photos. Then I will look at all of them. If you’re not that kind of person I’d suggest skipping this post.

This is my grandmother, Margaret. How wonderful are her glasses?

This is what people wore to go hiking in the 40s. My grandmother is the one in coolots second from the right.

My grandmother  with her new twin girls (one of whom is my mother). I love the laundry hanging to dry in the sun.

I love this picture for the Christmas tree. It’s like they threw the decorations at it from across the room.

I kind of want my uncle Craig’s haircut in this picture.

Gender roles: I’m pretty sure the little boy is holding a fake axe while the girls have dolls.

I love how they thought chain-link fences were totally acceptable in the 1950s.

Minimal landscape.

Two car garage. And look at those cars!

I am pretty sure this is from when my grandparents moved their kids to Japan, but I love a vintage seascape.

I hope this didn’t bore you to death. In a few weeks I’ll be sharing our family archive of images from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. So many pretty, yellow-with-age old photographs that capture classic California.

Love,
Orlando