Tomorrow, the Sunshine City Antiques and Collectibles Show opens at the St. Pete Coliseum. Here’s the details from the City of St. Petersburg Events page.

January 8-10
Sunshine City Antiques and Collectibles Show, Friday 5pm to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 5pm, $6 adults, 12 and under are free. This nationally recognized show features nearly 100 exhibitors of antique furniture, art, pottery, jewelry, silver, toys, and glass. The event also features a two-day Antiques Appraisal Fair. Held Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 2pm, $5 per item.

The photo at the top of this article is a panorama of the 2009 Antiques Show at the Coliseum. It, and of all the still photographs in this post, expand to full size if you click on them. I encourage you to at least take a peek at the panorama at full size.

Immediately above is a short embedded video from that same vantage point. I just wanted you to see the scope of the show and to hear the sounds to get a sense of the show’s ambiance.

The rest of the snapshots from the 2009 show I present without further comment except to say that two of my favorites are the model boat (immediately above), the folk-art jugs (immediately below), and the old lace exhibit (at the very end).

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There are times when the sound of the gulls echoes just right; when the humidity, temperature, and strength of the breeze is just right; or when perhaps you see some little visual reminder; and, you remember just where you are, living on a peninsula between a huge bay and an even bigger gulf (next stop…Mexico).

When I was a kid and the family would make its yearly treks southward to visit family, sometimes we were lucky enough to come on down past Mississippi into Florida and Tampa Bay. I remember, distinctly, one archetypal image that always said to me, “You are now someplace special.” That was the ubiquitous oyster shell covered driveways. Sometimes, whole roads were covered in oyster shell. (Back in those days, not all roads were paved…well, I guess they’re still not!) I’m not sure why they fell out of favor, but oyster shell roadways are gone. But every so often, I’ll see some sand amid a mix of pebbles by the edge of the sidewalk and remember that, really, we’re just living–quite temporarily–on what was once the bottom of the ocean floor.

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Sometimes our awakening is caused by a building from a bygone era. Much of downtown St. Pete has living postcards that are still in use such as the old open air post office pictured here. Take a few minutes and check out these collections of vintage St. Pete postcards belonging to my friend, Fran Sims. Almost everything pictured in those cards still exists and is in use in some way.

• Florida Postcard Gallery 1
• Florida Postcard Gallery 2
• Florida Postcards Pass-a-grille
• Florida Postcard 1920 foldout
• Florida Postcard foldout 1
• Florida Postcard foldout 2

Usually, we glide right past these places. Then sometimes, some chance occurrence–we’re on foot when we usually drive, we’ve taken an unusual route, the light angles a certain way–then we see the place anew and realize where we are. We see the traces of women with parasols and men with straw boater hats still drifting along the colonnades.

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Sometimes the cue to remember will be under our feet. For me, it’s when I realize I’m walking on Augusta brick. Sometimes it’s the hex block sidewalks found in different neighborhoods. Or…PINK STREETS, a phenomenon found in St. Petersburg on the extreme southern tip of Pinellas Point.

All of us who live here are less than 15 minutes from some water’s edge (often far less than 15 minutes). How recently have you visited the water’s edge? No time? Take your morning coffee there on the way to work. Sit there alone and wake up to surf sound. It’ll help you remember why you even bother to go to work. And, if you don’t live here, wherever you do live there is something (or even more important, someone) special and unique to that place. Now, I’m talking to myself as much as you: if we let more than a week go by without remembering where we are–and visiting its special offerings–we’re letting something precious go to waste. Let’s take some time this week to rediscover where we are.

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Florida 1920 Foldout

For almost as long as folks have been coming south to Florida to vacation, picture postcards of Florida scenes have been a staple. They are highly collectible now. In today’s post, I’m very pleased to present scans of vintage Florida postcards from the collection of a good friend here in St. Petersburg, Fran Sims.

They’re presented here in slideshows: 400 pixel ones embedded in the body of the blog and full screen ones through external links. They’re grouped according to the descriptions you see in the headings. This first collection is from 1920.

Florida Pass-a-grille Foldout

This collection of Pass-a-Grille, Florida, postcards (see my Pass-a-Grille Beach Inkwatu post) is from a little later decade. Notice the color palette. Already you see the archetypical “Florida” colors, especially that specific quality of orange.

Florida Foldout 1

By the time of this collection, you also start to see the style of typography that is so associated with Florida “kitsch.”

There are frequent shows of vintage commercial items, including–but hardly limited to–postcards. I go to all of them I can because they evoke such warm memories of childhood vacations for me. There’s every possible item with a “Florida” theme. These things are usually described as Floridiana.

One promoter of these festivals is Hula Productions, here in St. Pete. The 2009 Festival will be Saturday, February 7, 2009, at the Gulfport Casino Ballroom (5500 Shore Blvd. South, Gulfport, Florida 33707).

Florida Foldout 2

There are, of course, websites specializing in Floridiana, such as this appropriately named website, Floridiana.

The digital Floridiana collection of the University of South Florida library includes oral histories as well as Florida African-American histories.

Florida Postcards 1

An image search for “Florida Postcards” yields well over 147,000 images. A similar web search will give websites of enthusiasts, hobbyists, and sellers. Yes, sellers—an individual postcard can easily start at $5.

A nice site, is St. Petersburg Florida Postcards which has a number of items, including maps and calendars, for sale.

There are at least two local entrepreneurs who have business that imprint enlarged vintage St. Petersburg and Florida postcards on computer mouse pads, coasters, tiles, throw-pillows, trays, etc. If you go to the St. Petersburg Saturday Morning Market (see my Inkwatu post on the market), you’ll see them there. The company with which I’m the most familiar is Bonnie and Sam Rivenbark who have a stall at the Saturday Morning Market and from whom I’ve made purchases in the past. These times make perfect gifts for your friends and relatives up north!

Again, a special thanks to Fran Sims for letting me publish scans of her collection of vintage St. Petersburg postcards.

Florida Postcards 2