The Summer of '59!
"Now that the SNOW CONTEST enters the final month (and folks need to start thinking of the beach), I have a "spring time" challenge for your harborite viewers...
That 1959 beach post card of Gibson's that you have on the web page, I have
seen before. I think it is also on an old brochure of the Keeweenaw. But
what I always wondered was ...who is in the picture? I am sure many of the
same personalities we see around the harbor today, were on the beach the
day that photo was taken in 1959. (Of course today they are 40 years older.)
Who are they? Can anyone identify the 1959 beach beauties? Is Jimmy
Boggio there? Are Mary or Ann Buyers there? Is Ruth Opland there? Who are these historical personalities captured forever in their youth of 1959??"
Well.......who are they?
Responses.
"I think I have the answer to your dilema about the beach in '59. My name at the time was Anne Asselin. Father Francis, Uncle Paul and I visited the harbor every summer for thimbleberry season and still do! Once the Harbor gets in your system it stays. Anyway-the person in the blue swimsuit is me and the girl on my right is Sandy Willette, a very dear friend who came with us that year."(Anne Asslin Barnard, 5/9)
"Though it is hard to tell without seeing it up close, I think the lady in the white shirt on the far right may be Charlotte Barber. Can't tell much else. The other postcard John Lindblom is referring to features bathing beauties in swim caps." (Carol Bogart, 4/3)
"The peep in the post card are: In front of the black inner tube in the straw hat Nancy Adams (Charlotte Barber's sister), going right is Bernie Foley, in the blue bathing suit with the shades is my mom, Virginia Adams and next to her is my cousin Jane Ann Curto. The guy in the trunks with his back to the camera is Jack Curto and across from him is Ruth Opland Dawson. Bill Curto is seated next to Jack with his pants on. That may be Jim Boggio walking along the shore fully dressed with his hands in his pocket. I kind of remember that! The old dock is still there too....ah, the good old days!" (Susan Adams, 4/3)
"I just snuck a peek at your page. Re that 1959 picture: in 1959, people of "our age" like the Beyers girls, Barb Burda Sickler, Marilyn Hartmann Ehrenreich, Mary Kay Carlton Masnado, and myself didn't sit in the sand as much as we sat out on the dock. We're probably that cluster of people you see on the dock. And of course the boys pushed us in the lake. There was a diving board and a ladder out there--remember?
I think the lady to the farthest right is Charlotte Adams Barber, and the
lady next to her in blue looks like Jane Anne Nicholls Curto. Which means
Sue Adams' mother Virgina is likely one of the other ladies, maybe the one
in the straw hat? I can't place the blonde in the middle of the far-right
group. In the next group, if one stretches the imagination, it could be
Ruthie Opland Dawson in the yellow facing us, and of the two backs, the
middle one could be Fred Kellow. Can't place the gal in the black suit. So
much for now for speculation. I don't see anyone I think might be Jim
Boggio. Remember, he was pretty trim then. And never one to sit on the
beach. He was probably at work, unless it was a week-end, and in that case,
he was probably in his boat water-skiing.
The Airforce put up that white life guard stand, and manned it, so that
military personnel and their families would have a supervised swimming
area. (Anne Boggio, 4/5)
The fully clothed person in the post card is me, Jim Beyers. I practically never wore a bathing suit, and the one time I did, I got pushed off the dock and had to be rescued by some one who keeps reminding me of the event.(P>
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