the home fires are still burning...

where i've been

one of my favorite things about these matchbook stories is the evidence of travel. like a detective in an old noir i feel as if i am putting pieces of a mystery together. where did this come from? how do i get there? what will i find? puzzle pieces from someone else's forgotten past...

the evidence of
rendezvous emptied into
vanished consciousness

matchbook stories 05

one of the things i really love about our new matchbook collection is this intersection of history, art and often times cartography. latest case in point is this recent discovery in our ash can of treasures. the steak block restaurant no longer exists as such. a little detective work led me to the conclusion that it now operates as a mexican eatery known as "caso robles" or oak house roughly translated.
and although i was supplied with an address on the cover of this matchbook, it did not seem to match up to anything on google maps. but as i took a closer look at the tiny illustrated map inside the cover i began to put the clues together. the alignment had changed over the years and old peralta blvd had become mowry avenue. this was confirmed by an additional sighting of a later matchbook version turned up here on ebay. and as i looked closer at the architectural details i became convinced this was the place.


and this is what i love. the mystery of this long forgotten dining locale revealed through the artist's hand on a crude map. interestingly to me as well, this little haven happens to be a block from my old neighborhood. it was there that my wife and i first settled in a little cottage and i would regularly walk right past it on late night walks with my neighbor and bosom friend. and although the laughter of the old place has faded and the conversation may have turned to espanol, i am again reminded that i am back where life was lived for me here so long ago, and is again.

we move from here to
there all the while looking back
over our shoulders

space age usa

this little collection of images is from our newly acquired matchbook collection. they feature illustrations of the apollo 11 mission into space and lunar landing. i'm not really sure of their origin. although probably not nasa approved, they were most likely produced in the afterglow of the triumphant moon landing. as i looked around a little today i saw quite a bit of other independently produced apollo 11 memorabilia commemorating this mission.


i was just a baby when the world first thrilled to this event, but it has always produced a bit of awe when i think of all the incredible effort that went into the preparation and lead up to that day in july of '69. in my minds eye i see time standing still briefly here on planet earth, as the whole world holds its breath and stares into the night sky at that great beautiful orb and wonders. and stops to look at grainy black and white images through television shop windows. and in those moments tens of millions of the dreams of children are launched as well.

if you'd like to see more images from this collection, there's a nice little lot for auction on ebay here. bon voyage space travelers.

no room to gamble
our lives are the decks laid out
as a hand we hold

we open our hands
to let things be taken and
new ones take their place

lubiam

this matchbox is my very favorite one out of our new collection. very similiar in scale and design to the lausanne/cerino, i love the graphic design of this little packaging. the 3 color red, black and white and the bold typography. the illustration of the boy behind the lubiam "L". a little web research could not find another like it, and the "lubiam" name also a mystery. there is an italian clothing manufacturer by that name and they have been around for decades, so it is possible i suppose.
i think what i love most about these is the thought that it was someone's job to create this. that somebody got paid for their creative efforts to produce a matchbox graphic. and the fact that as so many others race around today searching for something to spend their hard earned money on, sometimes the simplest things we hold in our hands are worth the most.

"it is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want"
-spock

time lights cigarettes
puts them in your mouth
and smokes them all down

swiss matches

time now to share a matchbook, or in this case a matchbox. this is one of my two favorites from our recent acquisition from grandpa. thanks grandpa! it is a beautiful little box featuring an image of the city of lausanne on one side, and on the other, a rail car descending the alps with monte cervino or as we better know it, "the matterhorn" in the background.
i stopped and stared at this one for a long time when i first picked it up. there is something that draws me in. the lausanne image reminds me of a story book place like on the french riviera where cary grant and grace kelly played in "to catch a thief". and the matterhorn picture again is so filmic, as if it too were a character or setting in another hitchcock film.
i'm also amazed at the small level of color and print detail here. it is art on a mass scale for the time, put in the hands of the masses. i imagine ordinary working folks who couldn't afford a trip to these beautiful locales who were perhaps transported here for a few moments as i was, while standing on a street corner somewhere dragging on a cigarette. in our moments of pause we may fly away here.

we struck a deal long
ago to keep fires burning
and light our way home

match game

funny thing happened on the way back from my last trip to my father in law's house. after dropping off his old washer/dryer dad sent me home with his parent's fantastic matchbook collection. he snuck me out before grandpa was the wiser. i brought them home in the ash can they had been stored in and then poured them out on the living room floor.
as i began to sift through the enormous pile i was struck by 2 things. first, the commitment. i don't know when the folks started this collection, but i'm guessing it goes pretty far back. a lot of the covers still list the old two letter prefix at the beginning of a phone number - like EL7-1137. and they range from that point on into at least the 1980's. that's a long stretch. second, they are from all over the world! i knew my wife's grandparents were travelers but sheesh, i had no idea. from the local pancake and burger place around the corner from where we now live, to a yurt in ecuador or a far east inn.
each of these tells a story that the storytellers can no longer relate. and yet as i am now in possession of them, i shall do my best to act as a kind of post-modern archaeologist and dig deeper into the best of these finds. perhaps they can still tell us something.