I stumbled onto a collection of classic American postcards today, at a site called "America as it Was"
That in turn led me to the Ohio collection (lots of broken links), which led to the Cleveland collection, a wonderful resource for Clevelanders like me, and something of little or no interest to people from anywhere else, I suppose. Oh well.
It's part of a web site called The Cleveland Memory Project, which has a lot of other good stuff besides the postcard collection, if you're so inclined. (All photographs are to be credited to the Cleveland State University Library, by the way.)
I guess Lileks has made old postcards fashionable in the blogosphere, so since I'll never write like he does, at least I can do the postcard thing.
What a kick it was for me looking at the postcard section on Euclid Beach Park, the amusement park of my childhood. It was about 10 miles from our house on the east side, right on the lake. I'm sure I rode my first roller coaster there. The Flying Turns petrified me. Banking turns practically upside down in a creaky wooden chute gave this kid a whole new appreciation for gravity. The Thriller was one great coaster too. The park is gone now and has been for some time, so if you want to do the Memory Lane thing, the pictures will have to do. It's better this way, because in the pictures it's still 1962.
There must be 200 or so from Euclid Beach alone, but here are a few of my favorites:
Pool and Bathing Beach on Erie
Here's the link to a Euclid Beach Park nostalgia site, with a few more pictures and remembrances from fans.