This last Saturday, I had a rare weekend day off and decided to visit the small, historic gold-rush town of Auburn for the day. There’s not much to Old Town Auburn, a couple of streets with a variety of different buildings of different ages, but what there is is to be treasured and enjoyed by anyone
After a delightful brunch and a relaxed and scenic drive up Folsom-Auburn road, dessert was needed and we stopped and enjoyed coffee and ice-cream flavored beverages at the Old Town Dessert Cafe, decorated in a wonderfully classic looking style:
We then proceeded to do our part for the local economy in visiting just about every shop and boutique along the way, which consisted mostly of quaint antique shops, making purchases here and there. Sometimes antique shops are like taking journeys into different times in the past, as one relives people’s lives through their words, clothes, and items they once owned. In a particular shop we found a basket of old postcards, which we proceeded to go through, one by one. They mostly dated to the early 1900s, one even going back to the late 1890s. Some had never been written on, perhaps used as decoration, or purchased for a specific person in mind; the message and postcard never conveyed to its recipient. It was amazing to see into these people’s minds, as they poured out their hearts, talked about visiting a relative soon, or relayed to a friend what a great trip they were having; there was even a hopeful message to an admirer. Written back in a time when all that was needed for an address were a couple of lines, including a Mr. or Mrs. , a town and state.
And now these people are likely long and gone. But in this little store, in this little town in California, in a little basket, their words, memories and thoughts live on, still read and discovered again for the first time by complete strangers.
The card we did choose to buy to possibly frame or display somewhere is copyrighted 1913 and is of Curtis Street at night, in Denver, with a great noir look to it:
On the back of the card, the seemingly hurried scribble reads: “This is the street that we are stationed on, it is a pretty nice place to be, like her.” Not sure what the last two words are referencing, but it definitely stimulates the mind.
At the same store also picked up a copy of The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull by John Bellairs, for $2, which sounds like a great book.
The Old Town has many buildings that look like they all have interesting and fascinating stories to tell of their past.
The Old Town firehouse is a known landmark.
While the Placer County Courthouse is still very much an “in business” building, constructed between 1894 and 1898, while across the street from it is the Courthouse Cafe where munch wheeling and dealing takes place.
A dominating statue of Claud Chana panning for gold sculpted by a local dentist.
And this sign just caught my eye.
What’s great about this is that the town is just there for anyone to stop by and visit.
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