Chris Hunter (5)

This is a frustrating book. It is both good and bad. The Images of America series of books are of course widespread and cover a variety of cities and pieces of America. They rely on local sources for their creation and supply of the images and stories within. Having grown up in Pacifica I knew much of the history of the area and the creation of the city in the late 50's. Some of the photos in the book such as the old "Ben's Trading Post" from Rockaway Beach are priceless. Also, the little houses that served as classrooms (where I went to first grade) as the school was being built.

However, given the limited amount of space that each of these books affords, there really is no place for throwaway photos that are probably of interest to exactly two people, and there are a number of these. There are also a few repetitive photos on topics. Not that the extra photos are without interest, but there are plenty of things that could have been included that were not. The book seems to have relied on just a small number of sources for the photos and stories, rather than casting a wider net and obtaining some good photos of moments in Pacifica's history. Whole chunks of the development are left out. It is a very north-centric book. No mention of the Shamrock ranch in Pedro Valley, Sun Valley Dairy, nor even an actual picture of Linda Mar Shopping Center - the Purity Supermarket, W.T. Grant, the early Ross store when there was only one or two in existence, the Variety Store and especially the pharmacy and other early businesses that began there around 1953. Lots of photos of the long gone Sharp Park shopping strip however. And the Little Brown Church. North-centric. Also no photos of the big striped bass runs of the 60's with all the fisherman in the surf along Sharp Park Beach and elsewhere.

It would have been nice to have more examples of the various types of houses in the housing developments that grew up.

I was also bothered by the rather poor quality of some of the pictures considering what should have been available. Also some of the captions seem to have been taken word for word out of a newspaper and read very oddly out of context when it describes an event in the present tense rather than the past, as one example.

That said, there are priceless photos within this little book and a few (too few) tidbits of information and stories behind the photos that make the book enjoyable. It just coulda, shoulda been better ....… (mais)