As you splash, sear and sizzle over this Labor Day weekend, The Citizen thought you might enjoy a nostalgic look back at local beach scenes featured in postcards and advertisements dating all the way back to the 1940s.
Here was have five local lovelies holding signs touting the width of St. Augustine’s beaches — and their ability host the oil tanker sized cars that ruled the streets back in the 1950s.
This Jacksonville Beach shot from the 1960s features a pair of petrol eaters stationed in the middle of all the sun-soaked action.
Behold this 1942 scene from the former Ponte Vedra Bath Club — later purchased by The Lodge – where a young lady is suspended in mid-leap from a diving board as calisthenics-toned men prowl the pool perimeter.
This is the same venue in photo form, date unknown. Perhaps hoping to impress the young lady looking on, a male diver braces for impact.
At first glance, this postcard looks more like Coney Island than Jacksonville. But a massive wooden roller coaster once dominated the skyline at Jax Beach, rumbling from 1928 to 1950 when it was torn down.
Let’s hop in the cart and putter over to the links for just a moment — and appreciate this 1959 ad for the Oldsmobile 98 set on a Ponte Vedra golf course.
Looking like an outtake from a John Hughes flick, this Ponte Vedra Inn & Club magazine advertisement from 1985 shows a couple hustling to board their catamaran for a day in the surf.
“Enjoy an exuberant kind of hospitality and charming air of exclusivity,” the ad reads.
The Citizen’s personal favorite, a 1979 magazine ad for Sawgrass Country Club. That expression suggests that she spent as much time in Miami as she did Ponte Vedra.
