The timeline (3 Viewers)

I added "period maps" for the addresses up through Mariposa.

They're probably of zero interest to anyone outside of Los Angeles, but I had the old map, so there they are. It shows the streets before the freeways cut through, and old landmarks like Westlake Park (now MacArthur Park).

It started out just looking at Longwood, because before the 10 freeway went through a block from the house, it was a different neighborhood. Then it kind of spread out from there to all the pre-freeway addresses.

I should have probably made them larger - included more surrounding streets - but I don't think I'm going to go back and do that.
 
It's a map book called Gillespie's Guide from 1939. Gillespie's started in 1925 and had the Los Angeles map book market cornered until the Thomas Brothers came down from Oakland with their Thomas Guide in the 1940s. In the 70s, 80s and 90s every car in Los Angeles had a Thomas Guide in it. When people were giving you directions, they'd give Thomas Guide page numbers.

I had to scan the small Gillespie's pages separately and stitch them together, which is why some of them don't quite line up exactly.
 
Yes. I couldn't tell you what those updates or changes were, but I assume I took from those books. Updates are made to the timeline all the time. Last change was two days ago.
 
In these 1921 maps, the address for the Merry Company job says it was a "candy factory." I realize there's a 25 year gap between that map and Bukowski's job, but Merry Company seems like a better name for a candy factory than a picture frame factory.

Anyway, the picture frame job time frame fits right in with what he wrote to Caresse Crosby, so the candy factory thing must just be a coincidence. Funny how smaller businesses on that map are described by what they did rather than the business name. I'm looking for a business map like that from the 40s, but there's not one out there. It's kind of a miracle to have such detailed images of that 1921 map...

MerryCo.jpg
 
The government updated the way their inflation calculator works at some point in the past couple months (they break it down by month now rather than just by year), so I just discovered that none of those dollar value comparisons have been working in the timeline. They're fixed now. I'm sure that is thrilling news.
 
It really makes me wonder what were the expenses for essentials back then!
that's the most important question, without which the pure inflation-rate is meaningless. More or less.
Yeah, it's funny, I'm watching some British show now where they stick a bunch of people into a recreation of an Victorian-era East end London slum to demonstrate how hard life was in the city back then, and there are dropping some amazing facts. Like the cost of food - most people spent two-thirds of their income on food! It really makes you realize how cheap food has become in the modern age.

The other third of their income was spent on housing, which left most people with nothing after those two essentials were covered (when you could cover them). These days those costs have flipped, and it's more likely you'll find people in big cities spending two-thirds of their income on a place to live. I don't know how we do it. Though watching that show makes me glad I'm living now and not 170 years ago.

Great show, Victorian Slum House.
 
An unusual development - a new address.

This one for Bukowski and Barbara Fry(e), their first address together in Los Angeles. It's a parking lot now, but there's still an old court apartment on the lot next door, so it was likely an apartment. Which Barabara must not have liked, since it looks like they moved to the house on Branden St. a month later.

https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://bukowski.net/timeline/#1955

Amarillo Daily News, November 11, 1955

Amarillo-Daily-News-Nov-11-1955-p-62.png
 
I found what looks like a programming bug. When you use the "Search" form in the upper right corner of the Timeline page, it goes out and searches the web, not the Timeline.
 
Thar's odd, Rekrab. I just searched on "Hollywood Bowl" at the Timeline page and the two results returned were from the Buk.net website (one result was the occurrence in the Timeline and the other a poem manuscript that doesn't mention the Hollywood Bowl but does contain the word Hollywood): Timeline Search Results.
 
My bad. I was expecting results only from the Timeline. When I use the search box on the Timeline page for "Long Beach", I get a page (four hits) of web ads for hotels in Long Beach, then, below that, results from various parts of the Buk.net site where the term "long Beach" appears. I was expecting just results from the Timeline, but I can use my browser's "find on page" function to find "Long Beach" on the Timeline.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top