Tiki Carving in Kern City Development Brochure

As I was going through my collection of Disneyland ephemera, I came across this booklet for Del Webb's Kern City development in California. The development was an active retirement development from the early 1960s. Here is the cover of the booklet:

and inside the booklet is a great image of a tiki carved into a palm tree on this page of activities:

Closeup:

This was probably carved by one of the folks sitting in this picture.

And you may be asking why I have this, it is because there is a great view of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate ship from Disneyland when extolling the pleasures of living in California.

Great brochure PJ! This is the kind of thing that is really nice to see here, obscure yet interesting ephemera...

I'm sure Sven will flip!

I'm sure the "artiste" in the black beret carved it. :wink:

Here is another piece from Kern City. The cover of a brochure for Garden Patio Apartments. Unfortunately the interior does not show tikis. I like how in both cases Tiki was used for retirement living.

Wow....I am glad you brought this thread back. I live in a Del Webb community and I know the board of my community will love to see these pictures. Might even make it into our community newsletter. What a hoot!!! We have just about every kind of a club and activity you can imagine where I live and there are over 6000 homes. It is one of the largest and most active Del Webb communities in the USA. Last year we wer voted the first GEM-Friendly community in the United States, and the city of Lincoln, California has supported this cause (GEM=Global Electric Motorcars). We don't have any tiki carving clubs but who knows....some day we might. Thanks for the pictures. Does the brochure have any text on it that you can post a picure of?

Vampiress- PM me so I can send some scans. I think the best pages are the layouts of the apartments and the cost for the apartments.

Assuming this is the Kern City in Bakersfield, which was a master-planned community (probably Dell Webb), I will have to drive over and see if the tiki is still there. The place is a total throwback to the Atomic/Eames Era. The dwellings are duplexes with one common wall, many surrounding a golf course. The area has some front "lawns" that are rockscapes. Across from the golf course club house was a Safeway supermarket and a Thrifty drugstore (before RiteAid destroyed them). The shopping center lasted a nanosecond because when it was built, there was no real population mass near them aside from the oldsters (hey I'm coming to resemble that statement) so the Safeway and Thrifty went vacant. In fact, there were no real roads to the area when the houses were built. In 1965 a high school was built a block away. These days the high school has gone from country club kids to gang kids (I taught there for 22 years before getting the heck out of Dodge). The low income apartments have major crime. A driveby shooting happened next to the school last week. Despite this Kern City seems oddly idyllic. The Safeway and Thrifty building is now the home of the Kern High School District's administrative offices (the largest high school district in California).

Great pictures Materhorn 1959, The AkuAku and Del Web. I wonder if that tiki is still up there and I wonder how it looks today Vampiress. 6,000 homes. Imagine a planned tiki community. That would be cool to see. Good luck with the board.

Let's do it!!! A planned tiki community...what a hoot. :tiki:

I must admit, when I was younger, I never thought I would want to live in a retirement community, but I got in under the wire (4 years too young when I bought in 2005). These homes are extremely well built with fabulous floor-plans...not at all like the original communities that were very cheaply built. I do have a very small yard, but am on a view lot which makes it nice. I think once I get a decent collection of tiki mugs I could make a presentation to the Antiques Appreciation Group. Who knows....I may get some left-over mugs from the swingin-hep-cats that live here. Also, if I share some of the tiki carving pictures from the great artists on TC, that might prompt some interest for the Wood Carvers Group. Some day I may be able to place tikis in my front yard and not violate the community laws. :)

I agree....just really great ephemora you are sharing Matterhorn...keep em coming. :D

These are the current clubs we have in my community....
-ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES | -ASSOCIATION FITNESS | -KILAGA SPRINGS LIBRARY | Alzheimer's | Amateur Radio Group | Antiques Appreciation Group | Arts Assoc | Astronomy | Aviation | Ballroom Dance | Billiards | Bird Group | Bocce Ball | Books | Bosom Buddies | Bowling | Bridge, Duplicate | Bridge, Partners's | Bridge, Social | Bunco | Ceramics | Cloggers | Computer PC | Computer Mac | Cribbage | Cyclist | Dominoes, Mexican Train | Eye Contact | Fishing | Folk Dancing Group, Intl | Garden | Gem & Mineral | Genealogy Group | Golf-Ladies XVIII | Golf-Lady 9ers | Golf-Men's | Hand&Foot (cards) | Hiking/Walking | Investor's | Line Dance | LSV | Mah Jong Chinese | Mah Jong National | Motorcycle | Music Just for Fun | Needle Arts | Neighborhood Watch | Pedro | Photography | Pinochle | Players | Poker | Rods & Relics | Rummikub | RV's | SCHOOLS Volunteers | SCOOP | Scrabble | Second Cup of Coffee | Shanghai | Singers | Singles | Skiers | Softball | Sports Car | Square Dance | Stampers | Super Seniors | Table Tennis | Tap Dance | Tennis | Travel | Veterans | Water Volleyball | Wood Carvers | Writers |

Went by kern City and of course the tiki carving is long gone.

Bummer :(