IN THE PIPELINE:

We forget sometimes (at least I do) that we live in a “postcard city” — one of those places that’s so atmospheric and interesting that it has been commemorated time after time, era after era, on virtually every kind of postcard.

Divided-back postcards, white border postcards, linen postcards, photochrome postcards. Postcard types have changed a great deal in the last 100 years, but Huntington Beach has never ceased being one of the industry’s favorite subjects. As the seeds of tourism started to take root in the early 1900s, so began the parade of Huntington Beach postcards.

Almost two years ago, I received a note from a gentleman named Marvin Carlberg, who grew up in Huntington Beach. He had heard I was getting photos together for a book called “Huntington Beach Then & Now” that I was working on, and he kindly offered me a chance to look through “some postcards” he’d collected over the years.

Shortly after, Marvin arrived at my house, and what he had was astonishing: a paper history of Huntington Beach, in black and white, sepia and vibrant chroma-color. There were hundreds of pieces carefully cataloged and protected in plastic sleeves. Oil wells, businesses, hotels, Main Street, people and, of course, the beach, perfectly preserved in a shoe box.

As charming and whimsical as the images were, it was the backs of the cards that impressed me the most — the inscriptions from long-gone visitors who had made their way to Surf City. On the back of a card featuring the pier, a woman wrote home to Greenwood, Miss.: “Today is perfect (for a change). Now couldn’t we just fish and talk? I am going to be fishing pretty soon. Be careful.”

On one ancient beauty, dated Aug. 25, 1906, and featuring an image of the old wooden pier in the distance, a message from “Brother Phil” read: “Dear sister, it is cool, windy and invigorating. We have suffered no heat this summer. This is an ideal spot. Am glad we found the spot. I have been very busy since 12th of April — leading a very strenuous — ” and then the message ends abruptly. I couldn’t help but wonder what the rest of Phil’s thought was.

An institutional 1915 card featuring the new concrete pier read: “The Industrial City By The Sea. Huntington Beach, in Orange County, California, is located on a high mesa. The city owns a magnificent, solid concrete pleasure pier, 1,350 feet in length from which the best of fishing is enjoyed. It is becoming noted as an all year resort as well as an important manufacturing city.”

The “Industrial” no doubt refers to the Holly Sugar Refinery, the Huntington Beach Broom Factory and the La Bolsa Tile Factory.

The more I pored over Marvin’s collection, the more logical it seemed that it would make a good book. I offered to take on the writing/research tasks in an attempt to bring some more historic perspective to each card. I am happy to report that “Historic Postcards of Huntington Beach” was released just last week from Arcadia Publishing, and Marvin and I are both thrilled with the results.

Through the course of seven chapters, the city is presented in all of its postcard glory. Many of the handwritten messages are also included, so it’s possible to read the “voice” of someone here on Main Street in 1906, at the Methodist Camp in 1908 and near the pier in 1918. These voice-from-the-past artifacts serve as markers; impressions that Huntington Beach was making on visitors during its infant years.

Here’s how Marvin describes his experience in the book’s preface: “It is fascinating to look at these old postcards and see what Huntington Beach was like 100 years ago, 50 years ago, or even 25 years ago. I grew up in Huntington Beach when it was a small town with miles of undeveloped open space and strawberry fields. The Pacific Coast Highway skyline had a large number of oil derricks, many more than are seen today. I remember some of them were painted like horses, bucking broncos, pumping their oil riches from great underground pools.”

As I note in the book, this might be simply a hobby for Marvin, but what he’s inadvertently done is create a significant historic documentation of the city.

And as for how his hobby started?

“The first postcard that I remember getting of Huntington Beach was a promotional postcard from the Beef Palace, an amazing butcher shop near where I lived as a child, with two life-size fiberglass cows out front that my mom would let me ‘ride’ while she was shopping inside. The owner somehow found out that I liked postcards and gave me one from the stack on top of the counter that I could look up to but couldn’t reach.”

That first card can be found on page 55 of our book.

There are hundreds of other postcard images, some of which Marvin will have on hand in their original form Saturday at Barnes & Noble in Bella Terra.

We’ll be having a discussion and book signing for “Historic Postcards of Huntington Beach” at 2 p.m. and would love to have you join us to reminisce about Huntington Beach, and maybe even have a book signed as a Father’s Day gift (also I’m hoping my mom and wife will bake again for folks in attendance — I’d show up just for that).

I also have a signed copy of “Historic Postcards of Huntington Beach” for one In the Pipeline reader to be picked at random. Send your e-mail to me this week to qualify.

Note: If you haven’t been downtown lately, it’s a good time to visit the recently opened Fifth Street Strand. Some very nice space has been created to offset Main Street. Forever 21, Active Ride, Rip Curl, RA Sushi, Merilee’s Swimwear, New Zealand Natural Ice Cream and CVS Pharmacy have already opened, with other businesses to follow soon.

In this calm before the summertime crowds, it’s easy to appreciate the potential of what has been unveiled down here in this “postcard city.” Specifically I can recommend happy hour appetizers (half price!) at RA as the sun starts to set, and New Zealand Natural Ice Cream is terrific.

CHRIS EPTING is the author of 14 books, including the new “Huntington Beach Then & Now.” You can write him at chris@chrisepting.com.