Surprise party invitation card, ca. 1968
“It feels like holding a little piece of history, a found treasure. Something wholesome, magical, and mysterious.”
About This Item
Creation Date: ca. 2015
Keeper’s Description: An invitation found within a copy of Aldous Huxley's After Many a Summer Dies the Swann (Perennial Classic paperback, 1965 edition). The card invites someone to a surprise celebration for "Sharon" (last name redacted). It has what appears to be a hand painted illustration of a woman wearing a multicolored, watercolored hat with a ribbon. Written on it: "keep it under your hat." The hat lifts to reveal the woman with a bun hairstyle. The front has the event details: "There's going to be a surprise party for 'Sharon [Redacted]' Date: Friday 8/30/68, Time: 4–10pm, Place: Hempstead Town Beach. Please come." The back contains hand-drawn directions to Hempstead Town Beach using Meadowbrook Parkway South, showing the fork after the toll to Jones Beach or to Point Lookout where the town beach is located. A signature appears near the drawn woman's hair but is illegible.
Keeper’s Discovery: When living in my old NYC apartment, we had a basement laundry room with two washers and two dryers. It was painted in bright baby blue. Some people would leave books there. This was well before I realized that little libraries exist and you’re meant to return the book. I took this Aldous Huxley After Many a Summer Dies the Swan book, and later found this card inside it.
The Keeper of Wonder: Julie B.
The Keeper’s Story
Memory (a special moment): I remember finding the card and being so giggly about it. I thought oh wow, how fancy and intentional these cards were. How cool to find a piece of history in a basement laundry room! Of course I went googling the beach and where this was and that sent me down a rabbit hole. But I saw the little drawing of how to get to the beach, and thought about maps and access, and pre-internet life. The hand-drawn directions felt so intimate and personal, a reminder of when giving someone directions meant sketching them out by hand or pointing in different directions and naming landmarks.
Meaning (why it’s kept): It feels like holding a little piece of history, a found treasure. Something wholesome, magical, and mysterious. I don't know this person, or how the surprise party went, or if it was even a birthday celebration, but I love that. I pull it out and show my friends, and somehow they're all as intrigued as I am about this late '60s surprise party card to a stranger. Also, it's beautiful!
Legacy (tell the future): Find and keep these little treasures! Or donate them somewhere that will preserve them in some way. They're wonderful, cool ways to notice humans being human. They remind us how we lived our day-to-day lives, how we connected, what roads we drove, all these little snippets and signs of humanity.
More Details
Collection: Evidence of Wonder: A Living Archive
Contributor: Julie B., 2025
Source: Digital files contributed by Julie to the Evidence of Wonder Collection, 2025
Subjects (keeper identified): Curious, Joyful, Inspired
Rights / Access: This digital image is contributed with permission for display on The Lost Shelf website and is available for viewing for personal, creative, and research purposes only. All other use, including reproduction or distribution, requires written permission from the contributor and The Lost Shelf.
