matchbook

Collectors say motel matchbooks are a connection to the not-so-distant past.

She has specialties now, like matchbooks with animals on them or matchbooks that advertise radio and TV stations, but she says her biggest collection by far is books from Southern California, including vintage motel matchbooks.

Embers the size of matchbooks smacked into their windshield.

Her mantra, “Life is too short to stuff a mushroom,” became a feminist rallying cry, finding its way onto matchbooks, dish towels and throw pillows.

There were scripts, telegrams, contracts, prop guns, movie posters, postcards from the Navy to his beloved Cleo, and monogrammed lighters and matchbooks.