It’s not uncommon to feel like you’re stepping back in time at San Jose’s History Park. But it is interesting for an exhibit to bring back some memories of a time that might be a bit, well, hazy for people who lived through it.

But that’s part of the fun of “South Bay Flashback: Riffs, Rhythms and Revolution,” a yearlong exhibition that opened Saturday and takes a long, strange trip into the music scene in and around San Jose in the 1960s and ’70s. Nearly 300 items are on display from the extensive collection of Bill Guardino, a San Jose native who has been collecting posters, handbills, records, underground newspapers and other artifacts of the time for more than five decades.

Fortunately, there’s a lot of time to check it all out, as the exhibition will be open through Dec. 21, 2026. H

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