Text by Patrick Bell.
For today’s tour we are heading to New York and visit a few smaller towns. The furthest east I have been is Jackson, Mississippi, so none of this is familiar to me at all. But, I am sure it is to many of you. Most of the images are in the town of Kingston with some others as noted, and all are from the early eighties. I am not going to try to ID all the cars as I would be here all week, so I will pick and choose several.
Our first shot is in the town of Hudson, looking on a downtown street most likely in December. There is no snow but the holiday decorations are out. From the left to right at the curb is a ’78 or ’79 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Coupe, ’81-’84 Pontiac Grand Prix Coupe with a ’67 or ’68 Ford Mustang hardtop behind it, and a ’78 or ’79 Chrysler Cordoba heading away.
Now let’s head downriver to Kingston and check out Grand Union. The sun is low so it is either early in the day or late, and the store looks fairly busy. From the left a white ’78-’83 Mercury Zephyr wagon, ’75 or ’76 Subaru wagon in the aisle, clean silver ’75-’79 Chevrolet Chevette 2 door, and a yellow ’79-’81 Ford Mustang 3 door in the same row.
It’s off to downtown to make a bank stop if we can find a place to park. From the left a ’79-’81 Pontiac Firebird, in the street perhaps a ’78-’83 Plymouth Voyager van, at the curb a dark ’77 or ’78 Ford Thunderbird, a white ’75 Chevrolet Malibu coupe, and a blue ’70-’72 Buick Skylark partly off-frame.
We are now at an official looking building of some sort. From the left in the front row, a ’78 Chevrolet Malibu 4 door sedan, ’74 or ’75 Dodge Dart Sport, and a ’82 Cadillac Coupe deVille.
Let’s head out to Port Chester to see what’s going on. From the right a ’73 Cadillac pushing their way in, ’74-’78 Ford Pinto Squire, ’80 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coupe, and a ’75 or ’76 Buick Electra.
We are back in Kingston to take a break and see what’s on the menu at the Thom McAn Restaurant. I am going for the two pickups here. On the left a white ’80-’86 Datsun 720 is partially visible, and above it on the next row the tail end of a black Volkswagen Rabbit with a camper shell.
The local law is on the lookout in a ’78-’80 Dodge Aspen sedan. On the left side by the fence, a green ’74-’78 AMC Matador coupe and on the far right a yellow ’80-’87 Toyota Corolla wagon.
Here we have a ’75-’79 Buick Skylark 4 door with some rear damage in the foreground, a red first gen Honda Civic almost hidden behind it, a ’71 or ’72 Chevrolet Malibu Sport Coupe, and to the right a ’76-’78 Jeep Wagoneer.
This looks like a motel with individual cabins complete with a clothes line to make you feel at home. From the left foreground a ’84-’86 Buick Skyhawk 4 door sedan, ’74-’78 Ford Pinto wagon, and a ’77 or ’78 Ford Mustang 2 door hardtop.
A cool winter day. What little bit of snow that is left is melting away. On the left a ’74-’81 Fiat 124 Spider drives through, a ’80 Plymouth Volare, and a ’73-’75 Chevrolet Monte Carlo behind it.
There is a bunch of cars in this parking lot at a shopping center. I am going to highlight the ’78-’82 Dodge Omni 024 in the aisle and a couple of green ones in the first row; a ’74-’76 Ford Mustang 2 door hardtop and a ’70-’72 Chevrolet Nova 2 door.
Thom McAnn was a shoe store chain. Just happens to be next to a restaurant in that photo
I was just going to note the same thing, indicating that what was on the menu at Thom McAnn’s would probably taste like shoe leather.
That’s a good one! Likely their roast heel sandwich.
And we all think alike as you both beat me to it.
I went to college across the river from Kingston in New Paltz. Had a job on campus driving students to doctors & emergency rooms. Mostly in a black
AMC Matador sedan with state emblems. AMC was popular with police &
government fleets in the mid 70’s.
Kingston had a fantastic deli “The Hub” with killer corned beef & pastrami.
The fourth photo of the “official looking building” in the city of Kingston shows the historic Ulster County Courthouse where Sojourner Truth won the freedom of her child nearly 200 years ago.
Ok, I grew up in Rhinebeck until high school then in Kingston. The Grand Union pic is the original location of Grand Union in Kingston Plaza. Kay Bee Toy & Hobby was in the plaza as well until they moved to the Hudson Valley Mall (pic with the Hess’s store later in the post), Sears was at the far left as an anchor store for the Plaza, Britt’s the other end. In 1988 Grand Union moved to where Britt’s was (it was the flagship store for the company, I worked there in 90-92). The uptown shots are Wall St by the courthouse (trees on the left beyond the Pontiac), the “official looking building” is the actual courthouse from the back lot, the police car is heading to Broadway with what was Kingston Hospital on the right (mutli-story brick building), white building with red shutters may be the Elks Lodge on Hurley Ave, no idea where the Pinto is parked, the Fiat is heading down Fair St just past Main St (if you follow that bus and got over a mile to the far end of Main up the hill is where my family lived). The Ulster County office building is on the right where the DMV is, the brick building on the corner is or was Burgevin Florist, then the Hudson Valley Mall with Hess’s the main anchor store along with JC Penney, and finally looking along N Front St up towards Wall St.
I traveled to Kingston a few times in 1985 -1986, working with an IBM group that had a tiny office tucked in a strip mall that looked a lot like the one pictured with the Thom McAn store. All I remember about the location was an Offtrack Betting (OTB) storefront in the shopping center, which was foreign to me from California. I remember a lot more about my rental cars though; a Dodge Daytona, a Fox Ford LTD with a V8 and a Fox Mustang with a 2300 four. And most memorable, a first year Taurus. We stayed at an old hotel in Rhinebeck, literally a “George Washington slept here” place.
Great tour of places not far from us. Kingston is about 80 miles north of us. The City of Hudson, in its heyday, was an extremely busy place. So much of this is lost but the towns aa cities of The Hudson River Valley have revived with arts, different manufacturing and surrounding specialty farms to complement the agriculture. It is a great place to tour for the historic sites, the restaurants, the breweries and the farms. We are a major apple growing region. Just north of the Hudson River Valley is what is known as “The Teat of New York” because of the great production of milk in this region, which is west and south of Albany. To view it on the map, one would never know. SUNY (State University of New York) at Cobleskill is a renowned agriculture university. Thanks for the tour. Hmmmm…go to the eastside of The Hudson and visit Catskill, NY to see the Rip Van Winkle Statue at the head of the main street and then go down to T Creekside Restaurant (use your GPS) for delicious food in an ordinary down home and pleasant setting.
I love the variety of your ‘Vintage Snapshot’ features. Both in their era, and their geographical locations.
My parents made various daytrips to Northern and Central New York, during the late ’70’s and early ’80’s. From Southern Ontario.
First thing I always noticed as a little kid, were the bright orange and blue New York licence plates. Far more flashy, that our blue and white Ontario plates. I also noticed how many traffic lights and traffic light standards, were painted dark green in New York State. In Ontario, they were mostly consistently bright chrome yellow. With natural grey light standards.
Many consumer products, were still not available in Canada. My parents would buy me the full set of Topps MLB baseball cards. 700+ players. We usually, only got 300+ players in Canada.
The bus below is an Orion I, built by Ontario Bus Industries, likely at their nearby US factory in Oriskany, New York. Popular in Canada. Solid buses, but pretty slow, and limited seating capacity. Best for small town, and suburban use.
Oh the memories! About 1981, I had just moved from Houston to NYC, driving my 1976 Eldo convertible. I still had Texas plates on the car. Mid-town traffic, stop & go, a Checker cab bumped my rear bumper. I stopped, got out of my car, no damage but the cabbie yelled “whatsa big deal”! I gave him the finger salute and kicked his massive bumper. I literally wanted to punch out his headlights. I had arrived in the big city and felt like a New Yorker.