Main St., Garden Grove.
Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach.
Mesa Theater, Newport Blvd., Contra Costa.
Lovell Beach House, Newport Beach.
Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove.
Balboa Blvd., Balboa.
Alpha Beta parking lot, Santa Ana.
Caspers Park, San Juan Capistrano.
Los Angeles.
Harbor Blvd, not Harbour.
The pics bring back many memories.
Typo fixed. Thanks.
Words better with the “ou”: harbour, flavour, colour, labour, glamour, favour, behaviour … etc.
But you may disagree. LOL
I’ve never understood why in American English, glamour has kept the “u” – but the other words have lost it. And then to further complicate things, glamorous is spelled without the u.
It would be harbour over here in England land.🙂
But then we plough a field, put tyres onto our wheels and park by the kerb.
Maybe, but you also call a truck a “lorry”, a cookie a “biscuit”, the truck of a car the “boot”
Dotted line on a blind curve.
VWs were common everywhere, but Toyotas and Datsuns hadn’t spread much beyond California at that time.
Garden Grove seems to favor remodeling and crafts. Statueland, Tile World, Carpet Bargains, Hardware, Antiqueing and Mold School. (Probably didn’t teach you how to grow mold, but you never know.)
During this time, there were lots of Toyotas and Datsuns in Arizona, certainly in Tucson.
I’d be happy to own that green Dart from Santa Ana.
PS if I’m not mistaken, only one SUV, a Blazer/Jimmy.
Two station wagons AND a Dart at the Alpha Beta in Santa Ana. What’s not to like?
I do wonder what that stuff is hanging from the Town & Country’s rear bumper. Doesn’t look like anything for towing. Perhaps mounts for two big ham/CB antennas?
They might be anti-static grounding strips, hanging towards the pavement. They were popularly seen on wagons, SUVs, pickups, and RVs in the 1970’s.
The last photo dates from at least 1977, with the various newer cars.
Fun to be taken back in time about a half-century!
FWIW, the papers say that “Buster and Billie” was in the LA theaters October-ish 1974; and “Sweet Agony” came out in 1975 and was being exhibited as late as 1977.
As to the cars: the domestic:import ratio is interesting to see !
I worked at that Alpha Beta as a Bag Boy back in 1978. A lot of poor people used the store and would walk to the store and take the carts home. One of my jobs was to go around the local streets and bring back the carts.
I agree that Japanese brands were generally less common east of California, but I think there might have been an exception in university and science communities. I grew up in Corning, NY and remember lots of (I assume) scientists and engineers being early adopters of both Japanese and European brands.
One error is that the city of Contra Costa is should be Costa Masa
Balboa Blvd is in the San Fernando Valley. There was no Balboa in 1970. It was Reseda and Van Nuys next to each other. Then Lake Balboa created in 2007 from part of Van Nuys.
As for Newport Blvd. You mean Costa Mesa. Contra Costa is a county in Northern California on the east side of the Oakland-Berkeley Hills where I live.
Speaking of Newport Beach you couldn’t drive to Balboa Island but have to take a small ferry across to it from Newport Beach. My memory from then. You can drive your car onto the ferry holding three cars. I did that a few times when I lived in San Diego and would drive a date up to Orange County just so we could take that ferry and then have dinner on Balboa Island. That was 50 years ago so I don’t know about now. Seems the ferry goes from Balboa Peninsula and has run into C.A.R.B.
Below from archives is my first car before the Cougar with me in the far back.
Fun details to spot in these vintage snapshots. There appear to be two municipal election signs in this photo. ‘Schmit Supervisor’ and another one for a law enforcement official ‘Brad Gates’?
Love the homemade/hand-painted appearance to the signs.