This looks familiar, as it was taken by Don Kincl the same year I arrived in San Diego. And although it’s just one shot, there’s a bit of good car spotting. I made two crops to see them better:
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: At Char-Burger, San Diego, 1976
– Posted on May 30, 2021
I’ll take the ’64 / ’65 T-Bird —
You take the B-210.
Thx Paul.
Enjoy the weekend everyone !
It’s a ’64. I’ll take it, too.
Ohhhh…across the street obscured by a post.
Wait – why are children doing the gardening for Char Burger?
I see the 62 Pontiac Tempest in the foreground left. The Thunderbird is a 64. Unsure of the exact yar of the 60s Chevy Pickup. Bit i do ID the 69 Ford galaxie at the head of that line. Of course the Volvo Wagon. then the early 70s Vega and mid 70s Datsun.
I can’t tell if that’s a hatchback, possibly a Colt squeezed in front of the Chevy or one of the basket handle Ford coupes.
Funny, I thought it might be another Vega. Or a Fiat 128SL??
The super-tall TV antennas are the most interesting thing in the picture. Did San Diego lack a local TV station?
Of course not. San Diego was a pretty big city even back then, and had/has a large metro area with lots of smaller cities surrounding it. There was a full complement of local network stations, as well as some independent stations, some from Tijuana (in English).
I don’t know where this location was, but given the large masts, I have to assume it was in a valley with hills or mountains blocking the signals at ground level.
You certainly couldn’t get LA stations in SD.
Big antennas were everywhere. Here is the one on the house to the left of ours on top of Del Cerro looking west towards downtown and the Pacific. We also had motors to turn them for better reception as there weren’t many compared to Los Angeles.
Hills and mountains seem to interfere with the TV signals line of sight directional, so towers and guidelines were the order back in the day!
San Diego, at that time, had 4 local stations 3 network and one independent but you could also bring in about 3 more Los Angeles stations. San Diego was also one of the first cities to get cable around 1971.
Back to the Char Burger picture, they used to sell a bag of 5 burgers for $1!!! Not big burgers but kind of thin so it was crusty and the buns were not oversized.
245 for me, please! How cool, what a time that had to be.
Perhaps of interest, Paul: 1970 City of San Diego color films of through-the-windshield main thoroughfare driving. They’re brief, but there are lots of them: https://www.sandiego.gov/digitalarchives/film-audio/street-videos
Those were great. Took a look at Adams Ave. east bound and saw Normal Heights, Kensington, and a Big Bear Supermarket I know well. Had to look at Garnet west bound through Pacific Beach since I lived far above on Mt. Soledad and saw a Safeway and Vons I know well from work and shopping all the way to Crystal Pier. Then took a look for Linda Vista east bound and saw it pass my long gone Catholic High School on the right across from USD, sigh…
Thank you. Lived in San Diego from 1968-1981 and knew ever inch of it courtesy my after school job from 1969-1976 covering every Safeway, Luckys, Fed Mart, and Vons in all of San Diego County. Didn’t seem that big to me as evidenced by the light traffic in the videos. Compared to the San Fernando Valley in 1968 vs San Diego 1968 it is night and day. San Diego was a quiet and slow Navy town then.
tbm3fan: I’m happy that resonated with you–I can see we’re roughly the same vintage (I’ve been to LA, but never San Diego). Happy there’s something here that you can’t get from still pictures alone —the cars, and a lot more….
What’s not “claimed” yet, just the Vega? OK, I guess I’ll just have a burger, fries and a Coke.
I’ll take the F-250 with camper.
Chev truck for me. One could certainly get L.A. T.V. in San Diego. As a high school kid I worked in a TV shop that also did antenna and satellite dish installations. I did a lot of antennas nearby and usually a 30 footer with a good sized UHF/VHF combo pointed toward LA would do it. We would have to use separate antennas for San Diego VHF and UHF as the transmitters were on different peaks. We combined the two local antennas and ran 2 coax cables into the house with a manual A/B switch on the back. One side for local, the other for L.A. Occasionally a preamp was installed on the L.A. side. Far easier than fooling with a rotor. We did a few 40 footers and even 2 50 footers. Those were a real challenge to guy straight. At least it wasn’t as bad as digging a 3’x3’x3′ hole in terribly hard ground and mixing enough concrete by hand to fill it for setting the support pole for a 10′ satellite dish.
Most likely a ’69 or ’70 Chrysler Newport or New Yorker behind the child with the rake with a 383 V8.
First bird: See that Vega over there?
Second bird: Yeah – I wonder who poops bigger, you or GM?
Funny thing… nobody here in comments ever asked: What ever happened to Char-Burger?
I’d like to know.
Char Burger closed sometime in the mid to late 70s. They were really great burgers. Char grilled and they had a really tasty sauce. This really looks like the location on El Cajon Blvd and Idaho Street. That spot today is the same building and is a Roberto’s Taco Drive thru.