Unlike most Puerto Ricans, my uncle didn’t move to New York when he had a chance. Instead, he took to Southern California in the late ’60s, settling in Gardena. And when I met him there in the 1990s, the way he talked about the California of the ’60s and ’70s just made it sound like paradise.
These photos from the Orange County Archives date from a few years after his arrival, and they seem to fit the ideas he planted in my head long ago. It’s all nice weather, ample roads, and a lovely environment. Looking at these, I can easily picture him driving around in his new 280Z, cigar in hand, enjoying the California life he so much loved.
Talking about which, the opening photo is at S. Glassell at the Plaza, in Orange, shot in 1975. And behind the white Beetle by the curbside, a 280Z not too different from my uncle’s.
Downtown Fullerton, 1975.
The Crab Cooker, Newport Beach, 1975.
Alpha Beta grocery store, Tustin Ave. at 17th St., Santa Ana, 1974.
City Hall, Huntington Beach, 1975.
West Coast Theater, Main St., Santa Ana, 1974.
El Gordito Market, W. 5th Ave., Santa Ana, 1974.
Cinedome 20 Theater, 3001 Chapman Ave., Orange, 1974.
Disneyland sign, Anaheim, 1974.
Brea Hotel, 108 N. Brea Blvd., Brea, 1975.
Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, 1975.
The Crab Cooker Photo:
Very much enjoy that 70 – 71 Camaro at the far right!!
Not much on vinyl tops, but I could live with it.
These photo’s really evoke my teenage memories of California, even though I grew up hundreds of miles north of LA. The variety of car styles, from wood (vinyl) grained domestic wagons to Toyotas and Datsuns and Volvos, the ubiquitous Beetles, and Camaros and Firebirds. Plus a Travelall, Blazer and a pickup camper. Actually, the 1960 Chevy is the odd one out; with a few exceptions there just weren’t as many 15 year old cars on the roads then, even without rust.
Actually, the 1960 Chevy is a 1959 I think.
You think correctly.
I’m not seeing either a ’59 or ’60 Chevy – where’s it hiding?
Right in front of the El Gordito Market in Santa Ana. Looks like a dead ringer for the brown and white Bel Air the IIHS crash tested against a 2009 Malibu for its 50th anniversary celebration.
The lighting there really makes it hard to make out on a small screen – I wouldn’t have thought a ’59 Chevy would ever not be obvious.
Those tires and wheel from the carryover chassis get lost in the wheel wells of the widened body.
Funny, I started writing ‘59 then changed it. I was only 2 – 3 years old when these cars were new so that’s my excuse. Thanks for the correction though 😀
That first pic has it all what defines to be in a mid 70s USA town:
1. GM “personal coupe”
2. GM sporty
3. Volvo station
4. Datsun Z
5. big American sedan
6. big American station
7. VW bug
The first two photos were taken approximately 10 miles apart. And they both feature a mustard yellow Volvo wagon. I mean… what are the odds?!
100% in this case.
I like the matching red Bugs in the Huntington Beach city hall photo
Considering these were shot on west coast just a short time after the ’73 embargo I expected a few more Japanese imports. I see a 240Z in Orange #1 and think a white Corona (?) in Santa Anna and a blue Corolla in front of Disneyland.
Volvo dealers seemed to be doing well. And it wouldn’t be the mid 70s without lots of Scamps and Swingers around.
Contrary to what might be a logical assumption, Japanese car sales also declined during the ’74-’75 recession. Not as much as domestics, hence their market share increased some, but not as much as is commonly assumed. The big winners were the domestic compacts and sub-compacts; the Pinto was the #1 nameplate in sales in ’74.
I’ll go for the world’s best clam chowder for only 45 cents at the Crab Cooker!
I grew up in Santa Ana in the 60’s and 70’s. I spent my early days going to that West Coast theater and the See’s candy store next door. In the mid 60’s we would be dropped off in my parents 1967 Ford Custom 500 at the theater and watch a double feature for 50 cents.
I moved to LA to begin graduate school at UCLA in 1972. When I first arrived I thought traffic was horrendous (compared to small town Midwest). Little did I know what was coming. The climate/temperatures made for paradise but not the air quality. The west side of LA was a lot smoggier than Orange County in those years (my cousin lived in Huntington Beach at the time). The worst summer I can remember is 1979 when SoCal looked and smelled like present day Beijing on a smoggy day. Catalytic converters took a few years to have a major impact. By the Summer Olympics of 1984 things were looking good.
The Alpha Beta store brings up memories of what I thought was a most modern convenience in the 70’s. In those pre-ATM days the store had a check approval machine. You inserted your plastic Alpha Beta check cashing card along with the check and it came back approved for purchase+cash back. Saved a lot of time in the check-out line (few grocery stores at the time accepted credit cards).
On the west side of LA you would have seen way more imported cars than in these pictures, particularly BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes as well as lots of VWs – and many US luxury cars. Today Orange County is filled with imports of all kinds. Lots of BWWs, Mercedes, Maseratis, and Alfa Romeos on the cul de sac where my cousin lives today.
Thanks for the memories!
Thanks for some great shots.
That final image of Knott’s Berry Farm takes me back to the summer of ’75 when we visited our California cousins in Westminster. We made the trip from northwest Washington in a Ford wagon very much like the one pictured right of the tree.
The highlight of our day at KBF was seeing Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds play “Fallin’ in Love.” Gotta love that yacht rock. I think my little sister is still swooning.
I moved to LA to begin graduate school at UCLA in 1972. When I first arrived I thought traffic was horrendous (compared to small town Midwest). Little did I know what was coming. The climate/temperatures made for paradise but not the air quality. The west side of LA was a lot smoggier than Orange County in those years (my cousin lived in Huntington Beach at the time). The worst summer I can remember is 1979 when SoCal looked and smelled like present day Beijing on a smoggy day. Catalytic converters took a few years to have a major impact. By the Summer Olympics of 1984 things were looking good.
The Alpha Beta store brings up memories of what I thought was a most modern convenience in the 70’s. In those pre-ATM days the store had a check approval machine. You inserted your plastic Alpha Beta check cashing card along with the check and it came back approved for purchase+cash back. Saved a lot of time in the check-out line (few grocery stores accepted credit cards at the time).
On the west side of LA you would have seen way more imported cars than in these pictures, particularly BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes as well as lots of VWs – and many US luxury cars. Today Orange County is filled with imports of all kinds. Lots of BWWs, Mercedes, Maseratis, and Alfa Romeos on the cul-de-sac where my cousin lives today.
Coastal Los Angeles County is full of Tesla’s today, not the OC?
I’m sure there are plenty registered in the OC too.
Back when cars were CARS. Both foreign and domestic makes.
Dashboards with knobs, levers, and a few buttons.
No having to dig through layers of menus on a tablet screen to adjust the temperature or change radio stations.
As a young teen, one of my favourite model assemblies circa 1982, was this AMT 1972 Chev Blazer.
Good Lord, take me back home, yeayah!
I remember one early Saturday morning driving my ‘74 X1/9 a little too fast WB Chapman around the plaza (we called it the circle) to NB Glassel in the Spring of 1980 and getting a ticket from a none too pleased motorcycle officer.
And we dearly miss the Crab Cooker… and still hit it in Newport Beach (remodeled a couple of years ago) or Tustin every time we’re down in OC for a visit.
Good times!
The white VW Beetle is a ’58 ~ ’64 .
I loved the crab cooker, they used to hand out free postcards you’d fill out and they’d mail.
The clear blue sky wasn’t a common thing back then unless you were near the coast or it was windy like in the Fall .
Mustard yellow was a serious thing at that time, I remember a large house a few blocks from me painted that color .
City Hall Bugs are not matching, the left one is a ’68/’69, the right one is a ’70’71 .
In the 1970’s Broadway in down town L.A. still had quite a few full size movie places, some you could go in for $3 and watch four current flicks .
Those weren’t really “the good old days” .
-Nate
I am loving the Travelall parked in front of the Crab Cooker – SoCal and Travelalls never really went together in my mind, but it may be one of the few places where they won’t rust.
For a time I had three siblings/cousins living between Huntington Beach and San Diego, and that is the only area of California I have spent much time in – I can see why it was so popular for so long. (And I don’t remember seeing a single Travelall.)
Don’t let anything distract you from the fact that 55 years ago today, Al Bundy scored 4 touchdowns in a single game while playing for the Polk High Panthers in the city championship game.
What about Blackies and the Beach Ball in Newport Beach?
Great photos! From 1976 to 1982 I lived walking distance from the Alpha Beta on 17th and Tustin in Santa Ana (my mom still lives there 49 years later). Then from 1982 through 1988 my wife and three children lived in Orange off of Glassell neat Hart Park, walking distance from “The Circle” at Glassell and Chapman. Those areas of Santa Ana and Orange were like small towns.