Today being Sunday, it is the day to go and attend all that pending family shopping. Will it be the supermarket or the mall? Either one is fine. The main point is to check out what’s on those parking lots of yesterday.
Once again, a good number of these were found without captions. The only one I’ve identified is Foodland with the Tiki Tops restaurant sign, which was located in Kaneohe Hawaii (further below). For any of the others, just add info in the comments if any seem familiar.
In my neck of the woods, most stores weren’t open on Sundays until maybe the late 1970s or so – you had to plan your gasoline purchases accordingly. In smaller farming towns, most everything closed up after noon on Wednesdays, too.
The term ‘Sunday Driver’ referred to someone out in their motorcar just putting along enjoying the scenery after church.
Yes, I remember similar. There was something called “Blue Laws” – what specifically those entailed I’m not sure – that prohibited many establishments from being open on Sunday. When those relaxed it was still a few more years before liquor could be sold on Sunday. Not sure if those were state or local laws, but they were definitely a thing.
Blue laws finally got changed in Baltimore County in July of 1987! I think the malls finally got tired of missing out on a prime shopping day and got it repealed.
The funny thing is, these laws never went away for liquor stores. You can’t go to a liquor store for 50 of the 52 Sundays a year. The two that liquor stores always choose for themselves to be their open Sunday? Always Christmas and New Year’s week.
One minor loophole: If you own a liquor store that has an attached bar? – You are allowed to be open on Sunday. We have one liquor store near the Baltimore County/Harford County line that has a tiny 4 stool bar in the back that I have NEVER seen anyone in, just to get around this blue law.
Something that surprised me big time when traveling was finding a wine and beer section in a grocery store! Yeah, not in Baltimore County, Maryland. I don’t think that’s allowed anywhere in Maryland, but I may be wrong. Heck, when I went down to Cape Coral, Florida one time, I was able to purchase a bottle of single malt scotch… in a Walgreens!!! Talk about self medication!
> I don’t think [wine and beer sales are] allowed anywhere in Maryland
Shoppers Food Warehouse in College Park, MD sells beer and wine. It’s the only one I can think of off hand. I believe the law in Prince Georges County (which CP is part of) is that a single grocery store you operate in the county is allowed to sell beer and wine. Apparently the logistics of selling alcohol in only one of your stores is cumbersome though so it’s not common to have one. Lord knows the Lidl that opened up in College Park a few years ago across from some U of Maryland dormitories would sell tons of their good-but-cheap house brand wines, some of it to me!
There are two beer and wine licensed supermarkets in Montgomery County. And until fairly recently they still had beer and wine only bars. Maryland is a weird state. They’ve raised the liquor tax once since 1953.
New Jersey had a lot of blue laws, this affected clothes shopping in the 70s and early 80s when we would beat NY sales tax by shopping while visiting family in Jersey. In another old school touch, if we were shopping in New York City, after paying with her store charge card my mother would have everything shipped to our home in the suburbs to avoid NYC sales tax.
This was the legal version of what got Leona Helmsley sent to jail. We genuinely lived in Westchester County and actually shipped the goods to our house. Mrs. Helmsley said she was shipping hr purchases upstate but her driver took them direct to her Manhattan Penthouse, hence tax evasion and prison time.
Here in North Carolina, you still cannot buy alcohol before 12 noon on Sunday…
But hopefully they now let you buy panty hose all day long on Sunday (see below) 🙂
We still have blue laws in Massachusetts. Not too surprising given our Puritan roots. While Sunday sales of most things were allowed starting in 1983 (although Sunday retail sales of alcohol took over a decade longer to become legal), we still have blue laws that relate to how retail (etc) employees are paid if they work on Sundays. Basically, the law says that you have to be paid time and a half if you work on a Sunday. That’s for grocery stores, retail sales, etc.
https://www.mass.gov/guides/working-on-sundays-and-holidays-blue-laws
I recall encountering blue laws in North Carolina when I was a kid and my mom sent me into a drug store (the only kind of store that was open) on Sunday to buy her batteries and panty hose. The clerk would sell me the batteries but not the white container of L’eggs. The reason given was that “under state law” the batteries were “essential” whereas the panty hose were not. I tried to get the manager to go out to the car and argue that point to my mom…but he refused.
We shortly moved back North to Maryland where the essential nature of panty hose was acknowledged by the state.
I never really gave a thought about being payed time-and-a half on Sunday, I just assumed that was common everywhere.
All this talk of blue laws made me look them up since California hasn’t had any for a very long time. California’s Sunday Blue Law was over turned by the California Supreme Court in 1854 as unconstitutional.
Yet I did find some still in place:
Delaware allows the sale of alcohol between 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Illinois does not allow car dealerships to operate. Horse racing is also off-limits unless a local municipality authorizes it.
Indiana allows alcohol sales between noon and 8 p.m. only.
Maine prohibits hunting.
Maryland does not allow the playing of professional sports before 1 p.m.
In Massachusetts, some businesses may have controlled hours and some must pay employees more money.
Michigan forbids car sales or otherwise transferring ownership.
Minnesota liquor stores can operate between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. The state forbids car sales or otherwise transferring ownership.
Mississippi does not allow the sale of alcohol.
Nevada forbids car sales or otherwise transferring ownership. Prohibits watering grass.
New Jersey prohibits shopping for clothing, furniture and electronics.
New Mexico prohibits alcohol sales.
North Carolina prohibits alcohol sales between 2 a.m and either 10 a.m. or noon, depending on the county; gun hunting between 9:30 a.m and 12:30 p.m is banned.
Additionally, Oklahoma forbids car sales or otherwise transferring ownership and packaged liquor sales. Pennsylvania prohibits car sales and hunting all animals except foxes, crows or coyotes. Tennessee prohibits on-premises alcohol consumption between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. or noon. Texas does not allow car dealerships to stay open on both weekend days, but a business can choose which day of the weekend they would prefer; retailers can sell beer and wine for consumption off-premises from noon until midnight. Finally, Utah closes all liquor stores on Sundays.
Very interesting – especially Nevada’s prohibition on watering grass on Sunday.
Here in Virginia, the last Blue Law that I’m aware of was removed last year when the Legislature permitted Sunday hunting on public lands.
Minnesota’s Sunday off-site consumption sales of alcohol is a relatively new thing as well; prior to July 2017 it wasn’t permitted at all. The attempt to have that ban lifted lasted decades.
I believe it took until a certain global event for our blue laws to be repealed (ND) but I could be wrong as to the actual reason. It had been that no retail store could be open before noon on Sunday – this was relaxed compared to prior as my mother tells the story of convincing a gas station clerk to sell a gallon of milk. They could apparently sell gas (and maybe cigarettes) but they would have the rest of the c-store roped off.
It once badly flooded over a decade ago leading to a temporary pausing of the blue laws. It was quite the novelty going to Walmart on a Sunday morning, especially since they were 24 hour at that time – save for the weird 12 hour closing. For the time I’m thankful my place of work continues to close on Sunday as I don’t think there’s anything stopping them.
Maine car dealerships aren’t allowed to do business on Sunday. I think that this is because Maine was a part of Massachusetts until 1820. The Pilgrims didn’t buy cars on Sunday so tradition dictates that we don’t buy cars on Sunday either.
I believe the Blue Laws went way back in time and they were instituted for religious reasons about keeping Sunday a holy day of rest.
In Wisconsin at least, car dealerships cannot do business on Sunday.
Same in Indiana. That is a great day to browse the new cars in the lot, unbothered by pestering sales staff.
Here’s a now-defunct A&P grocery store that was closed on Sunday – the sign says so – next to an equally defunct Arlan’s department store. Many of you will instantly recognize the building the Arlan’s occupied, which like the A&P in the photo (and its signpost) is still standing – most of it anyway.
What is up with the 1959 Chevy closest to the camera? Its squared off roof and window treatment are not even close to anything GM offered in 1959.
It’s a sedan. The funky roof (not offered by GM) is another car traveling down the aisle. Serendipity. I am so tired of people being so sure of themselves when they are just full of it.
T.A. Cowan: if you look closely, that ’59 Chevy is a wagon, all of which had those squared-off window frames to meld better with the long roof.
How did my brain not see the rest of that roof aft of the C-pillar?! I apparently cannot see clearly with my head in my keister. Sheesh. 🙃
Note the second story bridge down to the left, it looks like the body transfer bridge Packard built to connect the main East Grand Boulevard plant with the body plant south of the boulevard. Does anyone recognize this Arlan’s Discount store in that Detroit location?
Funny thing, that’s my selective memory playing tricks again, since I lived that transition during my late teens. I had forgotten most commerce was closed on Sundays during my youth, other than watching sports on TV, there was little to do. And it was a big deal with lawmakers in Puerto Rico during the late ’80s about the matter; what should and shouldn’t remain open, etc. Of course, none of that was to be found in California when I moved there in 1990.
In Pa., the Sunday “Blue Laws” were very much in effect until the 70’s and later. Depending on the service or product type, gradual Sunday sales came about over several decades. Some law was statewide and others were by local ordinance.
Up until the mid ’70’s, I don’t believe any supermarkets were open on Sunday although I suspect they were legally permitted to do so. Most of the prevalent grocery chains were unionized and the labor cost would have been heavy. Pharmacies typically were open for a few hours on Sunday morning. Nearly all gas stations were closed, unless they were close to an Interstate. Alcohol by the drink was only permitted in licensed hotels with food purchase after 1:00 PM. All wine, liquor and beer distributors stores were closed. When the first of two local malls opened in 1970, it remained closed on Sunday. After a few years they started opening for short hours on Sunday and just paid the Blue Law fines. It may have been the early ’80’s when non-alcohol retail establishment Blue Law went away in Pa.
I don’t know the exact location of the shopping center with the Colonial Stores and Rose’s, but it is generally going to be in the Southeast. Rose’s is still in business in this part of the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Stores
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roses_(store)
The location may well be one of these early “shopping center Roses” described in Wiki, which replaced the downtown locations with lunch counters:
Early shopping center stores include No. 127 in Greenville, South Carolina’s Lewis Plaza; No. 130 in Raleigh’s Cameron Village; No. 132 in Greensboro’s Summit Center, and No. 135 in Jacksonville, North Carolina’s New River Plaza. Each of these stores was larger than the previous, leading the company in the direction it would take in the 1960s.
Colonial Stores owned a lower-priced food chain called Big Star whose Greensboro NC store my friends and I frequently shopped at, and they converted many of their stores to the Big Star brand and format by the 1970s. Today, Big Star is likely better remembered for the (excellent) rock band named for them than the store itself.
Yes, we still have a Rose’s store in Charlottesville, VA.
I always enjoy the parking lot photos—and the cars do a great job of dating the images.
Photo #1 looks to be *barely* into the 1960s, and the bronze-ish Chevy at foreground right _immediately_ reminded me of this staged NTHSA crash a few years back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U&t=12s
BTW, I always assumed that reference books existed for law enforcement re identifying (stolen/crashed) cars, license plates, data plates, laws in 50 different states, etc…..at last I’ve found one (1961 edition) online: https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/1961-manual-for-the-identification-of-automobiles/836824?item=836929
Not an NHTSA crash test; the ’59 Chevy Bel Air was crashed as the main attraction of IIHS’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2009.
Aha….thanks!…..I shouldn’t have trusted to memory, and I should have read the YouTube title more carefully !
Ah yes…. remember “Monkey Ward”?
Fondly.
I am not exactly sure but I believe that the Grand Union picture may be at the Baybrook Shopping Center in West Haven Connecticut. I grew up in the area in the 1960s to the 1980s. I remember the Grand Union Store. The Baybrook Shopping Center was right on the border between the towns of West Haven and Milford CT. Attached is approximately the same view from Google Earth today. I miss the older supermarkets that weren’t as gigantic as the new ones today.
I love old- time shopping centers. My hometown of Lima, Ohio had a great one, Northland Plaza, but it’s been “modernized” and therefore ruined.
Internet tells us the last one (#7) is Phoenix’s then-new Chris-Town Mall at Christmas 1962—so the Thunderbird was quite new. Those with fond C-T Mall memories gather here, I see: https://www.facebook.com/groups/christown/
Thriftymart, and the Thrifty Drug behind it, were California chains. This was typical layout of local shopping centers in Los Angeles suburbs, post WWII. Major department stores were still few and far between.
N Y did not allow ‘Sunday Shopping’ until 1976 though small stores, restaurants, and movie theaters were allowed to open. However in the neighborhood of Boro Park in Brooklyn most retail stores were open on Sunday. This was and still s a mostly Hasidic Jewish area and the stores were closed on Shabat (Saturday). Here in NJ, everything is open on Sunday except auto dealerships for some reason. Ironically in Paramus, once the shopping capital of America where the malls were king, ‘blue laws still keep them closed.The more things change,………………..
I live in Bergen County and it’s all still covered under the Blue Laws, but Paramus in particular is the most strict. We actually like have quiet Sunday’s around here, as otherwise it would be any other day and much more traffic. Besides it’s just a hop to other counties if you really need stuff!
Love that Foodlands at Tikitops. Looks like Palm Springs?
It’s actually in Kaneohe, Hawaii. The Foodlands is still there:
Aha! The name now makes more sense. 🙂
Love the cars and great memories of Great American businesses. Amazing how once great merchandisers are now gone. Montgomery Ward ,Sears, K Mart, F.W. Woolworth. Sears had radio station WLS (World’s Largest Store) and built Sears Tower. Now, like most of the vehicles seen are gone. Each major city had it’s own major department 🏬 Store. Lazarus, LS Ayers, MARSHALL FIELDS, et al. Each one was distinctive. Shopping was an adventure in Each. Those WERE the days!
Woolworth is actually still in business. They opened several ancillary chain stores in the 1960s, but the only one that was successful was athletic shoe and apparel retailer Foot Locker, and it thrived as the rest of the Woolworth’s empire faltered. F.W. Woolworth didn’t change their official corporate name to Foot Locker Inc. until 2001. Sears and KMart are technically still in business – they still have about 11 and 3 stores respectively in the US mainland, down from about 3500 at their height. Watching Sears slowly fail has been excruciating. They were once the world’s largest retailer; Sears going out of business was once as inconceivable as Amazon going out of business would be today.
Thanks for this info. Woolworth has always fascinated me. At one time the Woolworth Building was the tallest building in NYC. Have always been intrigued by his granddaughter Barbara Hutton and her life. Also E. F. Hutton and wife Marjorie Merriweather Post. Wonder what she would think of current owner of Mar a Lago? For me the biggest loss was MARSHALL FIELD with such a long history in Chicago. At least the PALMER HOUSE has survived, although now a Hilton!
About the Thrifty/Thriftymart photo:
Note Delano Cleaners and Laundry sign. Would a business not in Delano be called that? Its’ not like it’s Paris Cleaners or something.
There was a Delano Cleaners and Dyers in Delano until at least 2015 (last Yelp review, bad) and the address shows Oak Lane Cleaners today. But it’s in a building from the 1930’s or last refronted then (glass blocks, stepped ends at the top) along a street, not in a mall.
Verdict: Reply hazy, try again.
But someplace in central/southern California in 1957. One 1957 car, no 1958’s.
I think it was this shopping center on Laurel Canyon Blvd. in Los Angeles. Part of the original structure is still visible. The “Thrify” sign in the 1950s image seems to be where the 99¢ sign is in the modern image below – and the buildings surrounding that sign seem identical (i.e., the second-story window shapes, etc.).
Google StreetView is here:
https://goo.gl/maps/SmXAm7j3EPtWCYit7
Shopping at a mall wasn’t a choice for most Americans when many of these photos were taken. The first indoor shopping mall in the US is generally considered to be Southdale Mall, designed by Vienna expat Victor Gruen, which opened in 1956 in Edina, MN. Open-air malls arrived a couple of year’s earlier. Gruen’s truly visionary ideas for malls didn’t pan out as he intended – they were supposed to include residential units, schools, medical facilities, and such that could replicate the perks of an urban neighborhood in the suburbs, all with perfect weather year-round from indoor climate control, but the only aspect many developers were interested in was the retail. Over half a century later, many malls have collapsed, and some that have survived or been newly built are finally realizing Gruen’s original vision with “mixed-use” developments that combine retail, office, residential, education, park-like surroundings, and such needed to keep the retail portion busy.
Top photo, in the row closest to the storefront, 2nd from left, in beige…
At first I thought it was a Volvo PV444/544, but then I saw fender skirts and the tail lights don’t seem right. Anybody know what it is?
1950 or so Chevy Fleetline — the 1957 or 58 Dodge parked next to it emphasizes the Chevy’s tall, narrow proportions.
What a difference a decade made in car styling back in the day — the Monkey Ward photo shows the marked contrast between KT Keller’s 1949 Plymouth and the longer, lower batwing 1959 Chevy.
Now, my 1998 Nissan Frontier would not be guessed by the average observer as being so old.
The first photo shows a 1949 Chrysler Windsor and a 1959 Chevrolet. It is interesting to see the contrast between the two cars. Totally different concepts.
My dad had a 1949 Chrysler with Fluid Drive. I consider Fluid Drive a better system than early automatic transmissions as it has most of the benefits at a lower cost. Never heard of one breaking, either, as there wasn’t much to break. With the long-stroke Spitfire Six, all one had to do in town was leave the car in second gear. Acceleration was more than adequate for the traffic circa 1987.
Thanks Rich, for regularly finding, so many fascinating vintage photos.
Sunday shopping, came to Ontario in the early 1990s. Usually, the province is quite progressive adopting legislation that benefits the general public. In this case, there was strong resistance to taking away a day of rest for workers. Or to lose that time, retail workers spent with their families. Much resistance, to Sunday shopping at the time.
As in the US, the loss of Sears department stores and catalogue ordering stores, was probably the greatest Canadian retail demise of the past 75 years. Eatons was another retail giant that failed, but their presence was smaller than Sears. And if you don’t include, Target’s more recent catastrophic failure, in the Canadian market. Sears was the major anchor for decades, at some of the largest malls across the country.
Simpson-Sears/Sears was a major anchor at two of Ottawa’s largest malls, Carlingwood and St. Laurent, spanning over 50 years in business each. 60 years at Carlingwood.
Below, is the Simpson-Sears at St. Laurent Mall shortly before it opened in 1967. Simpson’s was a Canadian retailer, Sears collaborated with. Both locations featured three floors.
whats funny to me is that they had those two malls, Bayshore was always Eatons/Hudsons Bay and Merivale was Woolco with I believe Woolworths at Shoppers City West. Towers was in Hazeldean and I forget what was in Westgate. Kmart was in a few places like on Hazeldean at Meadowlands and of course Bells Corners which the building still has some of the original Kmart red paint on the sides (if i remember as a kid they had repainted the exterior of the store in 96ish and Zellers didn’t touch a thing beyond changing signs when they took the lease over a few years later). My gut on that location is hey will reintroduce Zellers as a stand alone store here. It was the last Zellers store in the chain closing in 2020, Loblaws owns the building and won’t let anyone else go there, HBC owns the lease for another 2 years if what I was told was correct and Bayshore doesn’t appear to be getting a Zellers pop up anytime soon (why would they if a stand alone goes 5 mins down the road?).
Everything seemed to more or less have a home downtown until Zellers pulled up stakes at their location on Sparks I want to say maybe 15 years ago? I think the only one left downtown is GIant Tiger’s original location!
Target’s expansion was a joke where they had the right amount of hype and excitement but failed to deliver the same Target US experience everyone expected. Didn’t help that the stock levels were poor and pricing was virtually as expensive as Zellers (which was also poorly run in the 00s despite being spot on in the 80 and 90s).
BTW a good book on Eatons is “Eaton’s: The Trans-Canada Store” by Bruce Allen Kopytek. Lays things out pretty well for the chain.
Same in Quebec, it arrived in the early 1990s as well. And add in the aftermath of Target who really missed its target. Zellers did a comeback at selected shopping centers.
As for Eaton’s, that remind me of the old tale called “The Sweater” where a mom asked a hockey sweater to her son of the Montreal Canadiens and they received a sweater of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The mention of Eaton’s is at 5:17 in this clip.
That is a great bit of Canadiana! I live in Ottawa, but remain a die hard Canadiens fan. Hoping some day, they return to the glory of the late 1970s. Never should have let Patrick Roy go. Hope the Expos return!
I’d put the Grand Union and Hills somewhere in the Northeast since they were regional chains. In the NYC suburbs we those, Pathmark, Finast, and Shopwell all of which seem to have been swallowed up. On the other hand, Wegman’s , Safeway and the Kroger empire were foreign. Before moving to Oregon the only Safeway I had been in was in London.
Montgomery Ward was equally alien, Westchester County was all Sears or regionals like A&S or Gimbel’s. JC Penney finally showed up in 1980 or so with a new mall in White Plains. The process continues, PNW stalwart Albertson’s is being phased out after the merger with Safeway so I expect the remaining stores to rebrand this year.
Blue Laws & ‘Freeway Bags’, both terrible ides that caused much mayhem .
I’d like to go used car shopping in the Tiki Tops parking lot .
That building looks a lot like the older Safeway grocery stores did .
FWIW, SEARS didn’t “fail” E.L. bled it to death over several decades .
-Nate
Yeah, “Sears kind a did itself in “slowly and painfully”.
I really love these old photos you’re digging up Rich!
The one that I connect with the most is the last one with the Montgomery Ward store. I recall one at Wheaton Plaza in Wheaton, MD when I was in elementary school, and it of course was also decorated with light trees at Christmas. Wheaton Plaza was a kind of proto-mall (it was an outdoors mall created originally in the early 1950s). The parking lot was always fascinating to me as a kid on those special occasions (like at Christmas) when we went there.
Growing up in Maryland, I always assumed that “Montgomery” Ward had something to do with Maryland specifically as I knew about Montgomery County and well, there couldn’t be TWO Montgomerys, right? That’s how my kid brain worked. Even though I also knew that it wasn’t entirely associated with Montgomery County as the enormous Montgomery Ward Warehouse (still there, and cleverly rebranded as “Montgomery Park”…they even kept 75% of the original sign!) was a Baltimore landmark (like the Bromo Seltzer building) visible by all who drove on I-95. It was a landmark for me, signifying that we were either home (in Baltimore) or nearly home to Bethesda (depending on whether it was the 1960s or 1970s).
Later, Monkey Wards became something of a runner up to Sears…which I guess is kind of what it always was. But Wheaton Plaza had Wards. So it was special to me.
The Montgomery Ward – now Montgomery Park – warehouse building.
I remember going to this huge Montgomery Wards when I was a kid. Seven floors packed with practically everything Wards sold, with a separate full service auto service facility in back. The top floor was a large, quite good cafeteria, a favorite stop after a long day of shopping. Sears may have been a larger presence nationally, but this was THE store in Baltimore in the forties and fifties.
When I was a kid, there was a Montgomery Ward (which we just called “Wards”) conveniently located in a modern suburban shopping center. Sears still had an old stand-alone store on the other end of the city of Fort Wayne, and then put a new one in the new mall in 1966. But Wards was more convenient and we shopped there more often. I think I may still have the Montgomery Ward-brand chainsaw in my garage that my father bought in the 1970’s.
Until I was “10-11”, there was no Sunday shopping in my part a wstrn PA. Thrift drug. local , individual owned grocery stores , gas stations, restaurants, were all that was open Sunday.
Some restaurants were not.
Visiting relatives outside DC ((northern VA)) we were stunned to see all the open stores on a Sunday!! That was “1971ish”.
I love that last picture – when you consider that the dowdy old Plymouth could have been as new as an early 1949 model, what a difference 12 model years made when comparing it to the 61 Thunderbird right next to it.
It is also odd to see how all of the stores had great big windows all across the front. I wonder who was the first person to argue that you could replace the windows (that seemed only used for advertising placards) with blank wall space you could put shelves on for making more money.
In Illinois car sales are forbidden on Sundays. Liquor could be sold on Sundays after 12 noon, that may have changed. Department stores closed at 5 Monday-Saturday except Thursday had later hours. All stores closed on Sunday except Jewish owned stores on Maxwell street, they may have had a religious exemption, but only Maxwell street.
All butchers were unionized and no grocer could sell meat without a butcher present. The butchers went home at 5 or 6 pm and that was that. I witnessed a woman who planned poorly for Thanksgiving. She ran into the A&P on the Wednesday evening prior begging to buy a turkey. The grocer’s hands were tied and the lady left in tears.
Sunday shopping? Not in Pennsylvania at least thru the Seventies. Blue Laws had everything closed down other than movie theaters, gas stations, and what passed for convenience stores back then. Of course, it made it easy if you were a motocross junkie. Sponsoring/organizing groups had all these huge, empty, mall parking lots available, and the malls were more than happy to allow them to be used.
No “Blue laws”, but major stores, like Sears, were closed on Sunday here in California. Parents used the empty parking lot to give driving lessons to teens.
Regarding the 2nd photo, could the ’60 Chevy have pulled up a little closer to the ’57 Olds wagon?
Ha, ha; I noticed that also! The cars could be touching each other.
Before indoor malls became big in the 1960s and ’70s, we had a lot of “shopping centers” around the nation with a whole variety of stores that were accessed from outside.