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VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Survivor: 1972

The old General Store in Raymond, California. My sister-in-law sits on the steps while I pose proudly with my brand-new 1972 Datsun 1200 - still with its paper plates. The building dates from 1890 and is still there today - so is the tree. Risking life and limb, my brother crossed bustling Raymond Road to take this Kodachrome with my Konica Autoreflex T. View full size.

The old General Store in Raymond, California. My sister-in-law sits on the steps while I pose proudly with my brand-new 1972 Datsun 1200 - still with its paper plates. The building dates from 1890 and is still there today - so is the tree. Risking life and limb, my brother crossed bustling Raymond Road to take this Kodachrome with my Konica Autoreflex T. View full size.

On Shorpy:
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One Adam 12

I can just see Malloy and Reed stopping here to help someone after some bad guys pulled a 415 (robbery). Also, I wannnnt that Chevy truck!

Blue Plate Special

The license plate on the '55 Chevy pickup (or is it a '56?) is not a California plate. The name of the state is on the bottom rather than the top, and the blue is a shade darker. I would wager it is an Oregon truck. The tracing of rust along the bottom of the door is another clue.

I used to have an Autoreflex T! My dad bought it new, and gave it to me when I was 18. I'm still kicking myself for leaving it in the overhead bin of a plane four years later. I forget which newer Konica I replaced it with, since I still had compatible lenses. I still have it, too. Somewhere.

Magnet picture

I was too young then (and 6000 miles away) but that picture somehow acts to me like a magnet : somewhere hot and sunny in the California of the '70s ... I would like to go there, back in time and in that place.

I envy you tterrace ... I would have loved to grow up in California in the '70s and '80s.

Blue license plates, Chowchilla and country stores

In 1972 I was in grade school a little bit north in Merced after being stateside for a year. California had switched from black/yellow plates I wanna say around that time altho my memory may be off by a few years.

At the end of the decade I would be dating my now ex-wife who had family in Chowchilla, my ex-mominlaw drove the same school bus route as the kidnapping one when she worked for the school district.

Back then any major intersection or dusty valley town had a small store, cold drinks, some tables and maybe a pool table and juke box.

The Waltons

I will bet the inside of this store has the same atmosphere as Ike Godsey's General Store in the TV series "The Waltons."

I would also bet that there was/is a Post Office in the store depicted in tterrace's image.

Not aging well

I have to say I liked the General Store better before it started catering to tourists, as is obvious by it's "new" old look. In other words, it looked better in 1972. So did I, come to think of it. Sigh.

My Datsun

Yes, Dave, that was a spiffy-looking little car, my first. Those aren't wire wheels, though, just standard-issue wheel covers that sort of looked like it from a distance. At the time it was the lowest-priced car in the USA; I paid a few bucks under $2000 exclusive of tax & fees. Handled well, even more so when I got radial tires (downside: no whitewalls) a few years later. Datsun liked to ballyhoo it as a "mini-musclecar," but believe me, a 240Z it was not. The back seat wasn't all that uncomfortable, and if your legs got cramped after a while and you forwent the seat belts, you could stretch out sideways for a break. The poor thing was never the same after I blew the head gasket, and ten years later I was in Toyota Corolla.

This wasn't a long trip; it's just 26 road miles from Chowchilla, where my brother had been briefly teaching at the high school. Later that year (and four years before the Chowchilla school bus kidnapping) they moved to Santa Cruz, where my Datsun occasionally made guest appearances.

Great memories

Tterrace, I always enjoy your photos. They trigger so many memories for me. Most of my four brothers-in-law had Datsun B210s later in the 70s. Thank you for the photographic record of our (collective) past (even tho I'm an East Coaster).

Lucky you

My first car was a 74 Chevy Vega wagon, my car rusted faster than yours.

The siding is tin panels, the aluminum siding of its day, came raw and you painted it, usually with zinc paint. Used to see gobs of it around here, most on old commercial buildings just like this, many farm machinery dealers.

Merry Oldsmobile

I bet the 1959 Oldsmobile in the lot to the right is gone by now.

[That's a Pontiac. - Dave]

Ahead of her time?

Looks like your sister-in-law was taking a moment to text something on her cell phone.

At the Movies

Wasn't this in "Dirty Larry and Crazy Mary"?

North Street Gang

In tterrace's link, the North Street gang has left their bicycles on the ground and gone inside, perhaps for something cold? And note the satellite dish on the roof of today's old general store.

Jingle Bell

I can hear the old fashioned bell above the door ding-a-linging every time someone goes in or out.

It sure brings back a lot of memories

How It Looks Today

A quick Google search led me to these two pics, here and here. The first pic's date is unknown to me but the second is from mid-2009.

[You can also click on the link tterrace put in the caption. - Dave]

Capri 1983

Great photo tterrace! This is me, age 20, proudly posing with my '77 Mark 2 Ford Capri near Reading, England and very similar looking cars they are too. It was a real babe magnet. (Well, in my memory it was.)

Shiny sides

The Odd Fellows Hall in Plymouth, CA, has the same odd-looking textured metal siding. What is that stuff called, anyway? It's a strange finishing material, in my opinion - shiny and fake-looking.

It makes me happy that this store is not only still in existence, it's been "upgraded" with a new porch that looks appropriate to the age and style of the building.

Datsun

My first new car was a 1976 Datsun B-210. It rusted away in 1979.

Then and Now

Thanks tterrace for all the pictures you have shared that remind me of my youth. This pictures cries out for a "Then and Now" follow up entry.

Whitewalls, wire wheels --

Tres sporty.

Well ain't you somethin?

How lucky you were to be so young (about 25) and have a brand new "just out" Datsun 1200. I had to wait 'til I was 50 yrs. old to get a showroom fresh spankin' new car, you lucky young whippersnapper. Hope you remember the good feeling and high self-esteem you felt being young, good-lookin', single and rich. Any chance you know where that car is now? My first car was a '51 USED Ford Crown Vic (totaled by an insurance company in a flood) which I bought after the flood for $50 in 1956. It overheated constantly and I had to carry gallons of water to cool the radiator at all times, not exactly a "chick magnet." I still like "whitewalls" and sleek design from the fifties. This is a thoughtful photo, great contrast between the very old, decrepit building and the bright, shiny new car.

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