MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
 
JUMP TO PAGE   100  >  200  >  300  >  400  >  500  >  600
VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Countdown to Suburbia: 1963

I thought I'd get on the 35mm black-and-white bandwagon with this one I shot on Kodak Plus-X in August 1963. A few weeks later my sister and her family moved into this, their new home in Diamond Bar, California. My brother (left) and I were down for a visit, so we all piled into their 1959 Rambler and headed out from their then-home base in South Gate to look the new place over. My sister is holding my niece, then 6 months old; I, seventeen years old, am behind the lens of my Kodak Retinette, then nine months old. Two years later, I stood on their front walk, turned around and took this shot. View full size.

I thought I'd get on the 35mm black-and-white bandwagon with this one I shot on Kodak Plus-X in August 1963. A few weeks later my sister and her family moved into this, their new home in Diamond Bar, California. My brother (left) and I were down for a visit, so we all piled into their 1959 Rambler and headed out from their then-home base in South Gate to look the new place over. My sister is holding my niece, then 6 months old; I, seventeen years old, am behind the lens of my Kodak Retinette, then nine months old. Two years later, I stood on their front walk, turned around and took this shot. View full size.

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Then and now

I went out this morning and took this shot. This is looking south east on Castle Rock. The hill side in the background is now a gated community called 'The Country' million dollar homes where Snoop-dog, Gerardo and other rich folk live. Behind this house is a creek and then Diamond Bar Blvd.

Looks like they finally got the lawn in!

Great shot

This is the same floor plan as our house! Do you know the address or street name?

Parallels

How fun to see this photo. Our family moved into a new subdivision in Albuquerque at almost the same time - September, 1962. It started out on a barren lot like that and was our family home until my dad died this year. My brothers and I are in the process of cleaning out 48 years' of life in that house and have found many similar photos. Life was good!

Life in Diamond Bar

We lived on Castle Rock Road, the section that was at the end of Birch Hill Drive and Lost River Drive at the bottom of the hill. Castle Rock ended at Evergreen School, and continued on the other side. The kids all started School at Evergreen. Behind our home was a concrete drainage channel. I saw my first roadrunner (bird) running along the bank of the channel. On the other side of the channel, it was all undeveloped with the rolling green hills and oaks. Often cattle or sheep were grazed there in the spring. One day a mountain lion (cougar) was sighted on the hill. It caused a lot of excitement. Later we heard that it had been shot by the Sheriff.

All the other families who moved in at the same time were young couples with kids the ages of ours. It was a nice neighborhood. Lots of the moms were involved with helping at the school. We often had backyard barbecues with neighbors. The kids all played together. The boys were in baseball league. I was a Cub Scout Den Mother. Typical suburban life for the day.

It was all unincorporated at the time we lived there. The commercial area was up at the north end. We usually went shopping in Brea or sometimes over to Walnut. We moved to northern California in 1971. Diamond Bar was incorporated as a city in 1989, I think and is now the City of Diamond Bar. I've never been back.

Be sure to check out the history on the Diamond Bar website.

Here's another link to Evergreen School. Zooming in will show our area.

Here's definitive proof

Edsel was not the ugliest car ever designed.

Cowtown

Diamond Bar in 1963! Wow. It must've taken forever to get there from South Gate back then. My parents looked at buying a house in Diamond Bar in 1969. It had a "sunken" living room & all you could smell was cows. We ended up in Anaheim. Great photo!

Lack of Landscaping

I had forgotten, until my father told me recently, that new houses didn't come already landscaped in those days. I was only three in 1956 when we moved into a suburban house very similar to this. Dad told me that he couldn't afford to put in a proper lawn for several years. He just mowed the weeds down to lawn length. It fooled me, anyway.

Golden Springs Boulevard?

My family moved to Diamond Bar in 1967. The house sure appears to be on Golden Springs, looking northeast toward the hillside where Route 60, the Pomona Freeway, was later constructed.

Year of the Fin

1959 was THE model year of the tailfins. Virtually all GM, Ford and Chrysler full sized vehicles had them as well as smaller Ramblers. It was also the year that the Cadillac fins were at their highest and pointiest.

Extreme

Man, that Rambler had some styling on it, didn't it? I wonder how many fatalities were caused by tailfin slashes.

Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.