Week 32--In the City--Shopping in Oakland

My mother lived with her parents in the 1940s and 1950s in Walnut Creek, California until she was a junior in high school, and then they moved to a house they purchased in Pleasant Hill. Both communities were rural or small-town in nature. There were local shops to purchase goods but no large department stores. Perhaps Sears or JC Penney had catalog stores where one could order something. 

So if you wanted to do shopping in larger department stores, you had to drive or ride the bus into Oakland or San Francisco. Oakland had an H.C. Capwell and a Sears Roebuck store, plus many other fine shops along Broadway and Telegraph.

It is likely that my mother and her mother traveled into Oakland on the Greyhound bus and shopped in the stores. It would have been a big deal, one where you put on your best clothes because you were going into the city.

How do I know this? We have in our collection a photograph of my mother and grandmother walking down Broadway near the Paramount Theater. From the angle of where they are in relationship to the theater, they are in front of H.C. Capwell department store.

There must have been random photographers who took photos of people and tried to sell them a copy. It think it's wonderful that they purchased it and we have a memento of their trip into the city!

This is my fourth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Miss MerryAugust 13, 2021 at 5:03 PM

    I have a similar photo of my grandmother, great aunt and aunt shopping on the streets of Cleveland, Ohio. I believe in the late 40's or early 50's you could still catch a train from our little town for the 2 hour ride.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa S. GorrellAugust 13, 2021 at 5:07 PM

      I suspect that photographers in many major cities taking these kind of photos to sell. Thanks for stopping by to comment.

      Delete
  2. Marian B. WoodAugust 15, 2021 at 6:22 AM

    A very nice photo...candid catching them along the shopping street. How wonderful this is in your collection!

    ReplyDelete

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