Putting Ourselves in the Picture

The sun shone again today and we rose early, with a certain amount of anticipation, as today we were going to visit Petaluma.
Petaluma is the town that was used as a backdrop for the film American Graffiti, the quintiessential narrative of the American Dream that was released just before Sally and I were married. It embodies much of the romantic era of Americana. High School Graduation, hot rod cruisin', hangin' out at the fast food joint. I think that it was one of the things in our life which led us to do what we are doing now - see the United States for ourselves. Well today we would step into that world of Amercian culture, we would walk and drive the streets that George Lucas used to tell his story of youthful life in upstate California. Although, as I have said elsewhere in this blog, the film is intended to be Modesto, which is about 100 miles to the east. We have spoken to some residents of Modesto (for those who know, 'Shut Up John' is from Modesto, and lives very close to Paradise Road) and the film does indeed reflect the life of the town, even to Graffiti Night, which still takes place on the first Saturday after High School Graduation.
It is only a short drive to Petaluma, so we packed a picnic and drove down. We found a coffee shop on Bst and 11th, then walked along Petaluma Boulevard to Washington East. Passing and posing in several of the locations featured in the film. (See a map of the locations) The Mystic Cinema, the vacant car lot where the police car was ripped apart (now called the 'Stand By For Justice' scene), we went into the music store, where Laurie changes cars, The main drag, The junction where Toad reverses into another car. Although the buildings are still there the street furniture has changed, there are many trees planted now, the parking meters have been removed, many shop fronts have changed so that other scenes were not recognisable, however we were very happy to be able to be in the places where the famous film was made. Our finale was to drive out to Frates Road, which was used for the final drag race on Paradise Road. We both found it fun to immerse ourselves into nostalgia. We returned home via the normal shop in Walmart and Safeways and are now ready to move south tomorrow and tackle San Francisco.