Before Quality Towing, the Post Road East property next to Saugatuck Congregational Church was a Tydol gas station.
What’s more remarkable about this January 1956 photo, though, is the Dairy Queen.
Westporters from the 1960s through ’80s remember the DQ further east. Today it’s Little Barn restaurant. (Think of the architecture — makes sense, right?)
This earlier Dairy Queen sat on the site of what later became the Crest. (It’s now the site of recently closed Salsa Fresca, soon to be Just Salad.)
The Crest was Westport’s 1st drive-in — as beloved by teenagers in the early ’60s as the Big Top in later years.
Today’s equivalent is — I have no clue.
A bit east of the Crest — beyond the right side of this photo — was the original Viva Zapata.
But check out the police car parked in front of the DQ.
Can’t see it? Here’s a better image:
(Photo courtesy of Christopher Maroc, via Facebook)
If you don’t think seeing that gumball light in your rearview mirror would worry you, think again.
Getting pulled over as a teenager in the 1950s probably meant being driven home in the back seat to your parents.
That may have been the scariest punishment of all.
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