When you're fresh off the tails of the golden age of muscle cars then the parking lot is the best place to hang out. Especially if that's the parking lot for a stadium about to host a Grateful Dead concert.
With no phones to grab attention and no school administrators to tell you what for, chilling in the parking lot totally ruled.
Here are 20 photos from the 1980s' golden age of hanging in the parking lot.
1
Good Times
The lodge lot in the early ‘80s.
2
Bumping the Tunes
Getting ready to set off.
3
Back of the Nissan
Whittier, CA, 1989.
4
“My Parents on Their Wedding Day in 1986”
“They got married in the courthouse and ate Safeway cake in a McDonald’s parking lot.”
5
Whittier, CA
High Schoolers in 1989.
6
A Couple and Their Car
“A random parking lot in 1980.”
7
“The Smoking Area”
A high school in 1985.
8
“My Parents”
“Meeting for the first time, 1988.”
9
Parking Lot Car Show
A Camaro in the early ‘80s.
10
The Grateful Dead Show
RFK stadium, 1988.
11
BMX Tricks
Using the parking lot for what it’s worth.
12
"Heavy Metal Parking Lot"
A 1986 documentary about pre-concert parking lot tailgates.
13
Continued
Produced by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn.
14
Continued
Outside the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland
15
Continued
Preparing for a Judas Priest/Dokken concert.
16
Continued
The doc has been called the "Citizen Kane of Wasted Teenage Metal."
17
A Dude and His Truck
Outside the drug store in 1988.
18
Hilton Head High School
The parking lot before school in 1987.
19
Chilling at the Mall
A dude in the late ‘80s.
20
“My Mom and Grandfather”
“Driving a recon vehicle around a TRW parking lot, late 1980s.”
