Off-Ramp Oranges

(image by billselak via Flickr)

Saturday, September 14, 1968. When Osvaldo Monte hears a loud ca-thunk-thunk, he knows the engine is dead and that he has less than 10 seconds to steer out of heavy weekend traffic.

Honking politely and waving his arm out the window, Osvaldo steers the bright green pickup off exit 21 on the San Bernardino Freeway. Safely parked just past the ramp, he takes stock of his situation: he's not going to make it to the warehouse in time, he has five cents in his pocket, he knows seven words in English.

As he gets out to inspect the engine, he catches a glimpse of his shiny cargo: a thousand of his uncle's oranges. An hour later, Osvaldo becomes the first entrepreneur to sell oranges directly from a freeway off-ramp in Los Angeles.

When New York City lawyer Edward M. Bassett and his son first proposed freeways in 1930, they called for stores to be located at three to ten mile intervals in the middle of the freeway.