Theres this mall there and its really weird because the median income of the place is bizarrely out of skew with the concept of a mall. For example: while most of the short-lived maill-auto chain had midget cars and go-cart racers as their entryway flash, the Blackhawk version actually had an honest-to-god race car in there, like F1.

It was amazing. Who shops for auto mats while behind them sits a car as expensive as a fighter plane, near enough.

Lotsa pressure.

Since those days its a lot easier to conceptualize an upscale mall. It probably has a William Sonoma, a Restoration Hardware and so forth. Stack of Escalade SUVs sitting out front.

Back then it was something kind of rare and nobody quite knew what to do with a richie mall, except these guys who decided to put a museum in there.

It wasn't very big and I'm sure it was granted museum status by the good folks at both the city and the mall as a wink and a nod to the fact that this was no museum -- this was a car dealership with cars to go.

And therein was the beauty of it, this rich, dark showroom and all these amazing cars as if being kept in someone's living room.

Truly bizarre and truly California.