Grew up in San Diego and went to my grandpas house in Pismo Beach every summer. First time was 1963 I was six maybe earlier I don’t know.?He lived less than a block away from the pier. So many fond memories. The roller skating rink was something we did everyday along with catching “Pismo Beach pier prizes” daily. Pier prizes were sardines. On a few occasions jellyfish washed up on the beach so many you could hardly walk without stepping on one. None the less we always loved going there.

Love the history of this video but the title of the video couldn’t be further from the truth. I live 20 minutes from Pismo Beach and it seems like it gets worse every year. Locals avoid Pismo, especially the area around the pier during the summer months. Clams or no clams the people keep coming to escape the valley heat.

I lived in one of the three carni shacks that were just east of the pier parking lot after the bumper cars and rides all closed. We fixed one shack out of the three that were borded up. We sold concrete seagulls to the tourist and i went to Arroyo grande highschool all during 1977 through 1980 by that time I wanted warmer surf and moved to san deigo  ..still to this day some of best years of my life and some incredible memories...I will always love pismo beach

It still has the sun and beach.  Still loved by many.

Great video! Thank you for doing the deep dive. I’m from Pismo and even I learned a couple of things.

lol, I wish this was true! I live 20 min away from Pismo and I assure everyone that people come from all over to vacation in Pismo! Crazy to say that! I grew up at Pismo and Avila and part of beach day at Avila was scrapping off the oil off the bottom of our feet! That was 30 years ago though, I’m old.

My memories as a girl of 8 to 12 down at Pismo Beach when dad brought in 70 clams are so vivid and wonderful. My mom made the best New England clam chowder, baked clams, raw clams. We had a blast those years. Every summer coming out of the Orange County area in our Terry Trailer. What memories.. what great memories...

Such an amazing history. Thanks for sharing!!:face-red-heart-shape::face-red-heart-shape:

Your photos that are not directly related to the dialogue are distracting.

I grew up taking our family vacations to pismo, with a “tent trailer” hauled behind our “ country squire station wagon”. I’m 64 now, but have fond memories of pismo. Pismo coast village,actually. Thank you for the documentary, it was wonderful to relive my childhood 😮😮

At 2:59, I can swear those are Oyster shells, not Clams.  There are similar piles in Florida, along the brackish rivers and coast of the Everglades, up to 50 ft tall.  Settlers mined the Oyster shell piles as fill for roads.

I was on the wall above the beach the 4th of july when the fireworks rack tipped over and started shooting rockets at all the people on the beach to watch the show - 1978 maybe

When I was 6 years old My family dug pismo clams

Way back in the 1970s I saw kids that would squirm their feet back and forth in the sand and would find a clam by feel. 😊
I tried it too with little success 😢
The sun was going down and it was time to go home. I tried one more time and finally got a big one! 😂
Brought it to my mom and when we got home she made a delicious soup with it.  😋  Great memory when I was a little kid 🏃‍♂️

I played the local Bar Harry's early mid 2000 feel in love with everything about this small town. All of all the places in the world I've traveled I wanted to make it home. Maybe later back on the road playing again. 💓

Pending the current court fight the Dunes are still open as of 9/30/26.

Lucky me.. our family tree has held residence in Pismo Beach since the 1950's, and I came of age living there circa 1980-1995, during an era of blissful population and quiet usage which will never return.  We lived on Wilmar Street, just above the far north end of the beach, and daily life was a normal town with normal people.  Weekend tourists were manageable, and their spaces were traditional.  Unfortunately, however, today's invasive ilk of both disrespectful tourists and unwelcome move-ins has evolved it into nothing more than what my family who still live there refer to as "Fresno by the Sea".  So sad.

PS:  It isn't just the clam population that was destroyed by tourists.  My high school's biology department was given local stewardship of the Monarch Grove butterfly zone for daily monitor, study and clean-up, and we took very good care of them.  The reason why the dense migration layover stop has changed from that spot is because you could walk right up to it, and so many tourists disturbed them to the point of leaving a residual human scent that the flock now avoids-- and which totally confused their centuries-old route movement and natural grouping element after they began spreading out away from it and into smaller masses.
 The last I heard is that an area in which the greater majority have more recently been harboring for their fall season roost is miles inland from there.. largely on private property.. and is undisclosed from tourist access to keep it from happening again.. with hopefully an increase to the density numbers and migration routing they once had.  For that I am thankful.

I went down to Pismo Beach last summer. I never did see the beach though, despite standing on the boardwalk. The fog was so thick that I couldn't see the breakers. I couldn't see 6 ft ahead of me, plus it was freezing. Typical coastal California in summer! It seemed like a nice town though. I met some great people there.

I went to the skating rink Neary every Saturday night as a kid.  I loved it. My cousins boyfriend ate the clams stright from its shell. She passed away last year at 81. My dad drove us onto the beach in Oceano and we'd camp and have barbecue right on the beach.

Pismo was my childhood.  Maybe 25 people total walking along the beach.  We dug a few clams and my mom cooked them in a motel room with a kitchen.   Does another remember Plessas restaurant?  The owners were Greek.  It had the best Manhattan clam chowder and baked clams.  I only knew red chowder until I got into my 30's.