There were a couple of them between my house and place of work. I used to love to stop at them at 10pm on my way back from work (they were open until 11pm) and browse. Always lots of people there, even at that hour.
When my father was entering into dementia, he went through a period of buying/selling used cars every couple of months, and they’d talk him into the extended warranty on each sale. Took me a while to take control of his finances as I was living far away.
Iranians were the largest group of international grad students on American campuses in the ’70s. That ended immediately after the Revolution happened. There were still a few left finishing their degrees when I was an undergrad in the early ’80s. They kept a low profile and called themselves as Persians.
Our Bishop celebrated Mass in our parish today (100th anniversary of the parish as well as first communion for the kiddos), so that was nice.