A fortnight before the summer of '69, Warilla went from sleepy seaside suburb to buzzing social hub with the opening of the southern Illawarra's first mall.
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Larry King, who helped turn the first sod on the shopping centre development, remembers what the place was like before The Grove.
At the time the highway was just two lanes and Windang Bridge was a skinny wooden bridge that rattled as you drove over it.
"Up until then there were a few shops at Barrack Heights, they're gone now, and a little supermarket, if you could call it that, at Shellharbour Village," Mr King said.
"It was a pretty big thing for the area to get a new shopping centre.
"I helped turn the first sod and worked on the foundations for the car park."
His daughter now owns Fantasy Donuts 'n' More at the Grove, which is marking 50 years on Tuesday.
When Warilla Grove first opened in November 1969 it was owned by Woolworths and had 20 specialty stores in addition to the supermarket.
We used to visit Cherry's Pop Shop where we listened to the latest music and bought our records.
It has since changed hands to private ownership and has grown to have two major supermarkets Woolworths and Aldi - and 31 specialty stores in 11,500 square metres of floor space.
The Centre was last expanded in 2007, when the Princes Highway frontage was opened up and new cafes were added. This year a medical centre was added.
Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba congratulated all past and current retailers and staff who have worked at The Grove since it opened on this day in 1969.
She said the importance of the shopping centre - which has featured memorable shops like Guests Cakes, Sizzlers and Pop Cherry's Pop Shop and was the go-to place for Santa photos for thousands of families - to the community could not be underestimated.
"This was the first 'shopping mall' of its kind in our LGA and it very quickly became a meeting place for nearby residents," she said.
"When I was a teenager, it was a meeting place for my friends on Thursday evenings for late night shopping.
"We used to visit Cherry's Pop Shop where we listened to the latest music and bought our records."
