I like the picture a lot too. It's not the angle you usually see, it shows the rail connection to Packard's, it's got a '55 Olds, AND it shows the tower at Main St.
Helmets were definitely not required in 1964. I remember riding helmetless with a friend on his bike in 1965 or 1966.
Trains stopped at Ross Ave?
Manually operated gates? Seriously?
Here's some information I found from various sources:
HELMETS
The history of motorcycle helmet laws in the United States is characterized by change. In 1967, to increase motorcycle helmet use, the federal government required the states to enact helmet use laws in order to qualify for certain federal safety programs and highway construction funds. The federal incentive worked. By the early 1970s, almost all the states had universal motorcycle helmet laws. Michigan was the first state to repeal its law in 1968, beginning a pattern of repeal, reenactment, and amendment of motorcycle helmet laws. In 1976, states successfully lobbied Congress to stop the Department of Transportation from assessing financial penalties on states without helmet laws.
GIFT SHOP
By 1966, the station building had been sold off by the Erie Railroad for private usage as Barbara's General Store and Gifts.
SIDING
There was also a third track in the opposite side working as a partial freight yard.
AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY GATES
Fred W. Watson, a Canadian from New Brunswick, patented the invention of the automatic electric railway gate with the U.S. Patent Office in 1881. This was a departure from the mechanical gates that had been the state of the art until then.