Lake Street (Mpls, MN) in the 60s

Graduated from Roosevelt in 70.

 

The place on the left is still there today. It has the word "service" in concrete Deco style lettering molded into the roof above the garage doors. I have a shot ofit from about 10 years ago I'll find in the morning and scan.


Here's a scan of a crappy pic I took of the place back in 1992

 

One of my teachers in hight school use to tell these crazy long winded stories, and one day he told us about a time he cruised to porkys, the story goes like this:

I remember cruising porkys when i was young, it was cool if you sat in the front seat, if you were in the back seat you werent cool, so we use to cruise around with three of us in the front seat, so one day we were pulling into porkys and i was in the far right spot, so quickly i leaned over and hid and when i did that i reached over and honked the horn so everyone would look, and what did they see, to cool dudes sitting in the front seat right next to each other....close, with no one on the passenger side! it was great.

Ill always remember that story, the funny thing is the teacher was old, he was like 65 or so so it must have been about 1950 or so.

I use to cruise porkys alot when i weas younger, from about 1997-2003 were about the years that we spent lots of time there, every friday and saturday night we were there, wed be sittin in the parking lot accross from arbys, getting people to do burnouts, we put oil down to lesson the friction on the tires so cars that usually wouldnt do burners would, it was great, wed be there for hours, i got pulled over only once in my t-bucket for loud exhaust, but one time in the parking lot across from Arbys the cops came in and made us all move, well a buddy of mines car wouldnt start and we wer trying to get it started and needless to say the cop about had it, took a buddy of mine and cuffed him and threw him in the back of the squad and was about to come after more of us but then i dont know what happened, he just chilled out and let my buddy out of the cop car and we got the car going and got the heck out of there!

fun times!

JEFF

 

Bare butt beach.

 

CC Tap 26th and Lyndale ,Broadway bar nordeast,Original Carbones pizza east 7th and Maria in St Paul right near Indian Mounds Park.(I wonder if she went back to Washington,Pa) Green door 26th and Lyndale, The Savoy ,Petes Kennel bar 27th near lake,Pearsons, The Hexagon.The Flame.Buzz Arletts lake and Lyndale, Harkins on 8th st in St Paul,Mouseys and the Anglesy,Saddle club on Hennipin.The bottle neck hennipin ,Lyndle and a whole bunch of other sts come together there. I was there,No pics but was on Lake,University,Central,Marshell and the Lake st bridge, and 6th st in St Paul.Lots of Chevys w/3 duses back than,they wern't much,needed to rev to high.Pontiac,olds,and those with torque pretty much had the upper hand in those short runs I run a 389 stepped up a bit back than.Harley 74 ,suicide clutch,dead mans throttle with a jockey when I left the 389 at home,Had a girl friend that used to stand up on the seat going down lake. Remember the lights were set for about one block at a time.Innocent days back than,never be a time like that again.

 

Class of 68 West High, we lived at Porky's by lake Calhoun.

 

Portland-Lake Motors from the above photo. I remember going there in the spring of 1968 with a couple high school buddies to look at a '67 Ford Fairlane GT convertible 4 speed. Practically new used car. Yellow w/ black interior. Some of the details are a bit hazy (41 years ago), it was a 390 but it definitely had a Ford 3-2bbl set up on it which must have been an over the counter dealer add on. My buddy who was interested in it was working on getting his parents to co-sign a loan. He never got it, but I often wonder what ever happened to that 4 speed convertible GT.

74Bob

 

Does anyone remember Woody Harrier the seat cover king. He had a shop just past Porky's High Lake, and at night his neon sign looked like a dancing weiner. And of coarse all the new orange Minneapolis Moline tractors at the factory lot at Lake and Hiawatha with the White Castle across the street.

 

My Dad use to cruise Phalen. He has told me lots of stories about cruising Phalen, Como, and university. He when to Harding, graduated in 76 so it was a bit later. One he told me was when I was an infant. He would still want to go out and cruise so he would take me with. He said he would lay me on the floor so no one would see me. Now he says it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. But times were different then.

 

When I was a kid your seat belt was your mom's right arm. Hit the binders and out goes the arm.
I do the same thing even though we all wear seatbelts.
Growing up in Kansas in the 50's abnd 60's you could drive your car any where and leave the keys in it. Even downtown Wichita. Times really are different.

 

Two events i fondly remember from my childhood were cruising Porky's on University and the Sun up on Central on the last nights they were open. I remember my Dad telling me how sad of a day each of these events were and how lucky we were to be some of the last people to be there. I don't think he thought that Porky's would reopen the place on university. Who would have ever guessed they would build a NEW Porky's not far from where the Sun was!

 

In the late 70's early 80's my mom worked nights. My dad would put my sister and I in our pajamas, and throw us in what ever muscle car he had at the time. He would cruise Central, down town Mpls, and the Mid-way until we were asleep. I still remember he racing from stop lights

The new NE Porky's is a ghost town. I drove by Saturday night during Back to the Fifties last year, and there was one 63 Impala there at about 8 pm. That was the only car!!

 

I spent countless hours cruising lake phalen in st. paul.I had a 70 el camino(brand new)but kept getting told to leave by st pauls finest because it was a truck and not suppose to be on the parkway. I finally put recreational license plates on it and they left me alone.I cruised across the Lafeyette bridge in a 435 hp vette one night at 125+ there were a lot of hemi's, 454's, 440's. White Castle downtown was the top of the loop where every one hung out.I think that every car that pulled out had to squel the tires.Cops went thru every 5 minutes,or were parked across the street constantly.It wasn't too hard to find something going on around the loop even if it was below 0. Maybe if there was a blizzard no one would be there. lotsa fun!

 

I also remember hanging out at Wards with my dad when i was like 9 or 10 or so in his 33 ford tudor, that was fun, even thou i dont remember much of it. now wards it long gone and a few years back (probably more than a few) the whole old building is gone too. fun times.

JEFF

 

Anyone remember a black 35 Ford Pick-up called Little Ebony? It had belly burner pipes running along the bedsides and had red & black (I think) tuck & roll in the interior and on the tonneau cover. I have the 51 Merc flatty that was painted chrome yellow with Offenhauser heads and Fenton 2x2 intake from the truck. The truck belonged to my uncle, Denny Bateman, before he went to Vietnam. I'd love to find some pics of the truck, but haven't been able to do so yet.

 

One night we were sitting in Hi-Lake shopping center and we decided with a handicap my Volkswagen could beat Bruce McKechren's 66 442 to the other side of the parking lot. Well with really careful calculations we set-up the handicap, I took off with the 442 in hot pursuit, I would have won except that McKechren refused to lose. The 442 ended up sideways in a cloud of brake smoke almost leaning on the Clark's Submarine Sandwich building. What a great race.

 

I worked on 33rd Avenue and East Lake for a couple of years in the mid 90's at a little garage. One of the guys I worked with (Pete Leinke) was pushing 50 at the time and used to tell me about the 'stop light grand prixs' he used to participate in in his '69 Camaro when he was in high school. He said Lake Street used to be THE place to cruise back then.

I was going to say- I thought that Portland Lake Motors looked about the same the last time I went by it (probably a few years ago now.)

I remember venturing down to "the cities" from the suburbs shortly after graduating high school in 1992. I drove by that lot and there was a gorgeous dark blue '72 Nova sitting there- really clean, nice stance, V8 with some speed parts. I think it was after hours so I called them the next day to inquire about it. It was going for around $3000 which was only slightly less than average for a fairly clean Nova at the time.

I remember thinking the car would sit there forever. I thought nobody in 'the city' was into cool cars- everyone I saw was driving new sedans, SUVs and imported cars. I think I waited a few days to go back and she was LONG gone. I had a lot to learn then. Now I've lived in Minneapolis for almost 12 years and I can go down almost any alley and point out the house that has the cool car...

 

Here's a cartoon I did for the MSRA "Linechaser" a few years ago. In the mid to late 50's we would drive all the way from the east side of St. Paul to the Champion Auto Store on West Lake because in the rear of the store they stocked real speed parts. I believe this was before The Big Wheel was around. We would cruise University to Porky's or go to Jerry's Drive In on White Bear Ave. and order Lemon-Limes and lace them with a little alcohol. I remember the first two (I think) Back to the Fifties, which were held in the Midway Shopping Center parking lot. It's a bit bigger now. To most of us East Siders Minneapolis was a foreign country in the 1950's.

 

'56 2 dr chebby post. 348 Cubes with tri-power Fox headers and 4 speed. Black with cheaters and always ready to go. Raced Lake until they put the center barriers in and ruined it all. Put the '56 into a light pole and sold it for a couple hundred bucks to a kid that needed the motor for his '58.

 

What year did they put the left turn lanes in on Lake St? I don't remember exactly when it happened, but I do remember that it put quite a damper on the street racing, as I recall.

You mentioned cheater slicks. I put a pair on my old '55 Bel Aire 2 Dr sedan in about 1968 and quickly learned the weak points of the stock 3 spd trans, drive shaft, and third member. I always kept spares on hand. I still remember the sound and movement the '55 would make when the spider gears would break in the rear end.

74Bob

 

hearing all these stories makes me wish I was around "the cities" back in the 50's and 60's... nowadays, at least in my town I pretty much have got the custom/hot rod that gets out in public on the weekdays. its pretty sad. it sure is funny to see peoples reactions when i pull up to the grocery store in my 59 pontiac, they act like i am from another planet or something. its fun to see the little kids get all excited though, even though their moms are ducking for cover

 

Any of you guys wanna recapture some of the good old days feelings see this thread. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342341

 

We used to drive up to Lake on Saturdays from Rochester to seek out new rides.
There wasnt much for sale on the local lots and we just KNEW the cars on Lake
had good speed stuff.Bought a few hopped up street warriors and most even made
the trip back to Rochester.Most had been flogged so hard they were used up.
Moved up to the western 'burbs and managed to do the Uni-Lake cruise in a 427
'51 Chevy business coupe for a couple of years.Only bummer was the '51 had 4.88's and it was a slooooooow ride in and back.

 

I'm a youngin' I graduated from Roosevelt in 1979 and grew up on 44th and 16th. Anyone cruise Lake Nokomis, little beach during the summer?

 

Yeah, I remember many a big dollar street races setup over in the Wards parking lot.

 

Ate many sub sandwiches there!!!

 

Grew up on 46th & Minnehaha & definitely cruised Lake Nokomis.

 

Anybody remember the "Power Wagon" from the central/wards days? That thing had a badass hemi in it if I remember. I never saw it run, but everybody knew it was nasty. I heard that he did run it on University one of the last nights Wards was the hot place, and racked up a book of tickets. I saw what was left of it in my old neighborhood about 10 years ago. It had a bad rollover crash somewhere along the line, and just the body shell was sitting there.

 

Here are a few I took back then. The first one is Keith Brown's all FIBERGLASS Comet

 

Late 60's cruising Lake St.

I would always enjoy seeing what type of muscle car would be prominently displayed and lit up in the front showroom window of Grossman Chev, just past the Avalon heading west on the right, Anderson Dodge, the next block on the left (the memory of some of the muscle cars displayed in the window of Anderson Dodge still gives me shivers) and then Pentel? Pontiac, just past Chicago on the right. I especially remember a white with blue stripes '69 Trans Am sitting in the window there. In the 1950's Pentel (I don't remember if that is the correct name) Pontiac was located further east on Lake St, 42nd and Lake I think. Jay Kline? Chevrolet down on west Lake. Where was the Ford dealer?

74Bob