Just so the guys that are young on here realize this. There are "Damn Kids" of all ages. There are 50 year old Damn kids, there are 15 year old Damn Kids. And on the other side of that coin there are young people who are good law abiding citizens that are appreciated for their maturity and proper behavior. So when you hear the phrase or reference to damn kids please don't assume that it is a reference to a persons actual age. It is most likely just a reference to their present display of maturity. I have a few 50 year old buddies that are such Damn Kids that no one wants to hang near them.
Maybe because more people are not paying attention while driving (cell phones/texting), running the risk of getting into an accident? It's safer just to park...
Its too easy to find something to do. Cell phones, mybook, facespace, twits. Before i had a cell phone, it was hard to find shit going on, so off we went to go cruz hang out spots in my 56 chevy. Once i got that cell phone at like 18 1/2 it was on. Partying all the time always hangin out with people, chasing girls. Didnt need to cruise a car and be seen when i could socially cruz around on my phone,then get there in an econobox.
I don't think kids are dumb. I think they need more guidence than we did when we were growing up. People dont take the time to wrench on cars themselves, let alone with their son or daughter. Just think of the pride you had when you tuned you car, or put a set of chrome wheels on it. You thought it was the coolest ride in town.
This used to be "THE" cruise back a couple of years ago until all the SUVs being operated by spectators who are to lazy to get out of their vehicles to watch the CRUISERS are now occuping the all the lanes . Now the CRUISERS are parked on the side streets. With most paying for parking spots. (what a joke). This could be awesome again if the organizers got their shit to-gether and desiganate the 2 curb lanes for CRUISERS only. About 40 miles up the road at the same time is the BACK TO THE BRICKS Cruise in FLINT MI. which blows Woodward Dream Cruise out of the water.
Around here there is one main place in CT that everyone goes on Friday and Sat nights....young and old...rice burners and classics. Its called the Berlin Turnpike. Its very retro, once had 4 drive-ins, bowling alleys, many diners, and McDonalds even recently build a retro drive-in to fit the theme of the road. My grandmother tells me it was always the "hot Spot" back in the day. it was a famous hangout between the drive-ins, diners, bowling alleys, etc. the road is very flat and multi lanes and it is famous for the street racing. It occurs all the time despite the police presence around the area on those nights. For the most part the torch has been passed to the younger crowd with their rice burners or project cars but you will also still see rods,classics and muscle cars going for an evening spin or a dinner date We are the only one out of all our friends who have a vintage vehicle pre 1960. We usually just end up out touring scenic roads by ourselves and its nice. Our old plymouth with the flathead six has great gas mileage and will give most modern day cars a run for their money in the mpg dispute so the price of gas doesnt really bother us. In the summer on most nights you can see us touring around town in ole' betty to dinner or what-not Here in the state of CT we are known for our "jackass" cops that will knit pick anything they come across but for the most time they are perfectly contempt with everyone as long as you are BEHAVING. There is a difference between "cruisin'" and acting like a 'jackass'. If you want to go out for a cruise with buddies, do it respectfully and enjoy the ride. Dont draw attention to yourself by acting like an idiot...the cops will take notice and they will do something about it I have a very nice vintage jeep that is my daily driver in the summer. its BIG, its bright red, and it is very nice. I was once chased down by the cops throughout town who were following me and waiting for me to stop (i pulled into the bank). They came in behind me and asked me to follow them back to the station...so i did. it turned out that one of the other cops had a similar jeep that he just bought and they all wanted to oogle over the beast....so an hour later.....i was finally on my way after they were all done drooling.
My hometown more less outlawed it on main st.. But now kids congregate in parking lots. I think some of it was property owners along main st. Kids pissing in their entry ways. Its sad. I can remember being in JR college and taking a break from studying, shooting the breeze on main st for an hour. More or less killed about 15yrs ago. Now there's more drug use/abuse than ever in that town. Cruising was and is pretty innocent.
Cruising dies because there is always some idiot, or group of idiots, that will ruin it for everyone. Doing burnouts, revving engines at 2am, tossing beer cans out of windows, leaving trash behind, being disrespectful to others, flagrantly violating traffic laws, playing music too loud... some of the quickest ways to get a cruise shut down. Been happening for 50+ years and yet some idiots just cant figure it out.
I think its a little funny how some guys are complaining about facebook, texting and other social medias, however they spend hours on the HAMB daily... really?
Big subject here but here goes. In the Early 50's we would cruise main street looking for friends--gals or races. If we had a date we cruised main looking for friends got some burgers some where and then headed to the local hot spot where every one in our group met. Stuart's on S. Main was the hot spot and front rows were the school kids there to look and the back rows were the drag racers and a couple of miles away were the "Drag Strip" where we did it the old fashion way. When a pair of cars left you knew what they were going to do and the place evacuated 80% to go watch. From that point on many races were set up and executed way into the night then after midnight we made one more cruise down the main just looking and having fun and racking the dual smithy's. That was then and now we still cruise on the roads with a destination and usually have 4 to 600 cars attend so I say its not dead but a little different. We have a rod run every January and weather permitting have about the same 3-500 cars from all over the Houston and surrounding areas. Austin meatheads set up rod runs and we attend those when possible and it's a 3 hour drive to get there but well worth the time and expense. Its happening and you got to get out of the house and fire up the hotrod and head out. Its still going on and you have to find it. Hotrods are meant to be worn out and I make every effort to wear mine out then rebuild again.
Local law enforcment put a stop to it around here. The last straw for me was getting a trespasing ticket for turning around in an empty bank parking lot!
Because it is pretty annoying to all the others who aren't into it and that ends up being most people in an area. Most people just want to use the roads to get around, not show off. The few that do and have to act like fools gives others good excuses to just ban it and so that is what happens. And honestly, it is hard to blame them since we all know the stupid crap that happens all too often, always has and probably always will.
i have noticed that when the crime rate around a cruising increases the cruising decreases. the crimes are generally not caused by the cruisers. the problems seem to be caused by spectators. when cruising levels were moderate the problems were not enough to have the police become involved. you will find there are stupid cruisers from all age groups. as far as saying that some kids now days are more likely to cause trouble while cruising can be viewed true to a point. just look at about every high school these days. it is very common to have the police in the high schools as security. it does not take very many bad kids (or adults) to give cruising a bad name. i have found no problems with any age groups at cruise nights. some businesses are happy to host cruise nights. this has for the most part taken the place of traditional cruising. i really miss the cruising from my high school days. back then we wished someone would provide a place to hang out with our cruising cars. i always have a good time just parking my car at a arrange cruise night. i don't have worry about getting kicked out because i am loitering. over all you just can't beat traditional unarranged cruising.
Hey now, there is no call for that. Google Oakland sideshow and you will see what cruising has turned into, at least in my area, and what kids are like these days.
this is a little different than facebook. not everyone including myself have the priviledge of having other enthusiasts in their area. and this doesnt replace our lifestyles, facebook, twatter, or whatever seems to with everyone that uses them.
I've figured it out before and an hours worth of kid wages buys pretty close to the same amount of gas that my hour of work at the local Safeway did in 1965. The wages may be higher but the buying power is the same when all is said and done.
I blame traffic, inching along watching the temp guage is not very fun. There is a good unorganized sunday morning coffee cruise in. Park have some coffee look around go home.
When I got my license (2000) I was pretty much the last age group to grow up without social networking sites or cell phones. I remember cruising a lot as a teen. Sometimes my friends and I would just hop in a car and randomly drive around for hours. If we wanted to "cruise" we would drive 25 miles to the big city (15000 people). There was one big long street through the town. We would do a loop, get girl's numbers, sometimes race (most of the time fake people out). When I got my license gas was a buck a gallon, now it is over three, when I was a teen jobs were everywhere, now a lot of those jobs are being taken by desperate adults. It is no wonder why cruising is dead.
When I started driving, an hour's work at minimum wage could buy 5-1/2 gallons of gas. Now it buys 2-1/4 gallons. Buying power is not the same for those at the low end.
You Cruz around on your cell phone. WTF planet are you on? Better still I think you are on the wrong Web Site.
I'm 43, we had cruising down at seaside, driving the strip( illeagle to make more than 2 passes today). Used to race & hang out in Philly on Front st. by the old colleseum, staduim is gone, no racing that I know of. That place was cool, if you had a car the girls were all about it..big party. Then there were the " burger burners" hung out at the Burger King in Hamilton on rt 33, bounced between there and the Mc D's, never could get those guys to race.. Now there is cruise night in freehold, mostly drunken bikers and the " cruise" at the outlet mall, Park and Bullshit,rather boring... Englishtown Dragstrip has a cruise night which is pretty cool, you cna run the track fro free, burnout contest, beer garden... Also nostalgic drags every other Saturday night for cars '62 and older, 1/8 mile free runs, not made that yet but will check itout this season.
Another thing may be the type of affordable cars that have been made in the last 30 years. Most people who would cruise today would be younger, what kind of affordable cruiser cars are out there from the last 30 years? When I was young I could pick up a 60's Falcon for about 600 bucks, a 57 chev for 2500, very cruisable. Poor kid today has no affordable cruisable cars, just tuner crap.
We are "All" to blame .There are lots of reasons for this but "So What " I still cruise we like to drive thats why we have cars ! If you actually want a cruise scene go out and create one .I bet if you go to where ever USA people used to cruise and hang around for a couple of hours someone else will stop and say if I knew you were doing this I would bring mine out too. Before long something will happen .Don't make it an Event just go Do-it ! KEEP BUSINESS, MEDIA ,AND PROMOTERS OUT OF IT .GO HAVE FUN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh please. im 22 and not that far off from high school and we had a close knit group of gear heads. our lives didnt revolve around a computer screen and a cell phone. sure we all had them, and we all socialized through them...but our lives didnt and dont revolve around facepage and myspace. On most occasions you would find everyone in the barns, wrenchin in the garage or out playing on motorcycles or in cars, Cruising is dead because kids can't afford classic cars to cruise around town in. School is very very demanding these days and i will speak from personal experience that its very hard to balance a job to pay the bills and school all at the same time. Most jobs that kids have at this age are strictly for paying off current bills and helping them just get by while attending school...its not about saving up for something your really wanted. College will also put you in big debt. even after school; most young folk are trying to pay off debt and get out and move on with life. Let's face it...times have changed. This isn't the easy-going 1940's-1960's anymore and i could honestly say i wish i grew up in those years :/ There are select groups of kids at any age who are into cars and mechanics but most are into modern day cars and trucks. Owning a hot rod or classic car is seen as a luxury to have one day in life to most gear heads my age. most normal people my age who think rods and classics are cool...couldnt afford to own or build something to "cruise around" in Another major factor is the cops. Cops see a bunch of kids driving around they automatically think "trouble"...especially at night. I know one of the cool old neighboring towns around here with the old fashioned main street is now practically the ghetto filled with rican rice burners and whatelse. the town is still neat to drive through buts its not worth stopping in unless you want to go to the coke bar If you really want to go out for a cruise, gather up some locals and friends and go for a drive to dinner and a tour around town. it starts there.
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