Badfun is right! I live in the suburbs north of minneapolis, near anoka, and Friday and Saturday nights cars are everywhere! Porky's and the holiday gas station/wendy's off university are full of cars and you can cruise from sundown to sunup and not see the same cars over and over again. Cops are always hassleing idiots but that's always been part of it from what I hear from my 62 year old uncle who cruised down here.
old farts screwed cruising!! I live in a small town where the downtown was packed every Fri/sat. until the early 90's when old farts complained they couldn't get to the drug store. cruising stopped and the drug store closed (imagine that) Now they close the streets once every month in the summer for the old farts to bring their rides to town and talk about the old days.
now days businesses want the cruisers to be around because the old cars bring in business. when i was in high school we were told we were we scaring away business.
We used to do it to socialize. In the late 60's - early 70's we had at least three drive-ins and three drive-in theaters to choose from. We'd simply surf from one to the other and hang out. Kids still do the same, but it's on Facebook, texting, tweeting. Still socializing and cruising, but doing it electronically.
I think it all really depends where you live, im in So Cal and my 57 is my daily driver i see old cars on a daily basis around where i live its actually really cool and refreshing considering ive been all over the world and have noticed how different alot of places are when it comes to even seeing a classic car...im fortunate to be 26 and have only owned pre 60s cars as daily drivers the same with alot of my friends, then i also have alot of friends who had to sell their cars or let their projects sit because they cant afford this lifestyle/hobby/obsession....I think alot of the older guys are hard on the youth of today and dont realize they were once too that kid that the older guys frowned upon, Think about it, look how expensive cars are now compared to even 10 years ago!
Video Games, Computers, Ipods, Iphones, Facebook, Myspace, Internet. IMHO, this is why cruising is dead, at least where i live here in Texas.
I think its because "they" dont like big numbers of people conjugating..it is viewed as a threat any more . by the police, and any security force..they just dont like big crowds, especially if they dont feel they have "control" over them
We used to cruise for 1 of 2 reasons, To get a race or to pick up a girl. Friday or Saturday it was from 8pm till every thing closed. Mid to late 60s. We kept the music low and the pipes somewhat quiet. Only did burn outs when we were heating up the tires for a race and we race out of town. Raced at the Alcoa plant west of town. 5 mile dead end straight road past the plant. Boy those were the days!!!
Heck back in the 60s we didn"t do the parking lot crap like today.We had a couple of main streets where everybody cruised and even a Frisches Big BOY drive in restaurant that was a popular hangout.If we wanted to race we all went out to the old airstrip and had a blast.Gas was cheaper,cops weren"t assholes and everybody got along.Now,$3.50 gas,cops with quotas,tickets for loud music and basicaly people sitting on their ass watching TV.Unlike back then,hell 85% of grown men driving on the highway today can"t even change a tire. That should answer your question.
Not so dead out here (Fort Collins). Back in high school ('00-04) me and my old car club would head out 3-4 times a week. Granted we were driving ricers and 80's F-bodys, but we'd do 100 miles a night cruising up and down the main drag. I stopped cause I got nothing cool to drive currently, but some of my old buddies are still out there, and the old hang out spots are still packed every friday/saturday night... At least tell the cops run everybody out...
im 20 years old and even for me back in high school everyone would be down in worcester on main street in worcester, it was bumper to bumper with o/t cars, classics, hot rods, street bikes, it was a blast...now you go down there on a friday or saturday night and theres nothing. It really sucks it was a lotta fun. I have to agree though the law was a huge part in the downfall at least where we used to cruise back and forth. good memories though
It used to be big in our little town (Visalia, CA) but know it's prohibited. When I was in school you could hardly get across Mooney Blvd. on a fri or sat night. Now the kids just sit in parking lots or or your front lawn if you live on an ajacent street.
Lots of young guys are too busy watching Jersey Shore and playing video games, lots of old guys have cars that are "too nice to drive", lots of the folks in between are raising their families, where they have been convinced that being a soccer dad is more meritorious than being a car dad... Besides, most (all?) of the late model shit ain't worth cruising anyway.
It's alive and well in Colorado in the summer. First Saturday of every month during the summer (sometimes through December if the weather holds) we have the Golden Cruise and sometimes close to 2500 cars will roll through. We also have the Colfax cruise, and you can wander to a few of the Sonic's around the state to find people that cruise in and out just to hang out and talk cars and bikes (granted some are O/T) but still. I know sometimes a group of us will get together and just go out, or drive to the bar together. We're keeping it alive one day at a time. The cops do make it more controlled and less adventurous than it used to be. Oh to live in the hay-day of hot rods would've been amazing
Comon Bro... I dont think they are any dumber than when I was a kid... I remember drag racing on Front St. In Philly in the late 70's and the dude in front of me who had taken his Mommas Chevelle Flipped the air cleaner cover over and gone racing with it... This dude is in front on my 66 Charger and burning rubber till Sparks started flying.. he had melted all the rubber off of his tires and was throwing sparks with the steel belts on those old radials... That was Stupid...
I wouldn't say its dead.. Coming from a kid under the age of 21, there are all kinds of kids were I live still doing it even with new cars and trucks. "Kids" just wanna go have fun and hang out with their friends thats what its about? Right? Cruising, I believe has changed, but it sure ain't dead. I think if you keep calling kids stupid, it will die because of "You" So its not fair to say its dead.
I wish I had TV... I only use mine to watch American Graffiti. haha. Everyone now a days has everything done for them so they don't naturally know how to work on a car or even what to do with an old one. Fortunately for me, at 23, I was started early at the age of 5. If there wasn't cable shows or other crap like that you would be guaranteed to have a lot more kids cruising. I know I will when I get something done. 2 projects at once is never a good idea....
Back in the day cruising was a way to look for street races. We cruised drive in restaurants, hamburger and ice cream stands looking for gals and street races. NEVER saw anyone in a lawn chair which today defines a cruise. Go to any local Saturday night cruise and you'll see more new Corvettes then on a Chevy dealers lot. Local cruises are dominated by posers who wouldn't know a drag race from sic um. The biggest reason for cruising was there were no GG or NSRA type car shows. Cruising was our car shows. It used to be all about how fast your car was. Now its more about how your car looks. Many a night I wish I could relive my past. American Graffiti was not a figment of some ones imagination. Thats the way it was.
I think the presence of cell phones and social networking played a huge part in the fall of cruising. Back when I was 16 part of cruising or driving around town was trying to find people. With an Iphone and a Facebook app you know where all your friends are at all times...and what kind of sandwich they are eating or whatever uneventfull activity they are taking part in. ...someone may have pointed this out already.
... and listening to stupid music, wearing stupid-looking clothing and stupid-looking haircuts, and doing gawdawful stupid things to their cars like putting video game consoles and big screen TVs in the trunks. (Okay, for anybody who didn't notice, that was all tongue-in-cheek. I've long said that one of the privileges of youth is that you get to wear your hair in ways that you wind up looking at pictures of yourself decades later and wondering what the fuck you could have been thinking when you got THAT haircut.)
I'm not sure what the heck the kids do here on Fri/Sat night but it sure ain't cruzin' the main. That was the thing to do when I was in high school. As soon as I got my drivers license that's where I was at! I have to tell you though. As much fun as it was....driving circles around the same town got old.... ....the current generation may have already realized what took us our high school years to figure out..... ....driving around in circles gets old.... It's still fun to meet up with your pals and hang out though.
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