This was mostly in the late 60s to early 70s. It got so bad in downtown Denver that the 15th and 16th street loop was a parking lot on weekend nights. There were a select few lots that we would actually park in to throw our insults from, or try to impress the girls, But for the most part the real cruising would happen when we left the restraints of downtown and headed out east to check on the illegal drag racing, or just cruising around town to drive through the local burger haunts. But sitting in one spot for too long could get ya in trouble. THAT'S WHY IT WAS CALLED CRUISING.
Cruising in our gang (circa 1952) consisted of going somewhere (in a group) very fast for a reason. We would be sitting around the Olive Way Barrel at 9 oclock in the evening and decide to drive to Portland for a cup of coffee.(180 miles and no freeways) Usually about 10 cars. We almost always got home in time to go to work the next morning.
I wasn't born until 64, so I also have no idea how cruising was done in England. From what I can gather it was pretty much non-existent as we don't have your rich history of hot rods and Kustoms. Which is why I am so passionate and fascinated by YOUR (as in the US not you personally) car culture from back in the day. You made a blanket statement saying there were no car shows back then, I posted some video of a car show from back then. If you have a problem with that, well, whatever.
Every rookie like me (31 now) dreams of that waybackmachine that would transport you back in time to the real cruising. In Europe there are a few days a year you can feel a bit what cruising is all about, in Sweden. At Power Big Meet, Wheels & Wings and a few other meetings. You can't get closer than this in modern day Europe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK6g4oKgB24 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TikT8z3qyxM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB1ry7F-9aA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XT68Y5LJ68 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCqoN7MJZJ8 They're parading the whole day and night and people are admiring the cars. Traffic jams in the city and people talking to each other from their cars. I hope it's not too off topic but I am also curious about what the American HAMBers that were there in '62 think about this. Of course there weren't so many people behind gates and lints staring at your cars but the parading and showing off part may be a little bit in the vein of the old days..?
What a complete and utter friggin' idiot! Plain and simple. If you had even paid one iota of attention to the video, or knew anything of the past, it was evident that the video was taken in the US, not in England. Krip was just sharing. As I said, what a friggin' idiot...
I don't understand Gmans post either. I find it fascinating that we have friends all over the world that share the hobby.
I've been to the Varberg Wings & Wheels. What I liked about cruising in Sweden is that as along as the driver stays sober the passengers can drink beer all they want!! Then the fact it don't really matter if the beer is ice cold or not. Them guys have some fun. Case of beer makes a nice arm rest in the back seat!!
Fink, sorry for my rude post. Please accept my apology. Back in the day where I'm from there were never any "car shows". We cruised as shown in AG looking for chic's and street races. Hung out at drive in restaurants, diners and ice cream stands.
I have noticed not many pictures on this one .I don't have any pics of my 70's cruising we were to busy driving our cars to hang a camera out the window .Lots of things have changed
RDR and I went to high school together. Cruising the downtown main streets was called dragging the gut. Kids hung out on the street corners and at drive ins. Our big turn around point was a A&W root beer drive in. There was a drive in theater on the same street. Trying to pick up girls was a big deal. Races were born at these gathering points and soon the word spread and lots cars headed out to a remote destination to drag race.
I hear ya... the only photo I've of my '63 longroof is one grainy Kodak Instamatic shot that my mom took when I first got the car.
I'm 66, We did not know we were cruising ,we was just kids having fun ,I was told not to long ago by a friend my age, that we lived through the best years of the auto, I must add that my generation lived through the best years of this country...
Cruising was big in Canada too. In the small town I grew up in there was the Skyline Drive-In south of town and the A&W to the North of town. Yep as stated above we were kids looking for kicks and all the hot cars cruised from one drive-in to the other all night long on weekends. Was the greatest of times, miss them very much! That was my life in the 60's.
I got to cruise my parade float/boat of a '64 Impala convertible in the late 70's, early 80's on main street in Bismarck, ND. I kind of feel like I caught the tail end of cruising, a little bit. We knew what businesses we could park in after they closed, as long as someone didn't make a mess or break something to ruin it. I always remember early in the evening, the sense of adventure that the night held. Ya just didn't know what the evening would reveal. Usually my friends and I were looking for girls, parties, cheap booze, and anything else a 17-19yo would be interested in. In the summer, there would be keggers in remote spots along the (Missouri) river, and the trick was to find out where and get there before the beer was drunk up, cuz it was going to cost ya a buck for a cup. Occasionally you'ld buy a cup just as the keg was going dry. I lived in the neighboring town of Mandan, so I knew there were pretty Bismarck girls or vacationing cousins that I hadn't met yet. Some nights we'd end up at the drive-in between Bismarck & Mandan. On a good night, I might end up in the back seat of my car with one of the girls in our gaggle of friends. On a better night, I might end up in the back seat of my car with a girl I met at the drive-in.
Also one thing that is missing is the drive in restaraunts. I think a fortune could be made if someone opened one and REALLY catered to the vintage car crown. Try to make it as authentic as possible and really make it like Mels or what-ever.
Like I said earlier----Todays "Cruising" will never be like the "Original" cruises back in the 1948-1950's, B/W TV had just hit the scene (L.A.area), gas was 17-20 cents a gal. most girls wore dresses 6 inches above ankles, guys wore Levis with bottoms turned up 1 1/2 inch cuffs, Mexican "Hurrachy" sandle type shoes, with standard "flat top" haircut. No one could afford REAL wsw tires, so we always used PEP BOYS wsw "VARSITY" paint---Applied on Fri. night before cruising! OH YEAH!-----Definately different back then!---For the youngsters to know----Don
For us, pictures = evidence...Really alot of pics don't exist merely because we didn't run around with cameras all the time. No cell phones existed. Film and developing cost money, pictures were for special occasions...
No sweat man. I too repeatedly watch graffiti and long for something I was too young to be a part of. You guys really had it made back then, both shows and cruising. I was born at the wrong time on the wrong side of the Atlantic. Paul
Well Gman....where I'm from there were carshows (indoor and outdoor) all throughout the fifties and sixties, and there was some sort of cruising and/or racing almost 365 days a year here in Southern California.... Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's how it was around here.
Wish i could of experienced it back then. However we had a cruise here last weekend, A state trooper pulled over everyone who didn't have a front plate. It's pretty bad considering we weren't doing any wrong, just driving around town..
I would love to have a copy of the sound track with all the cracks pops ans hissing. Tat is what I miss when I get Rock on CD is they have cleaned it up. When you are accustomed to vinyl as being the real sound it just doesn't sound right any other way. You are a lucky man.
I went to high school in Marysville, Calif. small Mayberry type town/atmosphere. Yuba City was right across the river and there were two bridges connecting the two towns. The 5th st. bridge was just two lanes, but the 10th st. bridge was 4 lanes. There were a couple of stop lights leading up to the 10th st. bridge. You would run stop light to stop light until you hit the bridge than the race was on going over the bridge. If there was still a question as to who was the fastest there was a quarter mile marked off out on Slaughter House road. Saw many a drag race out there and was in a bunch. The cops knew everybody and would sit on top of the levee and watch the grudge matches on the weekends. They never really bothered anybody unless you were being a complete jack ass. There were four of us that hung around together and everybody would chip in .50 for gas, and at .19 - .24 cents a gallon we could cruise around all night. We would cruise the bowling alley, A&W and the Eat & Run. There were two cars in town that you didn't mess with and that was Mike Nutters Corvette and Bob Yores 64 GTO. The autorama would come to town and set up down at the Memorial Auditorium, now torn down. It was a huge brick building but was torn down in the name of progress. There is a Jack in the Box and a gas station there now. When the autorama came to town we would hang out and see if anybody needed help setting up. That way we got in for free and were able to see the other cars also. Just sitting here dreaming how things were and will never be.
And also the worse, years. We had the polio epidemic, Korea and Vietnam as well as a nation torn apart by racial unrest and protest of above said police actions, and our govt. in general. What we are as boomers is resiliant. We have managed to live through some of the worse times our nation has ever seen and overcome them. We all tend to at least try and look back on the good times and overlook the bad. It is the good that we pulled out of those times that has kept us going.
Thanks! Vinyl is still my audio medium of choice, and I haunt the local thrift stores religiously. I've got several thousand, including 45s, filling two rooms of the house. And then of course you need some neat old audio gear to play it on.
45's rule and always will! My solution to the overprocessed sterilised remastered digital crap is, surprisingly, my iPod. I have a record player which transfers records directly onto a USB stick without any noise reduction software or any of that crap, then I download from the USB stick onto my iPod, all pops and crackles still intact. Plug the iPod player into the head unit I have in the kripple kart and it sounds just like you have the radio on, static and all. So far I have about three days worth of non-stop rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, garage, surf, girl group etc etc pre-65 records that I just put on shuffle mode when we are out on the road. There's nothing quite like sitting at 60 on the motorway with "stick shift" by the Duals coming out of the speakers, background hiss and all. Paul
yea, I was from Riverside Ca. and American Graffitti to me looked just like cruising 'E' street in nearby San Bernardino [Berdoo]. the background sound of Wolfman Jack, and the RR yards was so like Berdoo. Since Friday night was a big cruise nite we would cruise to the nearby towns and see a lotta rods and even a race or two. Ruby,s driv in in Riv, was cool with some nice lookin car hops. Could even order a beer back then.
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