Mighty Mo or Hot Shoppes photo?

Small world. I grew up in Tuxedo.We used to sit on the bridge over rt 50 and watch them race. I used to cruise the Hott Shoppes in Bladensberg. Graduated in 72. Then moved to Tx in 73.These threads sure bring back memories.

 

I guess my main stomping grounds were Chillum-West Hyattsville. Riggs Road was our closets drag strip. My father-in-law owned Boxall's Amoco at Riggs and Chillum Rd.

The next closest road for a quick race was East West Hwy near PG Plaza.

Hanging at McDonald's in Adelphi often meant a quick blast down University Blvd.

Bigger races went to Rt 32.

That little service Rd off of Rt 50 always seemed like a dead end with no escape from cops.

I was supposed to graduate from Northwestern in 72 but dropped out in the third quarter of 12th over "reverse discrimination" issues.

See the other Mo thread for pics.

 

My muffler shop was in Marlow Heights and I ate lunch at many of those restaurants.

Capitol plaza Hot Shoppes had a pretty good hotrod contingent out in the back in the 60s after they removed the teletrays. About 30 years ago we would meet in the Capitol Plaza parking lot out front on Wed nights and get 200 cars or so. They ran us off after the squirrells ruined it for us. We bounced around from shopping center to shopping center on Wed nights strictly by word of mouth. It was always cool for a while until the trash and the squirrells. Those damn BB Camaros!!






This was where we used to meet on Sunday mornings across from the old Red Barn building in Burtonsville. Now we meet across the street at the Burger King. Anyplace where they have a big parking lot and food.

 

Hanging at McDonald's in Adelphi often meant a quick blast down University Blvd.


Used to work at Deluka's Exxon in Adelphi. around 69-70.

 

Was that the one accross from Tick Tock where Larry had his trash trucks parked out back?

 

I used to do a lot of work in SE Washington around Southern Avenue. The Red Barn on Saint Barnabus Road was the closest safe place to eat. I went there quite a bit. Of course if it was a car hang out I didn't know about it because I was always there in the day time.

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That McDonalds was the first one in the area. A friend worked there in high school in 1962. No inside seating. It was remodeled several times over the years. IIRC hambergers were 15 cents cheese was 3 pennies more. Fries were 15 cents. Mighty Mos were a lot more. It was never a car place as I recall but it could have evolved. I don't think that the big corporation wanted to be associated with those damn hotrodders.

 

It did "evolve". A lot of people talk about American Graffiti but if you ask me, I'd almost believe that who ever wrote the movie Hollywood Knights used to hang at that McDonald's.

There was alot of pranksterism. McDonald's hired security guards but they couldn't handle it. They upgraded to Wakenhut Security because they carried guns. But even they suffered pranksterism, to the point where they peeked around corners before walking around the building.

They didn't have jurisdiction over the parking lot next door and that's where everyone met and gathered. McDonald's lot wouldn't have been big enough anyway.

It was enough of a gathering spot to draw an occassional trailered car street race. But most of the fun was the clowning around that was so prevalent.

Al Swanson (who looked just like Joe Cocker) made a career out of scaring the crap out of the security guards. I remember him hiding inside a flip top trash can waiting for one of the guards to stick his fast food wrappers in, and when he did Al went off like a mad dog, ha! Ha! the guard about shit a brick!

Klink was a collector of all things Hemi powered but had a 53 Ford pick-up that he would lock the steering to one side, climb in the back of the truck and ride around the lot in circles, with nobody in the cab. It would eventually start working its way toward parked cars and put people into panic mode.

There were a bunch of girls that came around that were viewed as teases or just plain silly, and one guy who should go unamed (who knows, he may be a prominent citizen these days) used to make a hobby of grossing the girls out. One night he made a theatrical production out of working up a luggi and spitting it into a high arch. He promptly ran over and licked it off the parking lot.

Another time he made a production out of (pretending I hope) wiping his ass with a handful of McDonald napkins and then eating them. That sent the girls running and gagging once again.

The most inebriated driver of the bunch was Bruce Warring and his very fast 69 Dart GTS that was way more than he could handle. He rolled in, plastered, one night and was convinced to do a dare for chump change. Everyone reached in their pockets for chump change and paid Bruce to take this dead mouse in and say he found it on his burger. Someone picked it out of the gutter by the tail and set it on Bruces burger bun. Bruce was too plastered to notice the tail was the string to a discarded tampon. Girls were grossed once again and security threw him off the lot.

One family guy was appalled by our antics and made a disparinging comment. Joe Venuto was a bull at the time and uprooted a 15' tree from it's shallow planter. It had a very flat root base from the shallow parking lot planter which meant the tree would stand on its own. Mr Appalled came out of McDonald's to find a 15' tree sprouting from the roof of his car. Ha! Ha!

Don't mess with the Hot Rodders!

 

Anyone remember the Eastover Hot Shoppe at the DC and Md line Oxon Hill, Md. Lots of servicemen stationed at Bolling AFB hungout there. We would run down on 295 and go out to Wheeler rd. There used to be a car club named Box Busters in Oxon Hill. Serveral members worked at Aquasco Speedway. Remember any names from that area. Lots of 409's and 348 cars.

 

I remember the place but I never went over there with cars on my mind. I drove past it many times.

The District Heights Mo had a bigger rep for hot cars from S.E.. They were the ones that would come to the Queenstown Mo looking for a race. The altered wheelbase 56 Chevy came from that MM. Bob Bernarden and Gene Altizer were from that area but I have no idea if they were Mo Rats. I bet they knew about the place though.

Deserved or not the Dist Hts Mo was supposedly a dangerous place. We only went over there a few times and never gave anybody any lip.

 

Here is the Hot fudge Cake from Hot Shoppes as well ---YUMMY

 

Those Hot Fudge cakes were so good, so decadent. If you sat and ate the entire thing, it was so rich it would almost make you sick. I miss those things!

 

Here's some Mo chatter for you old Mo Rats including "Bad Day at the Mo".

Link courtesy of Lisa the Librarian:

http://www.facebook.com/board.php?uid=65343806788

If it leads to anything interesting be sure to share it with us HAMBers.

 

I don't remember that. The District Hts Mo had a bad reputation whether it was warranted or not. Queenstown and Hew Hampshire ave had no bad rep. AFAIK

I do remember standing around outside BSin' when a couple of guys rode through in some 4dr POS and a guy waved a gun at us as they went through. No shots were fired but it did scare the shit out of us.(me anyway!) Someone called the cops and we were talking with the officer making the report when the car came back in. We all hollered.. "there they are" and the cop chased the car and pulled it over near the Giant food store.

We all ran across the bridge to gawk. The cop must have found the pistol because he handcuffed one of them with his hands in front of him and put him in the back seat. The idiot in the back seat started to hit the cop over the head with his cuffed fists. The cop car was surrounded with Mo rats by then not causing any trouble but there were a lot of us all very brave since the guy was in custody. I'm sure the cop was scared of a riot.

The cop picked up the microphone and said "code 13 code 13 officer in trouble." We all scattered like cockroaches. I went up to the Shell station up the street to watch the action from afar... I've never seen so many police officers in my life!!! PG County, Hyattsville, and every little city cop on duty in the local area. It was amazing how many policemen responded to the code. There had to be 30 cop cars show up from everywhere.

Needless to say the BSin' was over for that night.

I don't remember if it was a result of this incident but they did hire a PG county cop for security for a while. He was a nice guy that got to know the regulars. We never really had any trouble before or after.

 

I seem to remember the older folks in those days portraying anyone with a hot rod or custom as a hoodlum. Some "adults" wouldn't go to the Mo on weekends because of fear of trouble however unwarranted.

I do seem to remember hearing tell of a hassle (at the Queenstown Mo) between the Pagans and the Phantoms, the later of which started as a car club. I was pretty young at the time and don't know any more than that, or even if it was true.

 

I remember a fight one night in the lot just outside the Capital Plaza Hot Shoppes where one of the combatants pulled a huge chain out of his car and started swinging it wildly at his foe. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone use a chain in a fight. Must have been influenced by some scene in movie or something. Can't remember what the squabble was all about but I do recall the name of the individual using the chain. He will have to remain unidentified because he was a crazy man back then and if he's still around I wouldn't want to be the target of his wrath.....Don.

 

Well there were no motorcycle gangs at the Mo. Like any public place, I'm sure some came through from time to time but they had no use for a bunch of punk kids with 4 wheel toys. I never heard of the Phantoms. The Pagans had stories about them. We knew about them but they were in a parallel universe and not in ours. I knew several guys that were building choppers and trikes that came into the Mo but they were building show bikes and were not not hoodlums. Two of them were building bikes behind the Mo at the Kustom's garage that I was a member of. The only picture that I have (someplace) of the Mo is a picture of Tony with his chopper right in front.

There was one story about the Pagans going over to northern Va to make war with some other club over there. They knew that 20-25 bikes would be spotted coming across the river so the story goes that they got a dump truck filled it up with Pagans and were able to cruise right up to the other club house, jump out of the dump bed and surprise the other club. I think that rumble made the papers but it was in Arlington? I think.

Back then it was mostly choppers. lots of Sportster's and some Triumphs. One of my buddies had an Indian that he customized. Jim made himself into a damn good custom car painter using heavy flake and candy colors. The people around me looked down on dressers. I think it's funny how the yuppies have embraced the Harley's You would not see any saddle bags in the Mo on Friday night in the 60s.

Yes "Hotrods" carried a stigma for years that the old folks didn't understand. The whole "streetrod" deal came from a conscious effort to avoid the term hotrod. That has lot to do with why I talk so much about those times. I can only speak about my experience but it was not the same as some people seem to believe by looking at old magazines and movies. I just want the the truth as I lived it to come out and not the stories that get passed around. We were middle class Americans and not hoodlums. We had a great time. I feel fortunate to have been around then and there.

 

I could expand on that but the Hot Rod Hoodlum Moderators have already shown their displeasure at discussing such matters by censoring my posts on Hot Rod Hoodlums. I think some readers mistook my posts for promoting gang banger type car clubs rather than for exposing the TRUE history as you mentioned.

 

My dad was an Oxon Hill Box Buster. His name is John Bennett and we both live in coastal NC now. At the time he would have had a 1960 Impala, I think a 348 4bbl if I remember the stories right. White with a black instert, I think with moon wheels. When dad talks about that time in his life he just lights up. If anybody has any photos from that time, or a copy of the club logo they want to sell (or donate) I would love to have it as dad turns 70 in September and anything at all like that would just make his whole year. In particular, pictures of the Hot Shoppes or the strip at Aquasco. Drop me a line anytime by email or call me 910 409 6614, my name is Jeff. Thanks so much for starting this thread.

 

If you do a search on this site for Aquasco you'll find some old pics.

 

Here's a feature on Aquasco with a bunch of photos....

http://www.atomicpinup.com/Aquasco_Speedway.html

-Lee
Atomic Radio
www.atomicpinup.com

 

I used to hang at the Bethesda Hot Shoppes, my favorite thing to eat was french fries and gravy. I don't know why but that gravy tasted so good!

 

Wow, I thought those stories my Dad told me about the "MO" were just that "stories", he worked at the District Heights Mo back in the day as a waiter and cook and he would be put in a tight spot because he was the guy that most of the time had to go out and stop the "kids" from messin' around, problem was he was friends with them, most of the time, and he would get pranked when he came out to clean the pickles off the windows, he told me when he worked the frier nobody got pickles on their burgers! As a kid growing up there in the mid 70's the Mo was already gone but there was a resturant in there we would eat at and Dad would tell his stories about how cool it was hanging out there, its a shame, but we as a family would hop in whatever rod he had and go to Roy Rodgers for car show hangout night with Southern Maryland Street Rods and that place was packed, aaahhh memories!

 

weenie beenie is still there or it was about a year ago. It looks exactly like the picture. I didnt grow up here but a guy in my club mentioned it so I went one time. Its drive up only.

 

It looks like I'm not going to make the Mighty Mo reunion is Sharpsburg this weekend. I just got done working on the car and I'm not sure I've got the bugs out yet. Sharpsburg is a long tow from Broomes Island.

I wasn't a Mo Rat anyway. Just a punk kid doing wheelies on the Mo's speedbumps and waiting for the day when I was old enough to have a cool car or motorsickle.

I hope you ol' Mo Rats will take pics though.

 

Still looking for any Mo Rats with pictures OR stories from back in the day. Hot Shoppes stories are cool as well. Come on, dig through those shoeboxes of old black and white photos. Even if you don't have pics of the "Mo" itself, show us pics of the car you had back then when you cruised the Mo or Hot Shoppes. Don't be embarassed, even if you were in Mom's car, we want to see it.....Don.

 

I ran into Sonny Willett at the Jalopy Showdown a few weeks ago and he still has this 34 Chevy 2 dr. This was about 1964 at the DC Armory show. Hopefully we can talk him into showing it next year. 394 Olds, hydramatic and an olds rear.

 

Very cool, Tommy. Do you think that lettering on the wall in the background says Prince Georges Kustoms?

 

Yes that is exactly what it says. This was before the year before I joined the club but we put many cars in the show. Bob Sales with his 41 Chevy convertible was a regular from the Kustoms also.

 

I drove around the Bethesda Hot Shoppe's lot 69 times...backwards, in my parents'53 Chevy convertible, just after B-CC high (my school) beat their arch rival, Montgomery Blair, in football. Crazy good times!