thanks for all this. I cruised Vacaville, CA when I was 19 and in the Air Force in the mid 80s. It was a great time and about as close to what you guys are describing as I ever got. It sure is nice to be able to enjoy a little bit of the culture now here on teh HAMB and in teh SoCal scenes. Now I feel a little bit more privledged to be a member of Los Boulevardos.
Welll shit. Since my little brother, Mr Creosote, brought up my ol' '54 Bel Air, I might as well spin another Bellflower Blvd tale. This story has pissed me off since it happened in '68. That was the year my pop passed away. Moms didn't drive and I was at the hospital with her the night dad died. I should have known better than to take the Blvd home, but it was a Tuesday night at 2:30 am. My Chevy was a pretty nice car IMO, but it was also a pretty anti-social ride. It was meduim metalic green with Naugahide interior that matched the color perfectly. Seven extra teeth in the grill, nosed and decked, smoothed one piece bumpers, tail light housings flipped with International Travellall taillight lenses. Old worn out glasspacs through peashooters. And it was LOW. At the time I was running 14" chromies and the car was one of the lowest on the street. Anyway, on the way home from the hospital I got pulled over. The cop started giving me a bunch of shit about how low the car was. I was crying and my mom was too. The cops started measuring the car and then asked me to rev it up so they could write me a too loud ticket. Then they started to search the car! I had told them where we were coming from and why. When they shined the flashlight in my moms eyes, I just lost it! I pushed the biggest cop back and screamed that I was taking my mother home RIGHT NOW! I said that if he wanted to give me a ticket he would have to just shoot me right then and there. You didn't do that to Bellflower cops in those days, but I didn't care. Just then his Sargeant pulled up. I said, Look I'm taking my mom home NOW. If you want to come arrest me come on and chase me. Jumped in my Bel Air, side stepped the clutch and brodied out of there. My mom never said a word, when we got home they didn't follow us. I thought I was going to jail for sure. I stayed off the boulevard for a long time after that. Sold the car, grew my hair long, and didn't return the to car scene for 9 or 10 years. It took my many years to get over my hatred of cops. Made me very politically radical in college. I distrust authority to this day. I'm pissed to remember it. chili
Fuck what are the chances... they must have realized they picked the wrong kid to fuck with that night.
Those were the "Good ol Days"!!! That's when I worked at Bell Auto Parts and hung around at Roth Studios in Maywood or down in Long Beach at Lions Drag Strip.............................Wolfie
This thread is getting a little long in the tooth, but I need to add one more thought. A couple of people commented that they were surprised that I could remember the details of what went down 40 years ago. Well, it sticks in my mind so well because it was SOOOO Cooool. See, it was better than any car show. Better than what passes for most cruises these days too. Here's why: It was free, unstructured, every weekend night, in almost any neighborhood. What is the main purpose of a car? Motion. Metalflake just shines and crackles when it's in motion, under streetlights or in sunshine. Glasspacs or straight pipes sound best when driving by, much better than being revved up in a parking lot. Lots of roadsters look bitchen when nobody is in them but some of them look like Bullwinkle riding in a little cartoon rowboat when they drive by. Guys sitting so high you can see their belts. When someone gets it right it's as important as stance. Ain't it cool when the shyest girl smiles at you as your cars pass on the Boulevard? She wouldn't do that if you were standing on the corner, two feet apart. Just like Susanne Somers in Grafitti, in the blue T Bird. So you had to pay attention. So when your friend asked did you see the silver '64 Bel Air with the turquoise flaked top, you can answer, Yeah!, did you notice that it was spider webbed? It's cool to bop through the hang out with Wiggle Wobble by Les Cooper on your record player. Not so bitchen if your parked next to someone trying to out volumn you with Angel Baby. Bumpin' the Boulevard is all about making a quick but lasting impression. Back then it was EASY to remember the people who worked hard to be noticable. The guy who shaved his beard into flames. The chick who ratted her hair up 3 feet tall sitting next to the guy riding low in his '49 Chevy fastback with the dark maroon paint. Cathy, out in her old man, Bob's, candy green '58 Impala with lifts and a silver microflake top while he was at work. Locals knew she was Bob's girl, but out of towners always gave chase. She loved it. The drunken goons who drove off the curb at the A&W at 8pm Friday night and had to be towed away after we all laughed at them. Revving your loud pipes or doing a burnout when you know the cops could hear it, but couldn't tell who did it. It's all about MOTION, man. A Watson paint job cost $4000 dollars in '65. If you bought that you wanted to show it off. Maybe it'll come back. I have much more respect for the Mini truck guy or VW dude or kid in his rice rocket if he's out on the Boulevard than for the guy sitting at the burger joint behind his car in his lawn chair waiting to see who won the 50/50 raffle. And candy apple red looks sweet on anything you put it on. So before this thread rides off around the bend on the HAMB Boulevard, I'll close with, put your car into MOTION. Wash it, wax it, clean the windows, put some fine tunes in the player, grab your best gal, or go looking for some. Get a bunch of like minded people and go driving. Check out your reflection in the shop windows downtown as you drive by. Looks cool, huh? And you can most definetely believe that someone is gonna tell their friends, "I saw the coolest cars driving down (your main drag here) last night. It was a gold '62 Buick with Supremes and a Lime Green metal flake top and a '60 Ford Starliner with a silver flake top over dark, dark blue. Man the lights were splashing from the wheels. I could tell my girlfriend wished she were riding with them." That's why I remember. And that's why I always take the Boulevard when going through town. That's why I know where every store with clean windows is. That's why I keep my car clean. Because I AM a boulevardier. Chili
Amen Phil. Amazing post. One of the most entertaining I've read on here. Very vivid descriptions you got there. I just wish I could have some pics to go along with them. I posted on a few other boards looking for pictures circa '65 but got nothing. I'm sure they are around somewhere. i guess I'll just have to keep looking.
phil I agree with you on the drivin' part. even worse than sitting in a park with 500 cars (it is a social event that bring like minds together-I'll give 'em that) are the folks that trailer their cars to the park talk about not getting it. Don't people realize that flames and scallops were first done to cover up rock chips from DRIVING!! funtion is job one. drive it. I'd rather sit by the road for a half hour letting my car cool down than stuck on the side of the road with a flat on my trailer.
Damn this is the first time I read a thread twice really good made me feel I was cruising the blvd. with U man
Phil, I know you want to end this thread. But I've been transfixed in front of my monitor instead of mowing the damn lawn! I really want to hear some Pacific Norhtwest stories from some of the veteran cruisers. I'm thirty-three, and used to live down the road from a Chevron in SeaTac that sits where the Spanish Castle used to be (Hendrix footnote, BTW). I just know there must've been some cool cars cruisin' around, headin' to the 'Castle to see The Sonics or The Wailers, up from T-town. Goin' to Three Tree Point to street race along the waterfront. Fighting some o' them rough-ass Rat City guys. Anyone? I needs me another fix!
well maybe one more before its gone (I've got hundreds just need a little spark to bring em to mind, like driving a stocker alone to the drive in theater lowered 3 inches in the back (4 guys and 6 quarts of beer in the trunk)trying to keep a straight face when paying a buck to get in, I lived in Pasadena and used to hit all the hang outs in East Pasadena, Arcadia and Monrovia. we were more into street racing than cruising. Colorado Blvd had it's share of cruisers but we (like everyone else) would hit Whittier Blvd for an evening of the real thing now and then (it was like being on a different planet) if we could scrounge 3-4 bucks for gas we might go all the way to Long Beach down Alantic then to the circle and back up lakewood/ rosemeade hitting all the hot spots along the way (usually on a double date with new girlfriends, after we got into their shorts we just took em to closest dark spot, hey it was a guy thing) In 1959 I got a new Triumph Bonneville and !959 nsu prinz (talk about opposites) even though I had to buy ethyl (100 octane) at a wallet busting 29 cents or even worse chevron custom supreme (White pump) 104 octane (when racing) at 32 cents a gallon. I could hit all the Beatnik Coffee Houses, that summer I would head to Hollywierd, on to Santa Monica down the coast to Long Beach then Back up Lakewood?Rosemeade get home about 3-4 am sleep till noon. the bikes an women would be another story and the stuff that went on in Hollywood you wouldn't believe if I told you, So I guess you won't get "The Rest Of The Story" as Paul Harvey Said
thanks for the stories guys.brings back memories of my dad telling me stories of drag racin in the so-cal scene in the 50-60's.van nuys blvd. etc.sadly he passed away last june,but the one story that i always wished i had lived was one night at bobs big boy in toluca lake i believe. tv tommy ivo drove his twin engine rail threw the cruise and raced back to his house before the cops were lookin for him.anybody esle ever about this stunt?shit like this would end your ass in jail.
In T.O. we had a place on Jane St. called "Harvey's Hamburgers" where all the cool cars hung out, Eddie Jaskus's 63 Falcon with an Econoline front axle and a 283 Chevy with 14 to 1 compression, Gary Sawchuk's Big Block 69 Nova, slammed with 6" and 8" Rallye's, painted Corvette red, Lou Lovisa's 67 Acadian (Nova) black 2 door post with a killer 350, Johnney Hutchins 55 Chevy done like the "Two Lane Blacktop" 55, only long before we ever knew about "Two Lane Blacktop"......I was twelve or thirteen years old at the time and was lucky enough to have a parttime job as a pump jockey at Lawson's Sunoco (just down the street at Jane and Trethewey) and all of these guys would come in on a Saturday before closing at 6 o'clock to fill up with "260". One Saturday I had just locked up and two guys came in that I had never seen before, probably from Scarborough, one had a 55 Chevy, jacked way up in the air to clear what was then the widest tires I had ever seen in my life, looked like dirt track tires off a sprint car, it was painted brown, not metalflake but a very coarse metallic, looked like a thousand coats of hand rubbed lacquer! and the other car was 67 427 Tri-power Corvette Coupe, bright red, side pipes and knock-offs, probably still under warranty... I filled half of the tanks on both cars and they proceded to pour a gallon of who knows what in their tanks, avgas?.. nitro?...rocket fuel?...I filled up the rest of their tanks and when they paid they gave me a 50 cent tip which pissed off the guy that I worked with... a 300 pound biker who rode a riged Panhead with 12" over forks, no rake and a sporty tank painted with a spray bomb who had "FUCKOFF" tatooed upside down in the inside of his lower lip (he never got any tips!). Back then the drag races were on the farm roads just north of the city, up near Maple Airport, which is now "Canada's Wonderland" theme park and Toronto's largest shopping mall, but it was too far to go for a kid on a bicycle so in my imagination that saturday night when the local boys were challenged by the two out of towners in the red Corvette and the "Gasser" 55 Chevy played out like something like a scene from "American Graffiti"... ....I'll never know.
this was such enjoyable reading.K.C.Mo back in the '60s didn't have much street scene but it did have the old dragstrip down in the river bottom.There were regularly santioned races (saw Dickie Harrels Nova go up on the back bumper walk sideways and roll) but unbelievably today they never locked the gate.Every night of the week and big time on Friday and Saturday there were cars lining up to race until the early morning.Starters were volunteers from the crowd who were along the track inches from the cars. Did i mention there were no cops,no supervision,no authority,just usually a guy parked in the entrance with his hand out for a buck a car,supposedly collecting money for the new track.I stood right behind Bob Sullivan's blown hemi front engine rail when it made another 180 mph pass.Earthshaking! I remember there was a beautiful red '64 409 S.S. owned by a black dude that used to park in the same place every Saturday nite surrounded by admirers like a king holding court.When he would finally fire it up for a run the black dudes would get all excited waving their arms, jumping around and shouting '09,!'09!,BIG OH NINE ! Good times
The Jalopy Journal
