Event Coverage Did you cruise back in the day?

Making laps around the local burger joint, cross the hwy to the other one. The hwy separated 2 towns. So 2 different jurisdictions. Cops show up on one side, we cruise over to the other.
Then we’d clear out to watch a race. Cars lined up down the straight away just outside of town. State trooper jurisdiction.
A local had a mean 63 fairlane. One particular race a Chevelle and some other ride took off. We didn’t notice the Fairlane as we watched the launch. The Fairlane split em right down the middle. 3 wide for a split moment. Dang kids do goofy stuff.

 

Hell yeah, we all "cruised Main" 7 nights a week in the summer and weekends during the school year in the late 50s and thru the 60s with a car load of friends and looking to pick up girls or get in a race when we could find someone we hadn't already beat! Cruise awhile and park and watch to see who we missed seeing while cruising, then back to cruising again.

 

Sorry to the legitimate teachers out there but I stick by my statements. The teachers at school made fun of my girlfriends kids because I would pick the girls up from school sometimes in my m35a2 6x6 army truck. They would come home from school crying because their tree hugging teachers made fun of them. Got so bad I had to go in and straighten them out. So while there may be some good teachers out there, they unfortunately are not in my area. None of the schools even have auto shop around here any more. It’s sad.

 

Root,
Ever since the pandemic all that you expressed is being done again in our area of Ohio.
Much more fun than car shows.
At least something good came out of it.
We even have the police watching to see who misbehaves.

 

I used to cruise "in the area of Fremont Blvd known as the strip".
that is what the cops would say in court so the Judge knows we were guilty. this was in the 70's long before kids all became Beavis and Butthead.

 

It was old 40 they turned into a business loop through Columbia MO. when I70 bypassed it.
Back in the late 70s into the early 80s. It was socializing and trolling for a race. Town even has banners up along the loop. Traffic back then wasn't so bad, it's a 40 mile round trip for me just to get there and the traffic is terrible now for my race car.

 

Pretty sure we cruised every weekend and every night of the week during summers. Couldn’t wait to hang out on the main drag when I turned 16. My 17 year old boys have tried cruising in our town, but they are the only ones out...

 

You bet we went crusing, in my cobaltblue hot rod 55 Buick. Van Nuys blvd., Holly Wood Blvd. All of the Big Boys BurgerPlaces. Reserved Sepulvida Blvd. (after 11:00 PM--- the cops went home) for RACING ( this was late 60's early 70's)

 

got licence in '66
my job transferred me around the State every few years as a promotion
country towns were the best
"doing the block" or "doing a lap"
the main drag was the best place to pick up girls who would be waiting for a cool car to stop
the other side of it you had to be careful as mates drove by (put your windows up)
as they often had buckets of water or fruit to throw at you, the pickup trucks were the big danger
as mates lay in the pickup beds till they were beside you and you copped it.
the other thing to do was cruise the "love" parking spots and spring your mates making out
I had a second job at the local Drive in theatre, and one nite a female work mate waited for me to
finish work so I could drive her home
Boy was I in trouble when we got to the front gate, mother was waiting and brother was waiting
to bash me for keeping girl out so late, car in first gear and I bolted
Next day girl said "sorry" and would you drive me home again,
Mother and brother met us at the front gate and just about kissed my feet to say sorry for
their behaviour . That was the last time I drove that girl home
Great times the '60s and '70s

 

I think I cruised Yakima Avenue in Yakma Wa The first Friday night after I got insurance on my just bought 51 Merc early in 1963. That was the go to cruising spot on Friday nights up into the mid 80's when the city officials shut it down because there were more young thugs running up and down the sidewalks than there were cruisers in their cars on the street. I remember in the mid 60's the then chief of police told some reporter that they didn't mind us all cruising the Ave because it was a lot easier to keep an eye on everyone then.
In the summer of 1966 I lived with my dad in Renton Wa and worked at Boeing and cruised the famed Renton Loop for hours on end hanging out in the lot at Dags Hamburgers where you could get a couple of those little burgers, fries and a drink for well under 2 dollars. if you had a fast car you might pick up a race that took you out to the old Kent highway to make a run. I wish I had all the 1966 dollars I spent on gas cruising there stashed away now.

 

I called my cruisin' just going to work early. Lied about my age and worked 3rd shift as a furnace operator in a steel foundry. During the school year I only worked the 3rd shift. When summer hit I grabbed a 1st shift furnace job at the foundry across the street (to double my income and cut down on drive time). Would do a few laps, talk some shit, and set up some weekend races during the week in my 'work car' before heading off to pour steel for 16 hrs. Third shift was great because it left Friday and Saturday nights open. Get off from work Friday afternoon from the first shift job and after a few hours sleep hit the streets in the 'weekend car'. Start the routine all over Sunday night.

 

With no particular place to go...

 

BITD for me is late 80's into early 90's. Small town here, most of the time we would need to go 15-40 miles to get to towns with cruising scenes. Mostly musclecars and modernish stuff with big sound systems.

The best was weekends when we would branch out to Snelling/University (Midway) in St. Paul. This was back when one end of that loop was in the Wards parking lot. We were going up there for a year before we even heard about Porky's.

In the midst of 2020, one of the business guys in the town 15 miles away "organized" cruise nights for about 8 weeks. He would just go on his social media and post the map of the loop, and announce "cattin' the loop tonight". At least a hundred cars would show up, people lining the streets, it was a real good time in the middle of the lockdowns.

 

I'm sure if my children were asked when they were 'teens if they were deprived of things that their friends had, they would answer that they were. They would also tell you that they were expected to help out with chores, pick up after themselves, be responsible for getting schoolwork done, show up on time for dinner and generally to not cause their parents any grief. Nowadays, when we see our kids and their kids, we are struck by the general lack of respect from the grandkids. If two or more are in the same room with us, they don't get involved in conversation with us but they have a hell of a good time texting each other. I mean they are literally sitting next to each other and those thumbs are going 90 miles per hour. Our kids weren't raised like that but their kids are. What happened?

 

.......Sadly, social skills have become a thing of the past.

 

Cruzin the Dixie loop from the time I was 13 on, I would hop in with my cousin in his ‘70 Yenko Nova, or my sisters one boyfriend with his 301” powered black ‘57 Htop then her next boyfriend with his ‘64 Impala 327/300. Fun times! Once I got my own license, on the day I turned 16 , I would claim my own spot ; at the Dixie drive in. My orange 3W was a familiar site on the loop. The ritual went, burn out of the Dixie, up RT422, to the light at the Avon bridge. Take on most anyone , from that light. Next about 10 lights west on Cumberland street ,to go around McDonald’s. Then head east on Walnut street back to the Dixie. Repeat. Cops shut down the circuit in the late 70’s, but by then the really hot cars had faded.

 

Not always like American Graffiti...my brother's friend bought a brand new, 1963 Plymouth Fury Ramcharger,
Golden Commando, 4 speed, 383".

So he went cruising on Central Avenue in Phoenix. Picked up a drop dead gorgeous girl who suggested that
they go out the desert and "get lost".

"Eureka" he thought, I just hit pay dirt!! So he drives about 15 miles into the middle of the desert to which she replies, "O.K., I'm lost...time to go back..." He never "got lost" again....

 

I'll keep it as short as I can.
Dairy Queen, good spot. Tried to leave, car behind broke down 1/2 onto the highway. We run out and push em up into the lot. 2 girls couldn't have weighed 100lbs apiece pushing a Delta 88. Cops hit the lights and "cover us" from oncoming traffic. I point them to a phone and grab a wet towel from the back (washed my car, theirs was filthy). As I wipe my hands the cop demands "papers" and writes me a ticket for loitering. Took it to court.

I tell the judge the above, "Oh boy a new one! Usually you people pop your radiator cap and say you overheated. I'm increasing the fines." "Sorry your honor that just won't do." "EXCUSE ME?" "Won't do your honor. He knows what I said is true, and he said as much when he wrote the ticket. He covered us for safety." "Well?" to the cop. "I can't recall judge." "Really..." I say. "Funny thing your honor all 4 of us were there, 3 of us pushed the car. I wont call him a liar but..." So he sits there, wrote something, reading, 2 minutes that felt like 2 hrs. To the cop, "Well what do we do here?" "I dunno judge they're up there every night." "Ok, now he is a liar. I haven't been there for 3 or 4 weeks and he knows it." 2 more minutes, "I'm gonna hold this for a year, and if you so much as spit on my sidewalks I'll double this fine and that one too! Get outta here!" We won. City attorney comes out and stops us, "Boy are you guys lucky, he never does that." "Not lucky, honest. Cya..." "Bet you don't go to that Dairy Queen anymore." he says. "Headed there now, they make a good hot tin roof." True story, summer of 1986. Bright red Cuda 383 car.

 

^^^^Great story!^^^

 

Although I'm 67, I see that there are a lot of negative comments being made about young people. No doubt, some apply, but they also apply to some people who are not so young. My children are all college-educated, and they were more responsible than I was in their teens/early twenties.

Anyway, I did my share of "cruising" in the early 70s on what we called "The Strip." The strip was E. 14th St. in San Leandro, CA. There were two drive-in movie theaters on the strip, The Oakland and The Stadium, which were back-to-back.

Today, some kids/w cars congregate in the parking lot that is shared by In-and-Out and Lowes. The more reckless youth participate in "Side Shows," which sometimes erupt into injuries and violence, often resulting in participants' cars being towed and impounded. Personally, I don't advocate street racing or trespassing on private property.

In my town of approximately 60,000 people, there are still young people who have an interest in cars and pickups.

 

Grew up in San Francisco bay area (Livermore, east bay). By the late 70s and early 80s most cities had enacted anti-cruising laws. Livermore was one of the last places and had a decent cruising loop on First St (the main street through town). Brought in people from all around the east bay area. If we wanted a change, we would cross the bay over to San Mateo, which had cruising and one of the last in the area as well. San Mateo had more of the finding racing than Livermore which was more of finding girls. Being at that late 70s to early 80s timeframe, most of the cars were musclecars as they were still cheap and available for a high school kid with a part-time job. Good memories of it all.

Seems cruising actually driving the car up and down the main street has been replaced by drive your car and park in a big parking lot now.

 

Great stories!----I'm just a bit older at 89, but we used to cruise Inglewood after the Friday night football game.
This was when TV (black & white), first came out & people would crowd around the store window to get a glimpse of the new "gadget".
With 4 guys in my '41 chev. coupe, we had a WW2 fire extinguisher in back seat, one guy to pump the handle, one guy to point the nozzle out the window. As we approached the TV crowd, we could spray a great stream of water for our enjoyment! Later we spotted 2 girls sitting on a bus bench & 2 guys conversing with them, as we passed very slowly & started pumping like mad, the stream of cold water went thru thru the rolled down windows of their car & managed to hit the girls. ----Then the chase was on!!----I drove franticly in & out of alley ways & around several blocks, but could not lose the mad guys in their car! Finally screeching to a stop, we expected to get the shit knocked out of us, they saw that there were 4 of us so they backed off uttering some bad words!

 

It was called "draggin' main" in our town. It was that way for my older siblings as well as me and my friends when we came of age in the late '70s. It was where you saw everybody else and how you socialized with them.

 

Back in the early 60s here in Northern Ohio, we called it "buzz'n the ave". Eventually someone said "hey, you wanna run that thing". Off we'd go to some long straight road and ...... ....ah, the good ole days !

 

I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale. We cruised the beach. There wasn’t a Friday or Saturday night that you didn’t spend at least some of it “cruising the strip”, which was A1A between Sunrise and the Bahia Mar turnaround.

On an average night the loop was probably 30-45 minutes. During spring break (this was during the heyday) the loop was 4-5 hours!
Back then they hadn’t built the fancy walkways and walls - we could park on the beach and the parking bumper was the sand.

If you were between 16 & 22 it was the place to hook up with your friends, chase women, drink a bit, arrange speed competitions, and generally have fun. There were runs back over the bridge to Neba, Taco Viva, and Mickey D’s.

Neba parking lot was also a cruise spot, and usually the hot bed of the strongest cars in town. Any races arranged happened late at night out west. Cops were too thick to do much more than first gear bumps anywhere near the beach.

Wouldn’t trade it for the world. Young kids now have no idea.

 

In the late 80's, I ran the wheels off my '64 Fairlane, going up and back Queen Street from one burger joint to the other and around the shopping plaza. Good times!!! ArmorAll on a bench seat is great for sliding your date in close when you make a hard right turn.

I started really babying my '64 and it stayed in the garage until car show time. So, I went out and bought myself a new pickup. Now, I think @anthony myrick (and maybe a few others here) can probably relate... but you guys don't wanna see the pics of my Mini-Truck from the 90's. .

It ended up getting me in trouble. It had a windowless Snugtop on it, and shag carpet in the bed... long story short, my oldest daughter is just about to turn 32. Remember kids, accidents cause people.

 

I think some of these latter stories just go to show that, generally speaking, today's youth aren't any more irresponsible than we were. My story, which needs no mention, is no exception.

I also think that the "Good old days" were good, only because we were young. Most of us have grown up (and old); we know the responsibilities and hardships forced upon us by the realities of life. Let the kids enjoy their youth while they're still young. If they choose to spend it cooped up in their bedroom while playing video games, at least you know where they are, what they're doing, and that they are safe.

 

Yep on the mini trucks. Had one. Building one now.
But my HAMB friendly ride was a 57 f100.
I kept a paint marker with it. Had all kinds of signatures and phone numbers. Chicks loved to sign the truck.
We used shoe polish for custom graphics. Flames, stripes and even ambulance spelled backwards across the front of the hood.
It was born a manual. Had an auto swapped in. Still had the clutch pedal. I’d pump the clutch hard and scream no brakes. Scared the crap out of passengers.

good times

 

Yep, ya know it’s funny, as we get older and our kids (heck any kids) do the stuff we did, we want to stop them because as we became “older and wiser” we realized what dumb asses we were, and don’t want them to take the same risks we did.
I hate seeing videos of my daughter forwarded to me doing smoke shows, hate all the other stuff too, but I can’t tell her “no, stop” I did the same thing it was just never put out on social media

 

I tell my students the biggest difference is we didn’t record our ignorance.