Too many car shows, not enough real cruising

Here in the Western 'burbs of Chicago, there's a shitload of car shows and "cruise nights." During the warmer months. You can literally go to one every night of the week.

However, most of these aren't oriented toward trad rods. And even those that are somewhat (such as Woodfire) are really just another car show.

What ever happened to real, honest-to-god CRUISING?!!

Lemme clarify what I mean when I say "cruising."

(1) Not sanctioned by a particular town or restaurant or whatever.

(2) Not based in one place -- cars DRIVE most of the night, not show up, park, then leave.

(3) No "official hours." (And if there were hours, they sure as hell wouldn't be 6:00pm to 9:00pm on Wednesday, for god's sake. I'd say they'd be more like Saturday 9:00pm to damn-near sunrise!)

(4) More than just a club (or two) hanging out. Yeah there's some clubs that go places and do cool stuff. But in my mind, real cruising is at least 30 cool cars, preferably more like 50 or 100.

What do you guys think? Am I nuts?

Anyone willing to help me organize such a thing in the Chicago area? It's long overdue, I think.

Dave

 

I just put one on for our car club. You were required to bring your hot rod, rain or shine. We started out with rain but it cleared up about 9:00 AM. It was my event so I didn't tell anyone where we were going. I called it the Mystery Tour. We met for breakfast at a nostalgia place that none us had ever been to. Next was a spiritulist camp about 5 miles away. Really not much to it except for a park atmosphere with a lot of monuments and neat 1920's-30's houses. I grew up just down the street from it and I knew quite a bit about it. Nobody had ever been there either, except me. Spent about 1 1/2 hours there.
Next we drove about 15 miles to a small town where a guy had a shop that makes willow furniture. One man shop and interesting. Spent about an hour there.
It is about 12 noon now so we drove to an apple orchard/ bakery (about 7 miles away) and had homemade apple dumplings at a mom and pop place.
Next was a drive of about 15 miles to a place that makes duck decoys. He makes decoys and stained and laquered decorative ones too. Gave us the tour of how they are made and gave us some good deals on them too. This guy had duck decoys everywhere.
Next we drove to Indy to Fountian Square. It has an old diner, cafe, resturant, movie theater, and duck pin bowling in the basement and the 3rd floor. We all had diner in the diner. We met the special events manager on the elevator and she showed us all around, even to the areas that were closed to the public. After we got done there it was about 8:00 PM so we all headed home. It turned out better than I ever expected. The bad thing is out of about 15 club members only 5 showed up. We had a good time without them though, their loss. It was a lot better than paying $10-$15 and setting in a parking lot waiting for a $5 trophy.

 

My wife and I have been involved in several of this type of cruise. We pick a location 2-3 hours away, meet a group for breakfast, use back blacktop roads and stop at anything that looks like it might be interesting before we reach our destanation. We may eat at the "destanation" or look around, or just take a butt break for a 1/2 hour or so, then we go home a different way. The club I belong (its 70 miles my house to club meetings) to has 100 members (lot of street rods) and we have about 40-60 that are active. We are lucky to get 8-10 go on the cruises. I hear lots of excuses. The wife and I don't really care, we go for the ride, if others want to come along, great, if not, great, who needs them anyway?
Should you decide to organize a cruise someplace, let me know, I might be game. If your looking for something that may be an interesting distanation out towards Freeport, let me know.

I don't know how old you are, wife and I are real near 50. As we get older, we find that the distance between butt breaks (even short 5 min jobs work) of around 30-45 minutes make for a better cruise. It is also more difficult to get people to drive more then a tank of gas from home. Gene

 

you guys are not paying attention to what he's saying,what you guys are describing sounds more like a RUN..


...he's talking about actual ~CRUISING~ going back and forth in traffic with lots and lots of cool cars..kinda like in american graffitti.

problem is ,that the cops are always quick to shut down local cruise spots when they get going good,.

i wish the lil cruise spot where i live now was a lil more "car" orrientated,but its mostly teenagers in their mommys car.

nothing like cruising whittier blvd ,legglake or hollywood blvd,back in my day.

 

it does seem the art of cruising is dead, like it was stated the Cops and City's got tough and shut it down. I have alot of fond memories cruising 82nd ave in Portland and the "Gut" (Main) in Vancouver Wa as a teenager. Lots of cas and just a good old time was had.. no one got hurt, 99% were not drunk and it keep us out of trouble.. (except for the occassional street race in the deserted parts of the industrial areas...)

 

Isn't Sommerset KY a real cruise? Kinda like the Woodward cruise only smaller. It would be nice if some other small towns would have thier own cruise nights. With some king of entrance qualifications,like pre '72? Maybe advance sale of permits to cruise for the night. If you have the permit, you can cruise, if not, a warning to leave,then a ticket. I know it sounds too restrictive ,but with the 'mommy's car group and import/strobe light/neon nonsence vehicles,it would be a little more enjoyable. Just a thought. Sparky

 

Cruisin the Coast on the Mississippi coast has some of this specialy after 5pm when the orginized cruise sites close down. They have about 6 cruise sites and a swap meet site scatered across three south Mississippi counties. The cars drive from one site to another and after 5 they run Hwy 90 on the beach about 7,000 cars mostly street rods but some interesting stuff also
Judd

 

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What ever happened to real, honest-to-god CRUISING?!!

Lemme clarify what I mean when I say "cruising."

(4) More than just a club (or two) hanging out. Yeah there's some clubs that go places and do cool stuff. But in my mind, real cruising is at least 30 cool cars, preferably more like 50 or 100.

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Guess you missed the HAMB drags then, eh Dave?

"Real Cruising" is alive and well.
R-

Read this:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=527465&page=9&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1

 

Out in Phoenix, they do a cruise in April and another in October, and it covers about 4 blocks. It's just people raising hell up and down Central Ave until the cops start pulling everyone over for burnouts or speeding.

I was told that alot of cities outlawed "cruising" (often defined as driving past the same spot more than 3 times in an hour) when drive-by shootings got popular.

 

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actual ~CRUISING~ going back and forth in traffic with lots and lots of cool cars..kinda like in american graffitti.

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Yeah! THAT'S what it's about. I can't picture John Milner parking his car in a lot, milling around for a couple hours, then calling it a night at 9:00p. Extremely un-hotrod.

Think about it -- that's totally out of sync with the type of cars we build (rough, fast, DRIVERS)!

Yeah, I've thought a lot about the things some of you guys are saying. But I think there's a way around a lot of those basic problems:

(1) Towns with laws against cruising.
I think if a group "shopped" different towns and found which ones didn't have such bullshit laws (which, frankly violate basic constitutional rights, IMHO). I don't want to go so far as to say we should work with the towns -- that puts us right back into "cruise night" syndrome.

(2) Lame, Goldchainer cars showing up.
Such a cruise night would almost have to rotate among a number of different sites, on a somewhat random schedule. Once people see a bunch of old cars showing up same place same time, they start saying to themselves "Hey -- I'll bring my 5.0 Mustang!"

Nope. We will have moved on.

Such a rotation would also help keep neighborhood complaints/protests down. And the law wouldn't see it as an "escalating" problem -- here one week, gone the next.


As I envision it, such events would have to be sort of invitation only. If not by individual cars/owners, then by club (probably both).

Anybody in Chicago with me on this? It's long been a dream of mine.

Dave

 

wow, good idea to try to revive some actual unsanctioned culture. but anything outside of consumption is now considered delinquent.

it seems everyone wants the kids to be at the mall or the fake restored mainstreet (that is really a mall) where they can spend $.

 

The difference is in your own original post...you used the word "organized"...

I don't think "real" cruising is organized at all. People are there cuz they want to be...not because anyone set anything up.

I think if anyone wants to enjoy "real" cruising, they'll have to share road space with the modern import crowd. That's who's cruising nowadays...and personally, I have absolutely no problem with that. My cars are cooler and faster than theirs, and offer a completely different style than what they're doing.

Interestingly, my stuff has always been very well recieved by this crowd. They love to talk and V-8 cars offer plenty to talk about.

Frankly, I like rolling with the youngsters. Keeps me young (I'm 38) and occasionally, they need a horsepower lesson anyway.

My point? Cruising is fun because it's NOT organized. Once it's arranged, it loses the spontaneous flavor that is the appeal to me.

Scotch~!

 

yup!

When I was a kid in the late 70s in Tucson, there was great cruising up and down Speedway from dark till maybe 2am...lots of cars, gobs of cars, mostly driving but occasionally stopping for a burger or to get gas or sit in a parking lot for an hour to bs with some other guys you know. And I heard it was even better before then, but being a child of non-car interested parents I never saw it.

There's still a little bit of it up there, but if you park you'll get busted. The gang activity on the south side of town pretty much killed the hot rod activity on the east side of town.

I moved 75 miles away 20 yrs ago, and in the small town I live in now the best we can do is to maybe see a handful of cars....there's the Saturday night gig at the Diner every week that swells up some every month when the car club guys come out, and sometimes in the summer there will be a handful of hot rods at the park mixed in with the dozen or two honda type cars.

I really don't know what to do to bring it back to how it used to be...except talk to your buddies (and anyone else who has a car) and spread the word that we ought to try to get it going again.

In the big metro areas like Chicago it probably does need to be organized, at least by word of mouth, to let folks know where to go each weekend. Sounds like a lot of work, but it could be worth it if it gets big enough. Of course then the problems will start up again too...

 

im with you guys...... i wanna see some more ...TRADITIONAL cruzzzzin!........... and its NOT parkin at the local Sonic........ its all about the chics man

 

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The difference is in your own original post...you used the word "organized"...

I don't think "real" cruising is organized at all. People are there cuz they want to be...not because anyone set anything up.

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Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with your take on organization. Unfortunately, we're nowdays faced with a choice of accepting a modest amount of organization (evil), or not cruising at all (greater evil).

I also agree with your positive take on import guys and cruising. Indeed, they have about ten times more energy than the usual car crowd, and frankly about twice the energy of even the trad-rod set (sorry everybody).

That said, this notion of a "real" cruise is my dream. And if I'm dreaming, I'm going to an idealist. (Ideally, my kickass cruise scene wouldn't include anything newer than about '64.)

Dave

p.s. I've also had similar experiences with Import/sport-compact guys. They give me plenty good feedback when I drive up in my '51 F1.Too bad a lot of HAMBers consider the sport-compact crowd the enemy. I think you can argue that they're today's equivalent of 1930s to mid-'60s hot rodders.

 

Squirrel, the Tuscon scene you mention sounds pretty cool. That's what I'm talking about.

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it could be worth it if it gets big enough. Of course then the problems will start up again too...

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Yeah, that's crossed my mind too. I've always just assumed this idea would have a limited lifespan.

I figure, even if everything went perfectly, we'd be doing good to get two, maybe three seasons at it before it either got shut down, grew too unwieldy, or just became too plain damned stupid like every other cruise night/car show.

Even so, I'd be willing to do it. It be worth it just for that handful of awesome nights.

Think about it -- hanging out at some late night diner with a bunch of pals at midnight, then going back out to your car to find the streets still packed with kickass hot rods rumbling by -- DRIVING. Cruising. Doing what they were built to do.

What could be better? I'd put in months of work just to have one really good night of that. Anything beyond that would be bonus in my mind.


Dave

 

Dave.... Maybe you know where Janesville WI is since it is close to the stateline. When I was in high school (6 years ago) all the kids from the stateline area cruised up there. There were hundred or so cars that cruised the 2 mile stretch. I'm pretty sure they still do on Fri and sat nights, but its mostly late models. Very impromptu. Sometimes very cool. Cars line the street iin the parking lots. I would help you organize one for the area ( I still live in Rockford).... But my 51 plymouth isn't quite roadworthy yet. But if next summer you want to get something together let me know.

 

a couple of the small towns around where I used to live have lots where people hang and then "run laps" across town. but most the cops run them out around 10pm. Peoria used to have a huge cruise scene but it got shutdown in the 1980's when urban legend has it an ambulance got stuff in teh traffic and someone died in the back of it......well that and the city is ran by a bunch of people stuck up and tense as hell. would be nice if people got back to cruising there since they rebuilt the riverfront with some nice places to eat. but that is where all the bars/clubs are so wouldn't be more than a few nights before someone hit something and gets it all shut down.

I remember plenty of fun nights racking up a 200-300 miles in a night of cruising. we would hop between towns (about 5 miles apart) looking for people out. got down to college here and I figured a small college town would surely have some action going on....but everyone here is an alcoholic and the bars are all right off campus so no need to travel across town much. but if I can get some shiny paint on my car I might hit some laps next fall (and hopefully flame throwers...I know I will get tickets)


I worked with a guy that was looking at buying an old drive in theater on the outskirts of town. he wanted to be family oreiented but was a rodder so wanted to see cars there. he passedon it cuase he knew there was nothing he coudl do about the few bad apples (alcohol and drugs and burnouts) so he passed on it. pretty much any scene you coudl start nowadays would get shut down within a few nights after somedrunk kids hits someone or there is a noise complaint. then the media will be all over it and it will get shut down. even if you move town to town I am not sure it will last long

 

Here's how it used to be in California, as I remember. On the weekend there was Oscar's on the Traffic circle, Bellflower Blvd, Harvey's Broiler on Firestone, then over to Tweedy Blvd in South Gate. Repeat as necessary. The actual cruising was when we traveled between hang outs. Five spokes and spinner hubcaps look better in motion. Metal flake sparkles better in motion too. Back then you'd better order something to eat or at least a drink or you couldn't stay at those places. If you wanted to park on the front line at Harvey's Broiler your car had to be sharp!! Really sharp!

In Long Beach cruising is illegal because the gay folks cruise looking for sex partners. If you get a cruising ticket in LB you're assumed to be a homo. Depends where ya cruise.

So, if you want a real cruise scene, you need at least a couple of places to cruise to.

That's how I remember it. Your mileage may vary…

 

Damn! I'm inspired! Think I'll go cruise Fromberg, Montana next time I get the urge. Then, what the hell, I'll cruise Park City, Montana after that!

 

I'm too young to remember real crusing, but they should have it again. Last summer me and my buddy were out with our cars, and a few others with us. We were planning on riding out to one of those cruse nights where they park at the ice cream place all night. We drove up and down the main street in the town, I'm sure it must have been the main drag back in the day, looking for the stupid show. We went back and fourth more than a couple times, stopped at some of the stores along the way, I followed him, he followed me, we had a little friendly stoplight to stoplight action, passed a couple cops the other way, and gave up on finding the show. On our way home we passed the original destination and stopped for 20 minutes, they were calling it a night by then. By the time we got home we realized we had a lot more fun with 2 cars and the main drag than we did at the show.

 

Hey 61linc, maybe I'll be in touch. Rockford ain't all that far. I wasn't figuring on getting anything together before next summer anyway. I'm sure it'll take a while to get such events figured out and organized.

BTW how is Rockford for a potential cruise site? I know it has a fairly sizeable downtown and much of it's quite old.


Dave

 

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pretty much any scene you coudl start nowadays would get shut down within a few nights after somedrunk kids hits someone or there is a noise complaint. then the media will be all over it and it will get shut down. even if you move town to town I am not sure it will last long

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Hey 62fairlane, that's a pretty pessimistic take on this idea! But hey, there's probably some truth in what you're saying.

Because of just those sorts of things, I figure these cruises would have to be almost entirely made up of clubs that are collectively invited. That way, we can be assured the type of people that show up will be okay, and at the same time build in some accountability -- someone in a club fucks up, that entire club might not be allowed back. They would have to police their own members to a large degree.

Granted, it's a little tough to enforce -- these would after all be on public streets. But that's why I was figuring they wouldn't be in the same place (or at least not any kind of obvious pattern of dates).

By doing that, we maintain some control -- if we don't think you're good for our cruise, then we just stop telling you when and/or where it's going to be.

And when it's all said and done, it's like I said before -- I wouldn't be surprised if its lifespan is short.

But hopefully it would at least be short and spectacular. Still think it'd be worth it!


Dave

 

Chili Phil -- cool stories! Thanks for sharing.

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So, if you want a real cruise scene, you need at least a couple of places to cruise to.

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Yeah, I totally agree. To have a really good cruise, you need some awesome spots to anchor it.

In my mind, the ideal would be a 24-hour diner at each end of the strip, with at least one cool drive-in at the middle.

But hey, I'll have to work with what can be found.


Dave

 

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By the time we got home we realized we had a lot more fun with 2 cars and the main drag than we did at the show.


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Amen, Automotive Stud. That's exactly what I'm talking about. What prompted me to post this to begin with was cruising up and down Ogden Avenue by myself a few times at about 11:00 on Saturday night.

I was having a ball. And I knew it'd be a thousand times more fun if there were dozens of other cars out there with me.

Let's be honest. Real cruising is what we all want. It's the notion that brought most of us to these types of cars -- often via American Grafitti -- and it's what we all know is the proper way to use our stuff.

Let's not let the minor details and the dipshit yuppy naysayers stop us from it.

WE NEED TO START CRUISING AGAIN DAMMIT!


Dave

 

I say everyone should just start driving their old cars daily,all the time,that's what i do, and usually i'm the only guy in my town out cruising on a friday or saturday night.there's a ton of cool old cars in my town but they might as well not exist at all,cause you never see them.except with a permit on em on a sunny day in the summer at the old man/family car shows.then they go back home to their museum nest, to be put away till next year.start drivin em all the time ,if they get bent fix em.if everybody starts doin this then everyday will be a cruise!then maybe all the chicks will stop referring to this 25 year old's custom 56 pontiac as an "old man car"! my 2 cents!

 

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I say everyone should just start driving their old cars daily,all the time,that's what i do, and usually i'm the only guy in my town out cruising on a friday or saturday night

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I agree with the first part -- we should be out driving our stuff all the time.

But, unfortunately, I also agree with the second part. I'm already the only guy out there. That's what I'm trying to fix!

And incidentally, I've had plenty of twenty-somthing hotties check me out when I'm driving my '51 Ford pickup. Gets their attention if nothing else. Whatever the reason, it doesn't seem to have the stigma of an "old-man's car." (I'm 39)

Dave

 

What if, We post where a likley spot to cruise would be one weekend.If you lived close by go out and support it.We have a spot in Columbia,that we call "the strip' mostly high schoolers. there are a few musclecars,and rods,mostly nicley done mini trucks,and "wingers",but what the hay, thay areCRUISING! Sure beats 'Loitering' The cops are usaully cool,if you are. Fri-SAt.,even Sunday nites. Seeyou there! Sparks

 

My son (he's 16) belongs to a DSM club in Chicago. They held several cruises this summer. They post a meeting place on their website message board, usually one on the northside, one on the south and one out in the western suburbs(like Woodfield Mall) gather up at a specified time, rendevous with the other meeting places and then cruise around most of the night. I went with once. It was quite a scene about 100-125 Eagle Talons, Mitsu Eclipses and Plymouth Lasers all. I think if you get the word out folks will show up. Also these kids kept moving, not just back and forth on the same street and had no trouble with the cops.

 

Dave, I feel your pain. THOM and I have been discussing a roving cruise night. Same principle... get a bunch of guys and hit some random spot. The next week, hit somewhere else.

I spent some time on Ogden last night. Went to a friend's house in LaGrange, in the coupe. It's fun driving around and not just going to an event. Drove it to the swap meet in Graylake in the morning. Did you go? It always sucks, but it was a good excuse to drive. We stopped for lunch at this old 50s restaurant and the greyhound hood ornament had "speared" a leaf going down the road. How often can that really happen?. It was bitchin and I took a quick pic. When we came out, some "good samaritan" had removed the leaf for me. Bummer.

Anyway, do you hit Elmhurst ever on Wed nights (in season)? It's TEN times better since they moved across the tracks. Now you can actually cruise and do laps. And it looks just like this little town I used to hit when I was in high school.