What is cruising? Your thoughts please

Well when you live in a big city cruisin' can be alot of things, I did all my cruising in Miami as a young lad and it basically ment goin out every night "especially Thursday and Friday night...and just drive around show of your ride, try to race whomever, make girls at least wave to you.... "getting in the car of a complete stranger hasn't been the norm in a long time"... and at the end of all this was just a way of getting away from home in something that makes you smile...and not mind it running a little hot cause the reflection of the car in mirrored buildings looks so cool...it's basically a way to get in tune with your car and inhale all the work that you put in it day after day...

 

This is a good post it deserves a bring back.

I was cruisin' in the mid 90s. on a Friday night in the summer EVERYBODY was out. and everybody had a spot to hang out. The honda craze was new as was the traditional hot rod thing (nobody called us rat rodders quite yet). there was a lot of muscle cars,street rods,mustangs,lowriders and dune buggies even a guy with a WWII deuce and a half. motorcyles and even vespas..everybody was just hangin out. there was illegal drags,street racing, bench racing and you guessed it girls. There was a few fights. but the drunks and druggies stayed away (tons of cops) so it was really pretty safe. Those were fun times...There's no cruisin where I live now

 

Cruzin now is getting from one side of town to the other to a cafe shop filling up with gas again at 1.55 per liter for 94 shootin the gab for a bit heading back to the other side of town to do it again still running threw about 50 bucks of fuel on any given night and maybe a run it still happens lots but way late at night and norm only one line up then scatter...they got them damn heliCOPtors ..lol one day i gotta grow up..not

 

For me and those in my part of the country it was going from one hang out to another. From the Gino's at the end of Perring Parkway to the Thunderbird drive in in Essex to Topp's lot to the Circle drive in in Dundalk. Many of our cars were built for speed and not interstate driving. I had a 4:88 rear in my 55 so hiway jaunts were out of the question, but going from one burger joint to an ice cream joint to see and be seen was the norm.

Here's a picture I took of the Gino's back in the late 70's.......

 

From the Y-Knot to the Ranch House to the Champlin Cafe and back again---the names are changed but the deal is the same. I'm talking 1959---

 

Sorry to tarnish Omaha's All American image. But in one of the downtown area, no cruising signs exist because of hooker activity, and I ain't talkin about Hooker Headers. Although some of the hookers may be head specialists. Shame shame ~sololobo~

 

I've always found the term "cruise night" odd, because you don't actually cruise anywhere, you just sit there. Nothing wrong with checking out people's rides and catching up, just the wrong name for the event. I guess it makes about as much sense as driving on the parkway and parking in the driveway.
Cruising to me is just that, cruising. Prowling the local strip or just hitting a backroad by yourself. I love loping through town, listening to my exhaust bounce off the buildings. I also love a slow roll in the middle of the night between the corn fields, taking in the night air. That is cruising.
Of course, now that cruising has been made a ticketable offense, I stick to maybe 1 lap through town, then hit the back roads. We have a few local hangouts that are OK with us being there (as long as we buy something), but it seems like they never last long because some dipshit has to screw it up for everyone.

 

Makin the drag. We cruised from one end of town to the other, which wasnt very far, then head out and drive the back roads in the country, then back into town and a few more drags. Riding around was the cheapest thing to do then. Mid to late '70's. Most of us drove old pickups.

 

We used to Cruise from the McDonald's to the old Woolworth s shopping center across town. There would be about 100 cars or so. We would cruise until about 2am the go home get a couple hours of sleep then get up at 7 for work. Then come sat night we would do it all over again. It was great there were not a bunch of people getting drunk or anything just hanging out and talking. Now nobody does it because the cops starting bothering everyone so much. I guess the expect kids to stay in the house and stare at the Tv.

 

Cruising was a major part of my teenage years ... And personally think that its a good thing.... Kids today (god I feel like an old geezer for saying this) are so wrapped up in video games and club life that crusing mainstreet has lost its luster. Never understood why cops wanted to shut crusing down... Would you rather have the biggest part of towns teenage population in one spot riding bumper to bumper in circles all night our spread all out over town doing god knows what behind closed doors? Just a thought Ive often pondered on .

 

I can't believe this thread is still alive. Glad to see it back up.
Good to know that even some of the younger fellas have some cruising in their past or are still cruising. Also good to see the changes in things and the things that are still the same. Rodders will always be rodders, the names and the faces change but the basics will never change.

 

Cruising to me was the same as you Porknbeaner. Just driving around the same streets where everyone else was. In our town there were 4 main places to cruise, and depending on what you were looking for.
One of them was for the serious street racers to meet and get a spontaneous light to light drag race. The other three could get a race, but were more about social interaction than just racing.

 

guys...its all about showin' off...........either to a chick or another gearhead

 

cruising was all about finding the girls and the races for me. I grew up in a small town outside of birmingham AL, and it used to be a huge cruising spot. That is until the cops put a stop to it. We would go up down the strip then park at the burger king and let the races come to us. I made and lost quite a bit of money lol.

 

I usually made my best money when I couldn't find a race. If you know most of the local fellas cars side bets can be a lucrative business.

OK that doesn't sound legal but that's life in the fast lane.

 

Cruising here in the early '60's was about girls, and being IN YOUR CAR at Milford Frisch's Big Boy, ordering a drink, or something to eat later at night, being seen, and watching everyone else make multiple passes through the lot, up to the bowling alley, and back. Then out onto US 50 and west to the Fairfax Frisch's Mainliner (bigger version). The Columbia Parkway extension started right at the light at the Mainliner drive-in exit. If you were brave enough to flaunt the Fairfax cops, it was a perfect , straight, level strip. Further down the parkway at the second exit was Ault Park, up on a hill top, with great views and many dark, semi-secluded spots. The park cops were mostly cool, but under-age drinking in the car would get in trouble. When I got out of the service in '68, the scene was becoming drug and hippie oriented, and the focus was no longer primarily on the cars. Cruise-ins and lawn chairs just don't have the dynamic energy and motion the the drive-in restaurant had.

 

In my day cruising wasn't something you planned it was something you did. In my town it was usually a loop from the beach through town turning at one of two drive ins the first being the A&W or down the road apiece was the 99 restaurant and drive in 9 cent hot dogs on tuesdays. Lots of times you didn't stop to eat you just cruised through real slow so they could hear your cam or see your lancers flash in the neon lights then you'd pull back out and start it all again. At the end of loop by the beach the railroad track came very close to road but was elevated so the slope from track ran right down to the shoulder the braver ones would accelerate as they came into that turn then climb up the bank kinda like the wall of death. The city fathers figured it out and placed some poles in the side of the bank that stopped that.that was in early sixties. In the later sixties seemed there was more racing involved guys would roll through the drive ins and challenge a guy with a new car Road Runner, GTO or whatever. Most of bigger towns around here seemed the same way hit down town fall in line with a cool car and follow him or her all had similar routes usually an eating place was start or end sometimes both.

 

cruising... that is when you get a ticket for loitering while in line at Jack in the Box.

nothing is more fun than fighting a bullshit ticket and having the cop say "he was proceeding down Fremont Blvd. in the area known as the strip" ... after that you are guilty no matter what.

Fremont Blvd in the 70's was a madhouse... now that I am an old fart I wonder why they let it go on as long as they did.

 

In the '60s it was the Tic Toc drive-in down on the Embarcadero or Mels. If you were racin' Tic Toc was it.

When I was in High School I actually got a ticket for loitering while waiting for the light to change in the little burg I lived in. I beat it when I got a letter from my girl friend's (now wife) stateing that I had a dinner date with their family and I had to go through that intersection to get to thier house from mine. But I still got a ticket and it was still a pain in the ass.

Ah the good ol days. I guess they just didn't like the cut of my cloths or the length of my hair.

 

For me, cruising is driving for the sake of driving. there may or may not be a some destination or stop along the way, but its just about being out in the car taking in the sights and sounds.

 

AP
You nailed one of my favorite pass times. I lived in SE Kansas for awhile and one of my favorite things to do was get the Ol' Grand Prix out in the middle of the nite and head for parts unknown windows down and just listen to the nite.

I used to do it on the bike too but it was not the same as I usually got involved in listening to the exhaust chortle the grand prix didn't make as much noise @ cruise.

On a side note I have gone back thought and just skimed and I have noticed some pretty rightious pictures have been posted in this thread. Cool

 

"makin' the drag" ?................you must be from Ardmore.

 

Cruising in the twin cities is kinda a broad term covering what everyone does in their vehicle of choice at the main hangout spot. Obviously minneapolis/st.paul is the place to be. The street machine guys are all about makin noise and pairing off to race, the lowriders and mini-truckers seem to enjoy switching parking spots non stop so they can air up and down all night, and the guys in older tin seem to just enjoy slolwly creeping around and being seen. Whenever 2 nasty cars leave the holiday/wendy's parking lot to race, most cars seem to follow to watch, so there is a bit of driving going on, but no real "passes" up and down the strip ala american graffiti. Not really cruising I know, but nobody seems to be interested in driving a circuit anymore in this day and age where we have all seen eachothers cars online and at local shows.

That being said, high school kids in anoka still cruise main street in anoka on weekends and try to meet girls and eat fast food, but no cool cars are anywhere to be found.

 

I grew up on the coast in OC Cali. It was all about racing. You cruised to find cars that would put up or shutup. Good girls weren't allowed out late at nite so that wasn't to much of an issue and it was to dangerous to risk
taking your best girl anyway. We would go out to La Paz rd by El Toro Marine Base and race for $50 or $100 Later they built Orange Co. International Raceway on that site. Sometimes we would cruise to Santa Ana or Orange, Anahiem and hit the drive ins to check out the local talent.
Got a lot of tickets in those days. Early 60's,17 years old ,392 Chrysler hemi powered gasser you do the math. Light to light is what got you in trouble. Cops were cool if you took it off the streets to the back roads. It isn't anything like that today and there is nothing to compare it to now for younger guys that weren't there!

 

I didn't read the whole thread, missed it the 1st time. In the days of oil embargos and cheap musclecars, I started cruising. I ran around in various Camaros, none of which were fast, but they always looked good. Then I got into "racing from a roll" right on Telegraph Rd. That was stupid, but not at the time 10yrs later it morphed into midnight street racing in specific locations. My car got a bit faster with a blue bottle tune up but I was still at the bottom of the food chain in that arena. No matter what, the folks I met or raced, the girls (oh, some of the girls!) was always the 1st draw. Often I'd go and just hang out in a daily and place side bets with whomever was the chosen female companion. I'd get home from work around 6pm and go to bed, get up around 10:30, shower and hit the road. There's something about the night air and hearing other cars out there, but I did have some really close friends that would enjoy just driving around for no reason in the hotrod.

As time went on the racing became more intense and frankly much more dangerous to one's life. Not the cars mind you, but a rather slimey high dollar element entered our ranks. If they lost the race they'd simply jack your car and a few times the winner's life. Add to that, rather than fight crime the law enforcement in these communities decided that a group of sober hard working people with a craft for cars were public enemy #1. I'd just finished what shoulda been a 9sec street car. Really looking forward to that Sat night I stayed in the shop and worked on the car well into the evening on Fri night. I was lucky. The cops did a borderline evil sting on every hotrodder/street racer/spectator that they could. Cars were impounded, heavy fines levyed, licenses revoked...for hanging out at a donut shop in a kool car. Seriously, that was it. People were maced and arrested for asking what was going on, and there I was at my shop finishing my car for the next night and didn't hear of it until 1am. I never looked back. I took my car to Detroit Dragway and entered Super Pro for the 1st time ever. I trailered 3 of the best racers there and went out in the 4th round and my car ran almost 1/2 second faster than I'd predicted. I was hooked, screwed actually, but I wasn't available to the cops for harrassment or damage to my car. I miss what we used to do and it's not like it used to be. Now it's drive to a parking lot or restaurant, unload your chairs, and sit with the car. Not me. Once I'm done with the next project I plan to get hooked up with the same people again (we stay in touch) and just drive for the sake of burning fossil fuel. No racing, no parking, just drive. Yeah, we'll no doubt "loop" a few of the hangs just to profile a bit, but the sounds and smells and tunes, telling lies and dirty jokes with best friends, that's what cruising should be. Of course I'll have to spend a lot of those miles with my best friend of all. The lovely Mrs. Highlander. She misses that shit too.

 

Hey ironfly just saw this. Not from Ardmore but close. Madill.

 

Damn Highlander I thought the law was rough when I was a kid. We mostly got tickets, occasionally arrested for having some sort of something we were not supposed to have.

I can't believe that this thread is still around, almost no drama and good conversation.

I was at one of those rougher street races in the '80s in the bay area. When they firebombed a winning car I decided that life was too short for that type of thrill.

 

Come out too Woodward Ave. in Motown this August 20th and find out what it's all about.

 

I was born in the wrong era and on the wrong side of the Atlantic to experience what you guys would have been involved in back in the day. There is a special place in my head called "Finksville" where it never made it past 63 and I just use my imagination and constant reruns of American graffiti to define what I would call "classic cruising". But like I said, I wasn't there so the closest I can come to defining what cruising is to me is to quote myself in a thread I posted a while back;

"Stick with me here,this is going somewhere but it may take a while to reach the end. After the monotonous and most boring 2 hour routine of my carers getting me out of bedand ready to face the world, the curtains opened on the first really beautiful spring day we've had over here this year. I wheeled out to greet my wife and found a notice in the mail that I had a package waiting for me at the parcel depot. So she loaded me up into the Kripple Kart and we decided to do the 15 mile trip on the freeway to start breaking in the new Porter mufflers. Man it was glorious, beautiful sunlight, cool tunes on the iPod and running at 70 on the freeway with very little traffic. So anyhow, we pick up the package load me back into the kart and decide to take the scenic route home. Obviously not being a freeway, the route home is dotted with stop signs and a speed limit of about 40. We pulled up at one set, a quiet, quaint old world country pub to the left of me, and a meadow lined with daffodils to the right, not a car in sight in front of us. Just as the lights turned amber, Jane decided to put the hammer down, the 351 Winsor roared iinto life, the mufflers barked like twin Gatlings gun and at that exact same moment "Shanghaied" by the Fabulous Wailers burst through the speakers. With gravity pushing me back in my wheelchair, a huge shit eating grin on my face it was like Armageddon breaking loose in this quiet rural scene, and I thought to myself "man, it just doesn't get any better than this is!" The excitement of being in this place at that time hit me like a jackhammer and made me glad to be alive and a gearhead weirdo!
I just thought I'd share my perfect day, how was yours?"

The same kind of thing hits me most of the time I go out in the kripple kart, so I guess I'm happy enough with that.
Paul

 

My idea of what cruising is...or should I say was...before I was 21 we would drive around and cruise the "hot spots" around town looking for chicks, beer or directions to the parties that had chicks and beer. We would usually strike out and wind up on main street in Denison TX splitting a 6 pack of beer between 10 guys for a few hours and calling it a night. I miss those days.