Oh sure, J&N , my friend Bob was the manager for a while he now runs BMR performance just off whittier down near the railroad bridge.
You guys have got to remember, " Let's take a trip down Whittier Blvd." by the Midnighters, that sez it all man. I grew up in Huntington Beach and Beach Blvd. was the way to get there for me. Rags
Chattahoochie label 45 RPM, yep, still got that record. My Mother in Law went to Whittier HS. She still has the coffee mug and shirts with the Cardinals on them.
Stick City was at one time across from the Whittwood shopping mall. It later moved out near Beach Blvd and then even later onto Beach. I believe it was Street Rods that was in the cruising section of Whittier Blvd, across from Scotties and the Plush Cue.
Mike, Ricker Motors was the original Nash/Rambler/AMC dealership in Whittier before they only sold used cars, and mostly older used cars!
anyone remember the " custom house " on whittier blvd. they sold chrome goodies- bought my first chrome-reversed wheels there in '64. they cost about $15 ea. or so. i could only afford to buy 2!
I remember when there was nothing around. Florence wasn't a through street and you could see Mooneyes and the Topless Bar from a mile away because there was nothing else around. I can't remember the name of that topless bar.
Somewhat related and a bit obscure .... there was a Chicano band in the late 60's by the name of Thee Midnighters from East LA ... one of their album cuts was "Wittier Boulevard." Some of you might remember them.
Love that song. I have always enjoyed the music of Thee Midnighters. "Let's take a trip down Whittier Boulevard"
The Custom House is something you younger guys won't relate to at all. Nowadays you can go ANYWHERE to get custom car related "stuff". Hell, Walmart has all sorts of car stuff. In those pre Internet days there were very few places to find switched, chrome doodads, etc. The owner was an "older" guy in his 40's and his Dad was the counter man (tiny shop). The Dad had a lime green Pinto parked in front with damn near EVERYTHING they sold stuck on that thing. The Custom House was the very first place I ever saw Armor All. They were giving away small envelopes of it to try!
I used to love going to Ricker's car lot. He always had some cool cars hiding in the back. Hell of a nice guy too. Plush Cue on Whittier and Ocean View is still there but it is closed now. I'm too young to have had fun cruising the Blvd. but my dad and uncle had some cool stories about it to tell. Sounded like a blast!
Little Willie G and Thee Midniters. Whitwood Center and Hinshaws. Battels Hdwe ...get your ShopSmith. Urich Motors. Stick City. Der Weinerschnitzel for 19 cent chili dogs. Yep lowriding in East LA was different than tradin' trash talk with other kids in muscle cars in Whittier - I did both. At that time had a 64 Impala and a hot rod '56 Chevy. We also cruised in earlier days Tweedy Blvd and Bellflower Blvd. No drugs, guns, violence. And of course after all day wrenchin' we were ready for some action and if we met some chicks we would head down to Bolsa Chica.... Young guys today don't know how bitchin' LA was in the 60's and 70's. The rush hour was just that. Gas was 29 cents a gal for premium. Not much traffic at night. If you wanted to go the beach, the Pike, Belmont Shore you just went and parked. No aggro, you could drink beer and party all night. Massive industry meant plenty of jobs. Everyone and his brother hadn't come here and overcrowded everything. The stoplight derby streetracing was alive and well. 1974 changed everything.....
Lived in Whitter in the 80's for a year and a half. Went to east L.A. with a buddy to recover a stolen lowrider Chevy and met some lowrider, bomb style cars dudes. They cruzed some on Sundays on Whittier in east L.A., fun times and BBQ hospitality. Love the mexican culture and I am still a white dude posing as a mexican. ~sololobo~
I remember racing on Santa Fe Springs Rd, mostly against other car clubs for "Pink Slips", yeah I said "Pink Slips"
My older brother bought a '74 Super Duty Trans Am from Stick City back in the 80's. LOVED that car, it flat out hauled ass!!! As times change so do our needs, and the car went down the road to a collector. I belonged to a VW car club based in Whittier at the time. Had loads of fun messing with the V-8 guys. Attended Whittier Christian High School (the original College Ave. campus). Now I teach Automotive Collision Repair at Cypress College. I love my life.
I was born in East L.A. at the end of '54, but even then my mother knew it wasn't a good place to raise a boy and she aspired to move us. She and my Dad bought a new 3 bd/2 ba. tract house in East Whittier in '56 for $14,000. I lived my entire life there just off Lutweiller Ave. (You gotta be old to remember that name) and it was later renamed La Mirada Blvd even though it V'd off from Colima Rd. on the north end. Attended Monte Vista H.S. from '68-'72. It has long since been a Sheriff's Academy; it never made any send to close the newest highschool in the district and keep the older campuses with more maintenance. My Dad was a brick mason and actually helped build that school. I cruised the Blvd first in my Dad's purchased-new '55 Belair two door hardtop and later (because I was an IDIOT!) in my Butternut Yellow '66 Chevy van with 12" Ansens on the rear, whip antenna, the whole van-thing of the 70's. It was entirely harmless fun to talk crap with other guys, flirt with girls, and we even spent the few dollars we had on hamburgers and gas at the merchants. But the City Council in their infinite stupidity kowtowed to residents that didn't like the cruising, were afraid of us kids (so stupid) and they killed off the crusing. I
Holy molie, I just found this web site and it brought back so many memories. I was in the middle of all this from 1978 through 1987. Thats when the law finally got me for street racing in about 1989, because of my job I had to get OUT of the street racing business. A lot of things in this thread are familiar to me, Boyd Gable and his nova, AND his Plymouth arrow, Bill Morehead and his Anglia AND his 10 slick stretched KZ1000 motorcycle, Jerry and Rose and their sleeper (69?) nova with 7" slicks, Dirty Ronnie and his Camaro, N****r mark and his cars, Carl Edwards and his (65?) El Camino and Donald Edwards with his 65 El Camino, LEON and POOCKIE (POOH-KEY) and there nova, "POPS" and his belvedere wagon (with massive amounts of nitrous), Glen Johnson (Downey) and his nova, Mitch and his V-8 Volkswagen, Greg Peterson and his V-8 Chevette, Saddest of all was Duane Jones ("FOOT") and his coupe (passed away as a result of a stuck throttle) and John & Laura Maycock with his 56 Chevy (engraved in the back window with ASNG) who made off with the money from the fund raiser on his behalf. Marty Kane racing (really just Marty thinking he was big time, supplying parts from Chet Herbert Cams, ha ha). Manuel and his V-8 Vega. The gypsies, who were the biggest cheaters and crybabies around. They would find any excuse to say the race was no good and then we would have to kick their A**ES. A loss for them would ALWAYS turn into a fight. Joe Shermans kids with the dark red / maroon colors Concourse (looked like a 78 or so Nova) and the red Chevy Luv pickup that they had, with the habit of twisting up ladder bars. By the way, it was Ray Zeoler (not sure of spelling) that owned Downey Service Center. He sold it to Ronnie Marcum (passed away in 2009) and it went belly up. Andy, from Champ Racing converters. He had passed away from a heart attack in his shop in paramount found on a Monday morning. They guessed he had passed on Friday evening. Greg from the machine / rebuilding shop in Paramount, his last name and the name of the shop escapes me right now. Also, Terminal Island Drag Strip. We had the Yamaha FJ1000 (all stock) with a tune job that would kill any thing around given the right amount of jump. Does anyone remember the "TopFuel Engined" Dodge or Chevy van that ran at Brotherhood raceway? The pipes stuck out of the rear window of the van and it had rubber, HUGE rubber, that was tucked, but the van was way out of control. White with rainbow colored stripes from what I remember. How about the Suzuki Quadzilla 500 hundred with nitrous and the air shifter & the 7 foot wheelie bar that used to run at Brotherhood raceway, YES, THAT WAS MINE........ Ok, last thing, Mac, known as the School Teacher, and how he passed. That was sad..... Anyhow, I could go on forever if given the chance. Ask me, I will tell you what I know.
the name of the topless bar was "the holiday". it is still there, right across the street fr4om MOON EYES. does anyone remember when Dean Moon was arrested, i think for killing his daughters boyfriend or something like that?
It's hazy but I seem to recall Dean Moon being arrested but I don't remember the reason. His son, Dean Jr, went to CalHi and was in my graduating class of 1981. Things have changed a lot on the Blvd. Whittwood is no longer a mall. The Quad (where Hinshaws and Mayco was) is long gone. The only time I go back to Whittier now days is for the car show in uptown in August. I miss the Whittier of old. I wish Bob's Big Boy was still there. I remember that residential street next to Bob's that had that barricade. Anyone remember the old Fox theater with all the stars on the ceiling? How about the Sundown drive-in? Blue69, thanks for mentioning the name of the topless bar.
oh yea! whitter and washington, ricker motors. my wife and i bought a 1959 "autobiachina" from him about 98? it was parked up on a raised platform and used to get attention. the place closed shortly after. and next door was the "great skate" roller rink, also gone. but just down washington is "chris & pitts" bbq, and ruby's. great hard shell tacos. both still there.
i forgot to mention one of the other guys that ran with us, Gayland Hill Jr., known as "junior". definitely knew his stuff. also, Pheobe Road, down off of the 5 freewy, and Nabisco-Trojan Way. Santa Fe Springs Road @ Los Nietos Road, BellRanch Road just nearby. of coarse the dennys off of the 5 freeway near Valleyview and when it got broke up there it was a "quick" run down to Santa Fe & Del Amo. Shoemaker Ave starting at the train tracks. And my favorite, Greenstone Ave in SFS, with the shutdown area kinda right in front of the fire staion. the firefighter would come out & watch when they knew we would be there. i could go on and on........
Thought I was the only one that remembered Jack's dealer. I restored "Jack Jr's" blown Shotgun T-bucket a few years ago. Ahhh, the old days. When you could throw cubic yards of cash at "advertising".
Oh the memories, I worked for Mr. Urich at his gas stations "Ben Hur" the first in Santa Ana, then Huntington Beach then Fullerton. I made district supervisor at 18 and he gave all his supervisors new Mercury station wagons.
here in east moline illinois there is a sign on the avenue of the cities that kids used to cruise in the 80's and now the sign reads "No Repetitive Driving"
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