Thanks for sharing the stories, Chili. I'm amazed at the level of detail that you recall, especially about the various cars on the scene. I don't remember that much detail about some of the cars I've owned, let alone cars I've seen around town. Thanks again- Rob
Wow Nice to here all the stories about so-cal it was like i was there I grew up In Detroit area and was always told about Woodward and how crazy it was from the totom pull to GM racing Mopars on the streets I only know second hand for I'm to young But there has to be at least one memory from M1
I love this thread; I grew up with my Dad and uncles telling me really similair stories about San Antonio,TX (Military Dr., etc.). I'm basically at an age where I could careless about going to a club, getting plastered, and hanging out with chicks that I'm not going home with. Cruising is more fun...
awsome thread... i am too young and from wisconsin where i think nothing in the car world ever happened that was worth mentioning..... unless of course it was some of the HAMBers cars out of WI
I grew up in Chicago, on the south side. In 1963 when I got my drivers lincese, Skips was the place to be. North ave. and First, you would see everything from old hot rods to brand new Mr. Norms Ramchargers. Lots of all out drag cars being driven on the street. My brother had a 59 catalina, tripower stick car. He raced a black 57 chevy (fuel injected stick car) and beat him. The next weekend the guy in the chev wanted to go again. This time he beat my brother. Looked under the hood, and he was running a tripower 348 and a 4-speed. I always wonered what happened to that fuelie motor.
Chili... you've out done yourself. this is a great post. i was born to late for all of this but i did hit the strips with my brother.... my dad used tell my brother who is 5 yrs older than me I'm 31 now. if you want to go out you have take your brother. i guess he thought that would keep him out of trouble. NOPE!, MAN we where all over the place. kids my age at the time where at home a sleep. we used to cruise Hollywood Blvd. when the cops came to shut it down. we cruised over to Elysian Park listening to Huggy Boy, Art Lobe man KR-LA was the shit. Elysian is where all the low riders hung out at, there was also a make out point there too. when everyone got hungry we all cruised on down to Tommy's on Rampart. fill up with some gas and make the last run of the night on Whitter Blvd further up by the Fiesta 4 drive in. although this was in the 80's and i was only about 10 yrs old i got to see cool cars all hitting the switches, and paint jobs that where so rich and deep in color. the best part of it all i was rolling with my big brother. he took me under his wing and got me started working on cars.... the girls, oh the girls "ahhhh he so cute" as they run their fingers thru my hair and went they bent over i could see into their shirts HAHAHA good times
I have requests. Surface Doctor, please tell us about Skips. One of the guys in my car club used to work for Mr Norm and Chris Karamesenes. Sadly he has passed away or I'd call him up and get a story from him. John told me several funny tales about things like driving thru Skips parking lot with full tilt race cars, looking for street races, high money gambling on those races and gangsters with machine guns. Please share a story about Skips. The guy I bought my Olds from was an old hoodlum from San Antonio. He had some cool stories about how the Mexicans and white guys used to invade each others cruising strips. Wild stuff. East Coasters. Really, did car people hang out in Malt Shops or was that about city folks who didn't have cars? Gumpa, you went to high school at Bellflower HS, right. Please describe the cars in the student parking lot. Ragtop35, how about telling the troops what the Cinnamon Cinder was? "It's a very nice dance". Man, I saw Ike & Tina, the Righteous Brothers, Dick Dale and Jan & Dean at the Cinder. Not on the same night of course. Remember how they had a seperate room for the under age kids? Watched the shows through a chicken wire screen so you couldn't pass drinks to them. Hey Dante, those girls rubbed your hair too hard. ha ha Great story. I forgot about the Bombas in Elysian Park. That scene was around for years.
wow! you must be digging deep into those memory banks, I hit those banks and the checks keep bouncing haha! you keep hitting nerves. I saw Dick & Dee Dee (sp) at the Cinder, and Bo Diddley and B.B King (different times) at a club in Long Beach. It wasn't a racial thing in those days But I felt uncomfortable at first being the only white boy in the building at the time. Also saw Buck Owens at the Rainbow in Long Beach. But My regular night spot was the Circle in Pasadena Colorado and Mentor (sp) I saw Ike and Tina several times, The Righteous Brothers, Leon Peterson, and several other famous at the time big names. KRLA was in Pasadena also upstairs above The State theater, We used to go sit in with Dick Hug Huggy Boy (on the air) from midnight till 4AM. You had to bring a pretty girl to get in. One of my favorite stories was New Years Eve at Bob's Big Boy (east Pasadena) Dick Goss built a top fueler in a one car garage in Monrovia. It was a record holder at a couple tracks. any way the line of cars waiting to cruise thru Bob's was about 10 blocks long. if you had a date or couple quarts of Coors @$.50 or Pabst Blue Ribbon $.43 or both the party on those long waits down a dark Kinneloa St. was better than than the bright lights at Bob's. Back to the story we were in line having fun( the Bra was off and the white shirt (that all the gals were wearing)unbuttoned to waist all the sudden we heard this Rail push started On Kenneloa and idled up to the front of the line on Colorada Blvd drove thru Bob's raising hell the push truck (Dick told me later) went down to the next traffic light Can't recall the street name) by Mason Motors Triumph dealer turned right and had the ramps down. Dick pulled out of Bob's straightened it out and launched what he claimed to be a 160mph+ run on Colorado Blvd made the right turn drove on to the trailer he stayed in the car while his buddy pulled the ramps and Hauled ass down the the back streets toward Huntington Dr. tied her down on a back street an d snuck home to monrovia I've never seen anything in print, but these were friends of mine. Don Prudhomme has always claimed "Greer, Black was his first seat time in a rail" WRONG! He set a track record at San Gabriel Dragstrip on Rivergrade road in the Goss, Yates, Prudhomme Rail. Ran two weeks before he was lured away by the the big names (I don't blame him at all he was a great driver) and the rest is history!!!
Awesome post...Im hoping someone fromt the bay area will recount. I love old stories and any pics would be even better. thanks for the posts! B-Frz
Yeah, from what I understand, San Antone was a pretty racially tense place. I was always told that part of the reason we moved to League City,TX when I was 5. I always had a place in my heart for SA, especially when we would go up for Fiesta in May and everyone would cruise downtown and Market Square. Just talking about it makes me what to dump money on a basic hydro set-up The thing about SA, like so many of the things I love, is that the place has a sense of history. Houston is all about what's new and how fast can we bulldoze something old and beautiful to build something completely boring and character-less I see my Dad and family this weekend-maybe I can borrow some pix and get some stories for ya. It's not Bellflower or Whittier, but it's what I got!
Notice my name to the left....... threads like this are why i picked it! I'm only 35. Guess its time for my generation to make our own history....
NONAME, I had heard that story. Now I know it was true. Wasn't Goss's partner Wayne Yates? Do you remember the Paladins Car Club and their '34 Ford 4 door? Driver sat in the back seat and there was a fuel burning flathead in the front seat. I'll scan a pic of it as soon as I find it. Thanks for the story.
Hey Chili, Crank up the ''way-back-machine'' and help me out- I'm wonderin if you knew who owned the '62 Pontiac Bonnie 2dr. I use to see on Bellflower.Violet primer, not gloss, spyder web panels, Astros, angel hair and pipe speakers in the back window, bellflower exhaust tips. I first remember seein this car 'bout 1970, and last saw it parked at the Parks Texaco on Long Beach Blvd-maybe 1975? still runnin the Astros and bell flowers, but lookin real long in the tooth! This car was quick and loud for a lowrider! Maybe a Viper or Sultan? Swankey Devils C.C.
Here is a car club shirt from the mid to late 60's that a friend at work gave me. His club(Invincibles of Lakewood) cruised Bellflower Blvd. during that period, and they hung out at the donut shop(the one wth the big donut) on the Blvd. He had a brand new GTO with astros.
I remember that Poncho. I think he ran with the Barons. He used to hang out at the Tip Top on Atlantic. He worked at the cheapo gas station on Cherry and Market. Tellin' tales out of school here, but IF I recall correctly that car got the primer paint job because of the owner's fondness for Red Devils. (Seconal) One of my friends still has a complete collection of the free antique car drinking glasses that Parks Texaco gave away with fill ups.
Chili and all .... GREAT THREAD. I don't have much to contribute being that I wasn't born till 69 but one of my best memories was cruising Story and King in San Jose (CA). When I was about 15 with only a learners permit I was in my older friends metalic torquise 67 Rivi on little tires and tru-spokes. Anyway cops pulled us over to check out his hight level and found out he had a warrant. Next thing I know he was getting hauled off to jail and a cop is throwing me his keys telling me to drive it away or it'll get towed. I hadn't done more than pull pops car up and down the drive way and now I'm 50 miles from home at 1am driving a bouncy ass lowrider were I can't barley see over the steering wheel. ... So I did what any teenager would have done.... finished the last beer, took one last cruise to check out the very fine cholitas, and I hit the freeway and drove that thing home. Like I said. Not a great story but it brings back great memories of a great cruise strip at Story & King in San Jose
Thanks guys for the great stories! I am 36 and grew up in a small town where we cruised our strip through town from one DQ to another .We had a blast , used to race weekends right outside of town and right in front of the highschool in the school zone line to line . I had an extremely hot Elcamino that got me in alot of trouble with the local pd , but back then you paid them all the cash you had in your pocket to get out of jail and back you went. Had a friend that had a Chevy Luv with a 454 , very scary but real fast. Alot of Chevelles , Novas , Camaros, 55-57 Chevys, a couple sbc Vegas , lots of nice 60's -72 pickups all running around trying to impress the young gals while blasting out our 6x9's with A/C- D/C etc... . Different time period than most of the stories here but the last of the cruising was soon after the eighties around here. Thanks again for sharing your memories.
good reading, reminds me of wednesday (club) nite, the cops on van nuys bl on there knees with tape measures and ticket books, or the dollar bill on the windsheild..................and yes the girls...........
Imagine okla city 1965 , the kid gets his paycheck on fri night for his part time job in the local grocery store for 32 dollars, rushes home and washes the car, gets the levis on and the madras shirt and hits the street. For me it was customary to start out at Quicks drive in for a 19 cent burger ,15 cent fries and a 10 cent coke, then off to the skelly station and fill er up at 29 cents a gallon for high test and loosen the header caps just a tad on the old 55 post car i had with a 409 , 409 hp dual four 4 speed and 5:13 gear, stacked spindles up in the air gasser style ride. then it was off to the Delta drive in for the first lap through before they put up the barrier and charge you 25 cents to go through because of all the congestion of cars on the weekends. then we hit the ranchers daughter drive in , mostly rich kids there so we mainly looked kool for the chicks there and smoked the tires on the way out and on to bixlers drive inn where the older guys with the serious iron sat . there was a grassy area outside of bixlers where the baddest of them all got to park and often would have a challenge written on the back window like WILL RACE FOR 100 DOLLARS. well needless to say i never sat in that space but always thought i would one day. there was a parking lot out back where the big guys hung out and looked over each others rides, spit and drank beer. usually we would set up a street race at one of several local favorite places. seems like we always waited till about 11 or so and then we all just sort of eased out in diff directions and met up . if we were racing we would uncap the headers, etc and hope the cops didnt get there before we got our turn for a run.. if we didnt go to jail we made our way back in to town and met up at the famed Holleys drive inn downtown for a rehash of the eve. usually had onion rings and a coke and then headed back down classen blvd and did it again , I hate to admit it but by late 66 I had 31 tickets for participating in an illegal speed contest , by 67 drafted, married and even rock n roll changed. I am just glad I have the memories and the passion to still live the car culture that we all hold so dear....
Great Stories----From a Canadians perspective, the stories match everything we heard about California in the sixties. I was living in Belleville (a town of about 25,000) in 1965, 19 years old, and had just joined the Road Angels car club. Tremendous bunch of guys, a few really nice hot rods, and a lot of "wannabees". We used to have a drive-in restruant called the "Fountain Park" on North Front street at the top end of Belleville. It had some very stylized birds, flamingos or some damn silly thing standing in a fountain, so the place was known to all the local rodders as the "Leaky Bird". There was an A&W drive in resteruant at the far end of Belleville, starting out #2 highway east. We used to all meet at the Leaky Bird about 9:00 on Friday night and cruise down Front Street then over to the A&W and back up Pinacle street to the "Bird". The Road Angels had a dragster that the club campaigned at the old Desoronto drag strip on Sundays. At this time a great emphasis was being put on "cleaning up the image" of hot-rodders, so we all had to follow very strict rules when in town---no squealing tires, no street racing, yada. yada, yada. Then about 1:30 in the morning a lot of us would head out to "Cooneys Flats" on the highway to Marmora, north of Stirling, where the serious street racing (as in 1/4 mile drags) would begin. My God, I'm almost 60 years old, and the magic of those warm summer nights, big engines, and music from the Ventures, or the Tremolos, or the Stones is still alive inside me. Its been many, many years since that magic summer----I got a phone call last month inviting me to the 50 th anniversary of the Road Angels---Hope to drive up there this summer with the roadster pickup.
Come on people, there wasn't anything special about the "fifties" It just a bunch of old guys telling stories about their youth (and they get better everytime they're told haha) the fast cars in 1950 couldn't touch the econo-boxes built today in a Drag Race or a Rat Race (anyone remember Rat Racing) the only things that we did different in So. California is we were able to do it 12 months a year so there more stories to tell. Oh sure we probably had more Hot Rods, it was local culture but we never got to enjoy shoveling snow or slopping the hogs so it all balances out!! It is really a depressing story when you think about trying to compete for the attension of the ladies. Not everyone was a rich high school quarterback with a new convertible! So you just had to do the best you can with what you could afford. but if a poor boy could build a beater that could beat that new convert. the rich could build a better looking and faster hot rod (thats why we'll see $200,000 rat rods soon) so stay in school and get a good job, or remain a bottom feeder kids everyone dreams of a cheap cars and gas. well in 1957 my earnings were 1 hour pay= 4.5 gallons of gas and 50 hours (before taxes) = a cheap car. you do the math, nothing has changed except the bull shit So the commercial is over here's another true story haha! I mentioned rat racing and that reminds me of Chantree flats (sp) the very top of double drive in Arcadia, On a clear night (before smog) you could see the ocean 30 miles away and all the bright lights of the Los Angeles basin (if you raised your head over the back of the seat) the road was a tight twisting mountain road that was perfect place to take a date, drink beer or ....!! If you could find a turnout that didn't have ten cars there all ready. Had a friend with a brand new ford, plain jane grey, he had one of those safety lights that plugged into the cigarette lighter and flashed amber on one side and red on the other. had black tape on the amber side and a couple of milk company hats (the dairies used to deliver milk to the house in one quart glass bottles, and the drivers wore hats that were the same shape as policemen) we would drive up the mountain and every turnout that had cars we would have the girls duck down in the back seat and with our hats on and the red flashing light hanging from the rear view mirror, the high beams on hit the turn outs and watch the heads pop up! then off to the next turn out! this was a dead end road and everyone knew we would be back and they were guilty of something! so after reaching the top we could drive back down and have any parking spot we chose.
We lived on Los Angeles St. a few blocks from Bellflower Blvd in 68 or so.. Phil comes over in his 54 Chebby that had the springs heated to the point they held about as much tension as a wet noodle. He has his wife and two kids with him. Mom, myself, Rich and Liz (Phils syblings) all pile in and proced out to get dinner. Head down Bellflower.. heres Phil... Trying to look cool. bumping down Bellflower with his wife and mom in the front seat.. 5 kids in the back...
These stories are great, its awesome to hear stuff like this it really gets my heart pumping, when my dad tells me about street racing his 32 chevy in 66 or 7 in northern california it really gets me going
In the Wash. Dc. Md. suburbs we hung out at a Mighty Mo. I hung out at the Queenstown Mo. We would cruise up to the New Hampshire Mo (NH ave) make one pass and then back to our haunts. One Saturday night we decide to go up to the Wheaton Plaza Mo looking for a street race. Tommy K. had a dark green 55 Chevy post car. Tilt off glass front end, Olds rear with M&Hs just edging out of the radiused wheel wells. Jacked up in the front but stock A frames. It ran a Chrome Corvair bumper in the front. They'd pull you over in a heartbeat for no front bumper back then. The Chevy was gutted. 2 fiberglass bucket seats on non movable 1" angle iron frames. No back seat, no window regulators (there was no steel left in the doors or quarters where they were once bolted) The door windows were green plexiglass held up with vinyl straps using snaps. The rear plexiglass windows were fixed. It was not a sleeper! When we pulled in and parked it looked like someone threw a sugar cube into an ant hill. We didn't come for a Teen Twist and a coke and everyone knew it. Tommy would tilt the front end up and show off the engine...a 301 with a dundum cam is what he called it trying to play the patsy. No side motor mounts so it had to be a 301 max right? He forgot to mention the stroker in it. Nobody wanted anything to do with it. They got on the phone and called all the local big boys but nobody came. There was always action at the Queenstown Mo on the weekends so we headed back. I forget who got shotgun but I was lower on the food chain so I got the whole rear floor to myself. It's not a lot of fun on the floor of a gasser with nothing to hold on to. Ladder bars didn't help any. It's un-American to drive a car like that without nailing it a little bit in every gear. I must have looked like the B5 ball in the bingo machine. So we are cruising down University boulivard on the way home when we pull up to a cute set of honeys in daddys car. Tommy stabs it a couple of times just to get their attention. I can't see shit, I'm bouncing around so much but the guy in the shotgun seat says she flipped us the bird!!! What? She flipped us the bird!!! In the 60s nice girls did NOT flip the bird. Tommy yells moon 'em-moon 'em! So I dropped trou and pressed my fat ass against the window as we went by them again. So the high light of my mis-spent youth was pressed ham on plexiglass. Back then it was highly insulting for a young lady to get mooned. It was a different era. I hope it wasn't "THAT" long of a read.
The Jalopy Journal
