History Where was the "Paradise Road" in your town?

Molt road or Mary’s street. 1960s Billings Mt

 

hall st, in north st. louis was it. two lanes north and 2 south. it was where most of the truck terminals were, and the cops would say "goodnight" by turning on the fire hydrants.

 

For us out in the Torrington CT. Area in the mid to late 70’s it was mostly the Norfolk road for the local guys because we could make a bunch of runs with almost no traffic coming through.

When the big boys would come out and people would come in from Waterbury, New Haven, Hartford and such they would unload in the commuter parking lot on Christopher Road by the Burger King, head north on RT 8 one exit and back onto the south bound lanes at exit 45 and right where the merge lane ended to the sign post at the bridge was 1/4 mile and you could view from below by parking under the bridge and walk up the side to watch them fly by. @loudbang might have more to offer.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

I was living in the middle went there and RT 72 and Terryville on the lower flats for drag racing and upper flats for high speed runs. Sometimes Bristol where RT 84 was still under construction would get race at Bristol plaza put on your slicks if you had them and head for the Meriden exit off Rt 84 swing around to the entrance ramp and it was not open to traffic yet and was a perfect spot no traffic to avoid.

 

1960's in Vallejo Ca on Sonoma blv between Sandy beach Rd and magazine Street then in the 1970's Columbus parkway right off hwy 80 exit. You could still see the finish line until new homes built and road widen. I remember a guy from Napa in a black 68 Camaro was unbeatable.

 

Small Town East Tennessee we "cruised" the local shopping center parking lot located on a four lane road in town. Two entrance/exits into or out of the parking lot, one of them at a traffic light. Lining up for a race, we'd exit out of the left entrance and turn right to line up at the light. Green light go, at the 1/4 mile mark from the light, was the entrance to the "Big Burley Tobacco Warehouse" parking lot.some one would be posted up there to relay back the winner. We had a few Good Guys In Blue also. Sometimes one would sit at the mark and clock our speed at a "test and tune" late night, usually around 1-2 am. Dad always said nothing good happened after 12, I beg to differ.

 

Rip Rap Rd. Dayton Ohio

 

When did you run there? They closed the road and made it a scenic trail now. But in the late 70s it was hoping.

 

We would race on I-95 in Stamford Ct. it was newly constructed and exit 6 heading eastbound from top of entrance to second bridge crossing was a 1/4 mile.
Today you can hardly move with all the traffic. Back then no one used it after 6 : pm .

 

"Way Back Story" Our spot for Midnight Drags,most of the time was Chrome Ave,way out in the boonies west of town,all farm land mostly;
Chrome Ave west of Homestead { lots of farms },AKA Bear run,we called the Homestead girls Bear ,cus they mostly did not shave there legs in Homestead
Miami/Homestead,1962,we're at the sat nite midnites with about 30+ rods and sleepers plus maybe 50 others came to see,out on south Chrome Ave, Cars not racing,would park on side of road with head lights on to help see racers running north{ no street lights at all out in mid of nowere ! Just farm fields [pole beans this time of year,corn other times,or tom.s ] each side of the road n no cross roads,other then a farm dirt road sometimes. This nite the cops set up sneek raid on the drags. Well when the coppers showed from out of a dirt farm road and closed off the north end real fast=were you ended up after a run.
We were in Tim's Blue Spook 55 ford/390 FE packed into it.and about 1/2 way in a run,Tim see the cop lights flashing way up ahead and make a right turn into a pole bean field,bean's and sticks going up over the car like mad and he's holding speed above 50 as we're cuting that field and wondering if we're gunna fine a drainage c**** or well stand pipe,ether may of killed us,,but kept cutting that field for what seemed like a mile+ tell we found a dirt fram road and head south,came out after a lot of wondering around a few miles north,so headed back south to A&W US1,stopped and cleaned sticks and beans off and out of the Spook so we could go into A&W[AKA Bear Shop] with out looking like were we'ed been.
Ya the cops came in about 10min. later looking at all the cars there as they drove slowly by,few we cleared there eyeballing ,no beans showen
The news paper said next day they got 5 drag racers,but no talk about that there were about 30 racers there,HA
Bet those bean fields had more then one hole run in them.

 

.........I don't know which is funnier, Dana, thinking of you guys cleaning beans and stalks off the car or the girls from "Bear" and their hairy legs...

 

Early 70's,,,I worked for Dallas Lunsford, he was there a lot. My avatar is his chevelle, the red baron

 

I was there in the late 70s - early 80s. Fond memories of RipRap, Kil-Kate, and Frisches. I lived in Huber so RipRap was a favorite place to race.

 

I was just in Huber yesterday @ Restoration World

 

Hello,

We grew up in Long Beach (in So Cal) and that expanded to all parts of Long Beach. For us, our ties with the Bixby Knolls area was a natural. Many generations of folks had been born and raised here and eventually all funneled into the local high school, LB Polytechnic H.S. The portion of the kids that were “into” hot rods, cruising and drag racing was the normal small amount versus the rest of the population.

But, the hot spots in Bixby Knolls were a drawing card for thousands of teenagers over the years. (Tom McEwen, Gary Gabelich, Bud Rasner, Bob Brooks, Ronnie LeGrand, etc.)

Fast and with scallops to boot, on an early 57 Chevy sedan... A Bixby Knolls/Cherry Avenue legend...

Tom McEwen Marauders Long Beach 56 Chevy D/Gas Winner 1957

If anyone was a teenager in any portion of Long Beach that went to LB Poly HS, it was the ***ociation of being a teenage hot rod kid that allowed them to fit right into the teenage scene. No one had a camera for daily use, but the photos are still out there in family albums and possibly into digital aspects of preserving them.

Note: A few years earlier...

November 13, 1955: One month after the Lion’s Dragstrip grand opening, McEwen wins his first trophy…? With a 1954 Oldsmobile sedan? So, the order was 1954 Olds, 55 Chevy, 56 Chevy and 57 Chevy... all labeled: "It came that way from the factory..." Ha!

Jnaki

Our experiences coincided with our teenage years and when graduation came and went, we all learned to ween ourselves away. A new crop of eager teenagers were right behind us, learning what was necessary and now, being allowed to take over the scene for their own period of experiences.
Cherry Avenue Acceleration

So, the main emphasis, for us, was the access to the local proving grounds nearby. The Cherry Avenue roadway is a mile long, straight as an arrow, street. (Plenty of lanes going in both directions.) A divider in the middle helped. But the whole area was the closest thing to a dragstrip for everyone. From the majority starting line, it was a good ½ mile long straight road with nothing on either side to disturb, in the late nights.

With no road/street crossings, it was perfect. Plus, one side was a huge empty dirt field. The side where the majority of the races took place was bordered by the giant cemetery building, walls, and grounds. After about an 1/8th mile, the other side became another cemetery to the marked finish line. So, now, there were no folks to disturb or bother.

Note 2:

At the end of the ½ mile area, there was the first cross street and by then it was the quicker escape route to a neighborhood leading back side streets and dark parking areas to cool off for a few minutes. Then, the streets all led back to our drive-in locations. It was a place that some b/w cars would sit and wait, but it was hard to decide which cars were the racers. By this time we all were in a slowdown mode and ready to turn around and go on the other side heading back to the starting line for round two.
This is the view that everyone saw during our teenage times in Bixby Knolls. 6 red lights shining brightly.

If and when the B&W cars were on the same road, but farther back in an acceleration mode, these side streets gave plenty of cover to park and hide, while capping up the exhaust outlets quietly in the dark. YRMV
stealth mode…
But, only after many races at Lion’s Dragstrip and encounters on the street. The big black 58 Impala fooled a lot of people, thinking it was a stock cruiser.

 

McEwen's 1st trophy! How cool is that!..Thanks @jnaki

 

So Cal’s Westminster Boulevard in the Big OC #2

Hello,

For all intents and purposes, the Cherry Avenue drags location was the perfect place for the hundreds of teenagers growing up in Bixby Knolls, Long Beach, Lakewood and elsewhere, nearby. Perhaps being a “local” cruising around Bixby Knolls with the rest of our high school teenage friends gave us a foothold on the proceedings.

Many generations of “older” folks had the same or similar experiences doing what we did during our high school era. Two groups of high school teens before us were the famous stories of Tom McEwen and his “teenage” friends. Then it was my brother’s group and finally, “our” times as anxious teenagers. The close by hot rod shops, the chrome shops and of course speed shops, like Reath Automotive was handy to have nearby. Since Reath Automotive moved closer to Bixby Knolls in the years after our adventures, that played right into the scene for later generations.

But, there was no mention of the lonely strip of highway out in the empty areas of the new Orange County open land. It was noted that being 10+ miles away was not convenient for the spur of the moment challenges. The Cherry Avenue Drags was about 1 mile away and a good route to get prepped for the high adrenaline experience coming up shortly, late at night.

When we visited the Southern areas of Long Beach (Belmont Shore) to the Seal Beach area, we were now closer to the 2nd most popular area for those late night runs in one of the darkest/unpopulated highways around the whole area. Westminster Blvd. was there as an extension from Belmont Shore directly to the vast Orange County areas. It just happened to be a public road cutting between the huge U.S. Government property.

Jnaki

The Seal Beach ammunition depot is/was commemorated with the stack of balls on the edge of the property. For many years, it was at the busy corner of PCH and Bay Blvd, until they renamed it Seal Beach Blvd.

In the early days, when we went surf fishing with our dad, we used to drive by the big stack of “balls” sitting on the corner of PCH and Bay Blvd. Those historic “balls” were the floating balls that used to guard the ocean entrance to the harbor on the shoreline across the street. For lack of a better place after the usage was stopped, the U.S. Navy stacked the giant balls on the corner of the property.

That set the southern boundaries of the Navy property. But, where were the stacks of ammunition for the uploading to the boats coming from in the early hours of the morning? A few miles back toward the now 405 freeway, was the inland side of the U.S. Government property. The streets were lined with street lights, while the criss-cross street patterns looked like the residential neighborhoods a mile away.

From above in the sky, the purpose was to allow anyone to think a residential neighborhood was down below. Camouflage at its largest. But, we all knew it was full of bullets, big shells for the destroyers and other large ships that came to load up their supplies. The raised bunkers looked like homes and the lights made it “ghost town” like at night.

For us teenagers, the road that cut through the whole property deep inland from the ocean was almost two miles long in a straight away layout. So, everyone drove about a 1/8th mile inwards at either end to mark the starts of the quarter mile runs. The 1/8th mile distance allowed for the sparce, normal traffic and sight away from roving black and whites.

Now, the acceleration runs could be done without bothering any folks or businesses, only empty fields, ammunition bunkers and miles of chain link fencing in either direction. Our favorite direction was aimed back at Belmont Shore to the West, with exits in Seal Beach inland areas. The other direction, East, headed right into a set of homes and more traffic. But, various marked quarter mile markers, either way.


Note:

Unless the B/W cars were right on the action, a car zipping by any patrol was like a normal car(s) on a cruise West or East. Open exhausts were ok, as there was no one to bother. If one CHP patrol car was going the other way, we all knew which RPM would make the exhaust purr like a little kitty. Besides, the whole time of our involvement, not one CHP or B/W cars was seen. It helped that the 405 freeway is the busiest and needed the most attention through this area from Long Beach to Huntington Beach to the South. YRMV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bF7b3vYC5U Westminster Blvd. Acceleration

 

St. Louis's world famous Hall Street

 

....Great story @pigIRON63 . Morristown and Newport were some hot rodding hot spots back in the mid to late '60's. I was too young to drive yet, but enjoyed seeing the cars cruising the streets and the stock car races at the old Tennessee- Carolina Speedway in Newport at the Fairgrounds.

 

North Main and Agua Mansa in Riverside,Ca.

 

Stanley blvd

 

Whaddaya mean, where "was" it....???
Photo from August of this year, somewhere on a nice, straight, un-named county blacktop near me.


I guess this was a bye run. With lane choice....

 

Hello,

It was on the outskirts of our Bixby Knolls cruising area, but near our local community college + sports stadium used for all of our home high school football games. The other high schools had their own full stadiums, but LB Poly played their games at the Veteran’s Memorial Stadium. For the So Cal hot rod group, it is famous in its own right as the longest antique auto parts sales location for the past years, going back to the 60s.

But, the main street, Lakewood Blvd ran right in front of the giant Douglas Aircraft complex where the old prop planes were built. When they joined with McDonnell Corp, then the other side of the boulevard also had a giant set of buildings, including an actual jet construction hangar/building complex. We were fortunate to be able to tour that side of the Douglas Aircraft compound, but we all came away with some wonderment as to how those aluminum sided structures stayed in the air.

The workers were all busy with their line of responsibilities, but some were not paying attention to the job at hand and wanted to checkout the cool looking girls that were in our Aeronautics Aviation Cl*** from the college campus. But, in looking back, somehow, those planes stayed up in the air when finished. It still was a topic of discussion for some college age kids wanting to know the ***embly line antics + somehow all gets put together to make the plane take off and land. Ha!

Jnaki

The boulevard is well known to everyone. The kids from Lakewood, Paramount, Bellflower and surrounding areas drove on this highway to get to the airport and beaches to the South. So, it was well traveled during the day. But, at night when the lights go out, the aircraft workers go home. Only a few security guards are roaming around, the streets are fairly empty and a long stretch of roadway is ripe for full acceleration for at least a half mile, until the first cross street appears. By then, we were all slowing down anyway.

A common sight in the late 50s and early 60s, with almost a mile long straight away street… Douglas Aircraft Company location, owned by Boeing.

So, for the first full quarter mile, it was full on acceleration along side of empty aircraft office buildings, construction buildings and some hangars. No cross streets and it was dark. Today, it is full of office buildings, and a shopping center on the corner with tons of cars at all hours of the day and night.

But, still, across the street is the large Veteran’s Memorial Stadium that is home to the local college teams and still for LB Poly High School Varsity Football home games. (As well as the antique swap meets.) If one were to tell this story to current folks, they would laugh at the memory of those empty streets and only the giant Douglas Aircraft buildings that lined this empty street.

Note:

The other major street along the North side of the Douglas Aircraft location was also used as a late at night acceleration run location. One side was a golf course. The other side was the giant Douglas Aircraft Surplus Supply Yard that was attached to the giant aircraft building site. So, no one was at home to complain about some kids accelerating down Carson Street from the Eastern intersection of Lakewood Boulevard corner, heading West a few blocks to our home court, Cherry Avenue Drags location… YRMV

 

I spent a lot of nights at the Tu-Vu drive in theater!

 

Old US 30 east of town Plymouth, In.

 

Old Nunez Rd....S'boro, Ga. late 60's
6sally6

 

Terminal Island Freeway: on the far Western Long Beach City border with Wilmington.

Hello,

A couple of days ago in the vintage antiquated thread, I posted a story about living in the far reaches of Long Beach, along the western border of the city. When we first moved into our new/old home in the far border of the Westside of Long Beach in 1947, we were on the city limit border. On the other side of a huge gr***y field was the Terminal Island Freeway, starting just up the street and heading into Terminal Island, the US Navy yard and Tuna canneries.

The Terminal Island freeway also led to the only surface streets heading towards San Pedro. The water crossing from Terminal Island to San Pedro was a car ferry and not used everyday by most folks, unless one worked in Terminal Island or San Pedro.

So, from our old Craftsman House to the freeway was a short walk. We did that a lot during our "playing in the gr***y fields" to see the big trucks heading either way from the harbors. But as we got older, we moved to another old house closer to our elementary school. But, during our driving days, that Terminal Island Freeway was a secret place for the local hot rod teenagers. Plus, by 1955, the Terminal Island Freeway entrance was just steps away from the newly created Lion’s Dragstrip. This portion of the dragstrip was the end of the whole dragstrip complex.

It was the emergency exit only to be used by the white ambulance to and from the large local hospital a couple of miles to the East.

Jnaki

Our main “secret” local dragstrip for midnight runs was in Bixby Knolls. But, we used the closer Terminal Island freeway for tuning and practicing starts, plus perfecting our speed shifts. From the time of the 58 season, the 58 Impala was on the Terminal Island Freeway in the late hours doing its thing. The good thing about the lonely freeway was after 5 pm quitting time for most harbor jobs, the Terminal Island freeway became a ghost town.

It was such an empty place that the downtube exhaust cutouts could be opened for the true sounds of drag racing. As we approached the turn around off ramp, we knew the RPM levels to keep the sounds down to low, acceptable levels, p***ing the local CHP and b/w cars, if they happened to be around, but at 1 a.m. they usually were at the local diner having a late coffee and yes, donuts.

Hardly any trucks at all, let alone p***enger cars. Who goes to Terminal Island during the night time hours??? Unless you were stationed there as a Naval recruit, the dark hours of any night was a lonely concept. Perhaps, it was an invitation to use it for our testing grounds. It was well protected and long enough to extend the ¼ mile blast to a half mile blast for extended runs. Then after the hard run, an easy off ramp and on ramp at the next exit allowed us to go back after a half mile, to get away from the housing project buildings and leave no one to complain about those “%$#@ drag racing kids…”

Note:

Today, the empty freeway at night could be used due to an elementary school grounds ravishing the whole neighborhood homes and creating a school complex/school district storage yard. That whole side of our street, Webster Avenue, became an empty field after razing all of the historic homes. Our address, 2335 was now the address of the elementary school.

So, after 5 pm, the freeway is doing its last emptying of trucks and harbor workers. Therefore, no one to bother us at night. As the large gr***y field was on both sides, there was no place to hide for us or a CHP patrol car, either. If they were hiding, it was near the turn around off ramp on PCH.

A sad note addition is that recently, the school district gave notice to everyone that the elementary school will close due to low enrollment. But the district maintenance facilities with worker trucks will still use the other facilities down the street. Our old Craftsman house, now buried under a school and maintenance yard, gone. The Lion’s Dragstrip just around the corner is also gone

But, as tempting as it is, it still provides a great place to start a full acceleration run on an empty freeway at the edge of a large city...YRMV

Sound Performance Run

 

Old colony Blvd in Hyannis ,Ma races started around midnight someone had even spray painted lines across the street, took my wife on our first date there and I beat a 383 '71 roadrunner with my 289 /271 HP mustang it was a good nite all around that was Nov,1,1979 were still here toughing it out !

 

Thanks everyone for all of the great responses and memories that you've posted.

 

Don't be shy.