History Cruise Places - Man Those Were The Days.....

Capital Plaza Hot Shoppes, Landover Hills, Maryland. I wasted 100's of gallons of gas cruising there.

 

I used to go to Porky's in DSM too back in the 80's/90's as well as George the Chili King's.

It's too bad George passed recently. Did they ever build that supermarket on the Porky's site or is it still a vacant lot?

 

Porky's, I was there years ago for dinner while attending GG. After we finished eating I noticed a rod with hood up being thrashed by rodders. Went over to check it out. SBC stamped rocker arm had failed.
Someone had gone to parts store for the needed parts.

I looked at the license plate, Hawaii? I asked rodder what his travel plans were. I know he didn't come for the BBQ. Ron and Evelyn were on a three month around the mainland rod tour. Different major event each weekend.

We have been long distance friends since, crossed paths several times, visited our home more than once, Hawaii souvenir ornaments on Christmas tree. Thanks for the Porky's memories.

 

You meet the nicest people in a 32 Ford. Merry christmas to you and your family Phil.

 

Back in the late 50's I used to hang out at Harvey's on Northern, Blvd.
Queen's, N.Y.
It was a Drive in with girl's that would come to your Car for Order's
or you could Park and walk in.
It was a Big Hank out for Hot-rods & Street-rods and Motorcycle's

Just my 3.5 cents

Live Learn & Die a Fool

 

No national significance but in my little home town, Oak Harbor, WA, the cruise was from the Kow Korner drive-in down Midway Blvd. and Pioneer Way to the Arctic Circle drive-in. A couple of miles filled with lines of cool cars every Friday and Saturday night. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about those good old days; they sure beat these messed up times...

 

Cruising Central Ave. in Phx, AZ...from the mid-50's to the 70's. It was the dividing line between east and west.
Every Friday and Saturday night. Lots of cool hotrods, girls and street races. And you would always been seen
at Bob's Big Boy drive-in...55 cents for a double burger! Great car hop service.

 

1960-70 Los Angeles. Bob's Toluca lake; VanDekamps Riverside Dr; Witch stand; Harvey's Broiler-------

 

We cruised it many nights back in the late 60's in our '55 Buick Special!

 

This was the place to be back in the early to mid 60's, In N Out #3 on Arrow Hwy. Covina, CA.
Parking lot (off to the left) held 25 - 30 cars.

 

The Chicago area guys will remember Skip's on North Avenue. My photos are all in my mind. Maybe someone else had a camera.

 

I remember Tik Tok's in San Francisco, on Columbus street.

 

Every cruise place we had in the 60's is gone today. Here in Portland, Or. we had a lot of places that attracted hotrodders on weekends, so you just drove from one to the other to see where everyone was hanging out.
Tik Tok and Scotty's were both on 12th & Sandy Blvd., across from each other, so it gathered a big crowd.
Then The Speck on 52nd. & Powell Blvd. that was part of the KFC franchise was a hot spot.
Yaws Top Notch Restaurant & Drive In on 41st, just off Sandy Blvd.
A&W on SE 82nd.
Flannigans also on SE 82nd
King's Drive In also on 82nd.
Bell's Burgers SE 82nd
Robins Burgers SE 82nd

82nd Ave (Hwy 213) was a hot spot throughout Portland, so it attracted lots of hotrods, and lots of eateries!
Broadway downtown attracted a huge number of cruisers too, but tough to find parking, so most people met there, and left to go elsewhere if they wanted to stop and visit.

 

My home town, Springfield, IL, had Topps Big Boy on South Grand, and Icy Root Beer on North Grand. It was an all night ride between the two which took you through the middle of downtown. There may have been an occasional stop light to stop light drag race along the way.

When I lived in St Louis, Chuck-A-Burger on the Rock Road still had cruise nights. In 1997 they had their 40th anniversary and the place was packed for blocks around.

 

In the 60s dragging Main in Porterville CA was THE place on Saturday night in the southern San Joaquin Valley. American Graffiti should have been based there, not in Modesto. Even the Bakersfield and Tulare crowd came to Porterville for the action. Stop at Coleman's for a cherry, vanilla, marshmallow 7UP and head out on another round.

 

Well, back in my day, 1964 up, I never got to go to any of the iconic cruise ins! With out the Internet, back then we didn’t even know about them!
But here in Muskogee we had our spots! I probably logged million miles between the Sonic Drive in to the Corral Drive in on opposite sides of Muskogee. Later the kids hung out on 32 street. Sometimes I would come to town , I lived about 15 miles out, and get a challenge to race with in minutes! Well out to “ Handcock” as we calledit, we would go! It was odd as we drove down Handcock St, but raced on S. Country Club St. Sometimes I would get out there early and not get back to town because someone else would show up to race, and then someone else! But that was fine, I had my girl, my car and my beverage of choice! Life was great!






Bones

 

Pete's was a popular back in the 50's & 60's. HRP

 

Here in Rapid City there was never just one spot but several of them along 8th Street. This last summer folks just said fuck it and started cruising again in large numbers (we have never been locked down). There were a couple nights with hundreds of cars. Other local towns like Spearfish and Custer followed along. Pretty cool to see. Here is a shot of the
road.

 

Late '60s/early '70s cruising was all about 4th street in San Raphael, CA. George Lucas found out about it and filmed many of the AG cruise scenes there. Our car club 'Valley Rodders' was there long before, during and after AG.

 

cruise hot spot in movie Hollywood Knights - Van Nuys, CA

 

Cruising.
I guess I missed out on all the Hollywood and famous stuff.
We had the local fast food joints, grocery store and mall parking lots.
Lots of muscle cars and 80s stuff.
We did have a few cool rides cruising. A couple of really mean Fairlanes, One really cool early 50s Stude truck. I made laps in a 57 ford. Occasional model A would.cruise through.
Drove the bosses 340 powered 63 Dart gt a lap or 2.
lots street racing and general automotive ignorance.
Local stoner cruises thru with a bicycle stuck under his early 60s van. Had no clue it was there.
Some folks trailered drag cars there to cruise and make some extra cash.
On a funny side note, the mall that ran us off back then is struggling to get folks to visit.

 

@anthony myrick, my hometown mall used to chase us out too... and is hurting for business and begs people to do car shows in their huge parking lot now.


Here in Denver were lucky, through the summer you can pretty much hit a different cruise in every night of the week. I most often frequent Wheat Ridge Lanes on Fridays, 10 to 100 car turnouts, depends on weather and such. Owner is a car guy and if you come in something cool you get a ticket for a free burger even.

 

For me.....early/mid 60's.....the big "A" (A&W) on Hawthorne Blvd (SoCal) Friday nights.

 

Not a photo that I took, but it's all I have. Just east of Skip's was a Polk Brothers ((large appliances) warehouse and store with a huge parking lot. It was pretty common for street racers to trailer in their cars and meet in that lot to set up a race. North Ave. was wide and not many cross streets east bound so late nights made for a safe race.

 

The Mighty Mo, Hyattsville (Queenstown), Maryland. Fondly remembered as just "The Mo".