What street/City did you cruise in High School?

Galena Avenue in Dixon, Illinois, ...about 2 miles long,...4 lanes,...from the mid 60's thru the early 70's,..put on thousands of miles goin up and down that road ,..drivin 55, 56 and 57 Chevs, and a couple of California 63-4 Nova SS's,...wish I had a nickle for every trip up and down that street.
absolutly no cruising on that route anymore, it just faded away.

 

US11 between Champlain and Rouses Point, NY.....late '50's..

 

1970's Riverside, CA. Market St./ Magnolia Ave. San Bernardino, CA. E Street and then move out to Whittier Blvd when we got bored.

 

SW 29th, SW 44th, Reno Avenue for cruising. Eastern Avenue in OKC and Cemetery Road west of Yukon for racing.

 

The racing on Harbor Island was GREAT. It was every Sunday night from June till August, from about '68 - '70. The area was were a "Tank Farm" was. Straight as string streets, flat as a board. Some kid who worked at a Chevy dealer in Bellevue, made a "tree" for the starting line. There was a guy down at the finish with a walkie-talkie who would radio back the results, and he also acted as the arbiter of who won or lost in a close one. The racers decided amongst themselves who the pairs would be. LOTS of spectators, and really bitchin' hot rods showed up. The Seattle cops were aware of what was going on. As long as there was no booze in plain site (which there wasn't), they let us race. When the racing was over, EVERYBODY policed the entire area for ANY garbage. You couldn't have found a cigarette butt if your life depended on it. It was all good until a kid in a 440 6-Barrel Roadrunner blew past the finish line, not lifting a bit, and stuffed it into a wall of jersey barriers that was stacked up (not by the racers....they were just there). He was OK. The car was junk. The cops came, they called a wrecker, and that was the end of that deal.......forever. I had a Harbor Island Raceways decal in rear window of my '58 'Vette. I miss that decal almost as much as the 'Vette!

 

Oklumgee street in Muskogee, Oklahoma. From the Corral drive in to Sandy’s and later the Sonic drive ins. Must have put a 100,000 miles on cars on that route!






Bones

 

Starting at the White Castle at 95th & Cicero Avenue in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
Stop at the Castle to see what was going on, thed head east to Buss' Drive-In,
or north to McDonald's and further north to 79th and Cicero to the J.C. Penney's
Auto Center to check out their parts display. Or south to the Jack In The Box at
103rd & Cicero.

Other nights it was Ogden Avenue through Downers Grove (Topp's Big Boy)
heading east to the Big Boy at 55th Street and La Grange Road in Countryside, Il.

It was never in daddy's car. It was the '66 Nova, the '67 Camaro SS350,
the '68 Nova SS, the 69 Z-28 and the '63 Corvette ragtop. Even some
piss-ant Instamatic photos from those places and those times ('67-'72)
would be great to see.

 

In Springfield Illinois, 1964 to 1965, I cruised North Grand Ave. Icy Root Beer stand to South Grand Ave Top's Big Boy. They both had car hops. Then I was off to the Air Force.

 

Mid 80’s on Main Street, Orange Virginia in my HAMB friendly ‘58 Hillman Minx
Made the front page of the Orange County Review problem was I wasn’t in my car Mom was not happy
I would leave the keys in it at the high school parking lot if friends needed it

 

Rt. 450 in Prince Georges County, Maryland. Primarily at the Capital Plaza Hot Shoppes in the Landover Hills area, but anywhere from Bladensburg to Lanham/ Seabrook/ Glenn Dale areas. Occasional cruises to the Mighty Mo in Queenstown/ Hyattsville area. Friday night races on George Palmer Highway or Route 50 between the Cheverly exit signs. I could usually be found in one of these wasting gas cruising around looking for some excitement....Those were the days......Don.

 

.............Bengies?

 

The stance is right on the '64, what engine was in it?

 

..........A dimutive 289.

 

All the street racing was done on White Street, Concord and Pearman Dairy road, the cruising was regulated to Main Street, both north & south. HRP

 

Yeah, it always seemed weird to open the hood on one of those and find a small block.

 

1946--1950 La Brea ave.-& Sally's drivein in my 1941 Chev coupe.

 

Central Avenue in Phoenix, AZ. was THE place to be seen in the 60's and 70's. Challenges took place there,
and then you went to 7th St or 7th Ave. to race. Bob's Big Boy or McDonalds were the hang outs. Good times.

 

In Rockland Maine back around '83-'84 we would go down Main Street to North Main and hang out in the McDonald's parking lot, then back down North Main to the rotary (Main Street is one way) to Broadway, cross Park Street and hang out in front of the supermarket until we got booted out then head back to McDonald's and start the process again. There wasn't any racing, but we had a lot of fun chasing each other around! I don't think anyone cruises around there anymore, though.

 

Late '50's, Yakima Avenue, Yakima Wa.

 

In Las Vegas from Sills (later Tip-Top drive in) down Charleston Blvd to the Blue Onion drive in, then up Fremont St to turn around at the railroad station back to the Blue Onion and up to Sills. Repeat as desired. Circa late 50's and early 60's.

 

.........It did have the fairly rare slide-away-steering column which enhanced the "cool" factor though.

 

OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

Grew up in Stamford Connecticut. The usual route was Shippan Ave, then to The White Tower, through the Cove, then head up to High Ridge rd. to the Buttery, back down through town and again to Shippan Ave . stopping at either JoAnns or Tony's Drive in.

 

Van Nuys boulevard in my 13 second 103mph 65 Olds 88 four door “sleeper”

 

Baltimore, Route 40 West Champs and Varsity drive in restaurants. Night time Speed trials on unfinished Beltway.

 

1965, McMinnville, Oregon, 3rd street, in a 49 Olds fastback, while dreaming of a new, white 4 speed Falcon. The city has a once a year cruise, with a route that includes 3 rd street, starts tonight at 5:00 PM. I bought a Falcon 50 years ago, this month, got it washed and ready for tonight !

 

This is kinda different, but interesting all the same. I lived in Wayzata, MN in fifties through the seventies. Wayzata is at the east end of Lake Minnetonka, which has quite a history itself, and has had it's own Historical Society for a long time. About 1965, a bunch of us got some white paint and made ourselves an impromptu "dragstrip" on county road 6 north of town (just west of Ferndale). It wasn't straight and it wasn't exactly. level, but we would go up there and run late at night. My buddies and I would talk about it once in a while, but I had thought it was just another wraith disappearing into the past.

A week ago, I was back in town for my 61st high school class reunion, I was talking to a classmate who is active in the Historical Society. Come to find out, our old "dragstrip" has not been forgotten, but will be the subject of an article in an upcoming issue of The Wayzata Historical Society's newsletter. I had though that perhaps there may have been a few guys who even remembered it at all, but I guess I was wrong.

 

Right through the middle of downtown Hopkins, MN (west of Minneapolis). Many people from around the area cruised there. In the mid-1970s there was an almost-completed extension to a major 4-lane freeway nearby. Guess what that was for!

My friends and I were typical high-school-aged street guys of the time when $1200 would but you a pretty good muscle car from the 60s or 70s. Our group had a 70 SS Big-block Chevelle (me), 69 Chevelle with the same credentials, 67 GTO with 421 SD, 68 442 with BBC, 67 383 Belvedere, and a 68 Roadrunner. We’d often choose a guy to race, then several of us would line up and beat him at the same time. A few of the cars were involved in wrecks and junked. I sold mine to an even younger kid for something like $1450 - I always figured he wrecked it on the way home in the rain, but I don’t know.

John