What is cruising? Your thoughts please

Cruising is an action verb, describing something you are doing or going to do or did.

Those that are parked and in their lawn chairs DID cruise to the cruise night just like back in the day when folks went cruising and stopped for a coke at the local hamburger joint that was the hangout.

It's just a different location and instead of getting kicked out after a period of time like the "old days", the "new" cruise to places (local cruise nights) are welcoming folks with open arms.

There are people that never leave their own communities with their cars and there are even more that don't leave their own state. They don't know what they are missing. To be able to actually cruise cross country in an old car is on of the greatest feelings but most don't do it for whatever reason.

 

American Grafetti was exactly like it was in the 50s..right down to trying to get an older guy buy you some booze..the girls did not fear the shit thats going on in todays world...so had no problem fillin you car up with chicks.and no problem finding a good drag race...

 

Keith, it wasn't even that far back, late 70's I'm talking about. We went cruzn, usually in my car cuz it was the coolest, and if someone started talking to a cute boy from window to window there might definantly be an exchange of seats whereas his passenger would then get in with us and she would get in with the other guy.

Even today I would not hesitate to get in a classic car with a stranger and go for a cruz, and have done it many, many times over recent years. Because of this I have ridden in some really cool hot rods and customs and met some really cool folks.

Also, I have taken guys for rides in my cars that asked for it, total strangers. I guess its probably a trust thing and maybe here in the midwest we're more trusting but I've never once felt I was in danger or that it wasn't a good idea.

 

American grafitti was set in the '60s. And yes Wolfman Jack did have an underground station. That doesn't change the fact that it was a movie and not real life. It was staged.

Never the less this is not about American grafitti at all. What do you think if when the word Cruising is mentioned in a thread?

Part of the reason that the Why is Cruisin dead thread became a fire storm is that there is a great deal of difference between what we as a whole beileve to be cruising.

Denise' post for instance is well worded and a good reason to have a thread like this. She doesn't agree with what I deem cruisin'. But she has given a more modern twist to what it is.

 

This is what I consider cruising as well....
Ever watch the movie Dazed and Confused??? It was just like that during the late '80's cruising Northern Lights Blvd. in Anchorage AK.........and I lived in Wasilla, about 45 minutes away, a small town that didn't have enough cars to cruise, so we'd head to the big city to check out the other cars and girls...

 

PorknBeaner....that pretty much sums up my definition for it. That's what I did just about every friday and saturday night during all 4 years of high school.

 

For me it was always about the drive. One night me and a buddy cruised the 240 miles to Mackinaw City. We ate breakfast at the Big Boy and came home.

 

Reminds me of when I was in Denver in about '72-'73. Can't remember the street names, but the main was 4 lanes wide. Friday-Saturday night it was packed. At the time I swear I saw about every car made. Seen a guy pull the front wheels off, right in front of a cop, cop didn't do anything. Saw a guy chirp the tires and get a ticket. Took about an hour to make the initial pass, and another 45 minutes to get back around.

Of the cars I remember, they are all OT for here, but I wouldn't mind having a few of them right now.

 

Early seventies for me. I remember how quick the word got a round if a new car was in town. I also clearly remember how much gas you could go through in a night.

B

 

Cruising for me means driving your car slowly, surrounded by other cruisers, to see and be seen. We cruised Lindbergh Blvd in St.Louis back in the '80s, until it got so big and the Brown Clowns (cops) busted it all up.
Anything that drove was accepted, I remember this Coachmen RV full of girls that would get rowdy, yellin and wavin.
We had businesses that would invite us after hours to hang in their lots, do smoky burnouts and park.
It got so big, it made Car Craft mag one year.

Now it's just meet at a restaurant, visit with friends and eat ice cream.

 

Yea,that's the infamous "ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!" As much fun as cruising, just different.
Larry T

 

Tulsa, late 60s-early 70s, Peoria Ave in Brookside. Up and down a 2-mile stretch all night. Might stop at Pennington's Drive-In or Weber's Root Beer Stand (they made their own root beer). Sometimes would find someone who wanted to go out to the dragstrip and race. But mostly the "restless ribbon" of headlights and taillights, bumper to bumper, up and down Peoria.

 

I think time and conditions have changed many word definitions. Cruising in the late 60's was starting out from the small farm town of Anoka and cruising from Mr Bigs to the Frisky's drive in across town. Then to The Cities; Robbinsdale to the Nest, Then to West Lake street Porky's, East Lake street Porky's, Univerisity Ave Porky's, The Tea House Drive in in Saint Paul ( any one remember the GO GO dancers on the canopy ) then onto home. We would pick up a street drag on Lake or University Ave, maybe a party, and meet some chick depending on the night.
Fast forward to the 90's to Today we cruise to the Minneapolis ( cities ) suburb of Anoka with our lawn in tow park in the county parking lot and hang out talking to old freinds.

 

To me the meaning has changed back in the late sixties or early seventys cursin ment jumin in your car and riding around but lately when I got to a cruise it turns out to be a car show ( diffrent times diffrent meaning) my 2 cents

 

One good thing about the chicks back then,no whole body tattoos,rings and studs hanging out their face , guys didn"t have ear rings and crime wasn"t like it is today. This was the 60s and early 70s.All part of getting old I guess is looking back on your past and realize how good you had it compared to what the kids have to deal with today.

 

when ever and what ever i want it to be. cruising is where you find it.

 

Youre right Larry probably should have saved that for another thread. But we were cruising our local gut before we got bored that night.

 

You nailed it as far as my opinion of what cruising was.Not sure its the same anymore.

 

In the 50's it was Sills drive located at 5th and Charleston.
Cruising for me started in '63 hanging out with my older brother, and continued through the 60's into the 70's, basically unchanged.

All through the 60's it centered around Fremont Street and the Blue Onion drive-in.
Starting at the 'Onion we'd head west on Fremont all the way to main (2 or 3 miles). Begining around 5th Street, where the casinos started, traffic was bumper to bumper and at a crawl the rest of the way up to Main and that five block area was when you got to shoot the shit with other guys..and, hopefully, girls going the other way.
At the intersection of Fremont and Main everyone made a turn around through the Union Pacific train depot and either headed back down Fremont or turned south on Main and headed for Charleston. Turn east there and go back down to the Blue Angel Motel, turn north through the ally that would transition into the drive-in at the 'onion. Pull in to a stall, get a burger and coke, walk around trying, usually in vain, to score a date, shoot some more shit with other guys trying to score, check out other guys cars.......

Repeat process till the 1.00 worth of gas for the evening ran out, mooch another dollar from who ever might be riding with you......


In the 70's it tended to be more of finding a destination, as I recall, although cruising Fremont was still the big deal.

A lot of fun......

 

This is what "cruising" is to me now days. And, we don't do damn near enuf of it. From my blog last year -

 

Cruising in San Jose (CA) from '56-'62 was called 'draggin' the main'. It was down First Street, and back up Second. But there was so much more! Dig it:

Close the shop at 6M Saturday, Mayfield's Garage; ("best damn garage in town!") 1958 Jump in my fast '56 Ford ragtop, speed home, clean up, head downtown past John's Drive In, (the major hangout) and hit the Burger Bar for a 41-cent Steak Sandwich and a couple of 19 cent hamburgers. Wolf 'em down, and head up West Santa Clara Street to First...hang a right, and get into the already flowing cruise. It's 8:30, and the main is packed. Play it real cool, the Chevys are out in droves...might get 10 bucks a gear later on, race down on South 7th or over on 10th Street. Maybe cruise over there later, see if there's anything goin' on...
Make the pass down First to the Sahara gas station, hang a left, then another left on Second...about 7 blocks back up to Santa Clara St., now left and all the way down to Race St., left lane...Go up Martin Avenue, wind thru the Palm Trees, looks like L.A....
Left on Park Avenue, then right on Hanchett...Turn into Mel's Palm Bowl, survey the rods & mild custom action...Who's here? The usual crowd...wave, race the mill, get the nods...idle across the parking lot to the next block, go across the street to Spivey's drive in, some chicks in a '56 Chevy. I smile, they wave, I am "too cool" to stop and talk, maybe I'll see 'em later...(this was "playin' the role"! Had to do it!)
Back out to Santa Clara St., up to John's Drive In, there's a line of lowered cars in the curb lane, slowing entering the back drive, which circles around and out the Stockton Ave. driveway...you idle thru, get some eyeballs, turn into the street, come around the corner, and cruise in to find a spot. Cool place, you know everybody...and they know you.
Entering John's driveway is a ritual. If you have a low car, you enter slowly, and engineer the move carefully: if you place your right front tire at the low part of the gutter so your front bumper scrapes the apron as you nudge forward, everybody takes notice. (it's what is known as "showing class".) If you're REAL cool, you wear shades at night...sit low, for a perfect profile. The cooler guys there (Clif Inman with his low, black '57 Chrysler, prior to chopping the top) Gary Lamour, brand new '59 Olds, dropped 7"! Jerry DeVeto's '57 Ford "Maze"...They all park on the Santa Clara street side, while the hot rod guys park further back, at the apex of the driveway...Carhops ask us to stay in our cars, but we're looking at engines, bench racing, tryin' to gat a race, and finding out where the party is.
The older carhop worked here for years, we call her "Shultzie", she looks like the woman actress on the Bob Cummings show...
Hey, there's a dance at the Portuguese hall, the IES. Poster says Music by the Torkays, it's a Rod & Wheelers dance, you know it'll be good!
Mason Peters idles thru in his red '32 Hiboy 5 window. The little hemi throbs at idle, he parks, and stabs the throttle, shuts it off. Just got back from B'Ville, car is flawless.
Ray Cypert, Jim King & some other "Axle Busters" are getting ready to 'cruise First', I go with Jim in his '27 T sedan, new '56 Buick engine. Hood won't clear the generator, might as well show off the new Overhead anyway. The big Flathead that came out went in Herman the German's '40 Coupe...
We tool down First, at the stoplight do a 'hot runoff' with Frank Martinez's Cad powered '40...Jim gets his azz wiped. ('40 has 402" Cad, Chet Herbert roller, four 97s staggered, Crager manifold. Torque city!) We motor over to 7th Street, big gathering at the vacant lot by Spartan Stadium...lot is freshly asphalted, with lots of gravel. Some guy in a '53 Chevy doing donuts, guys are clapping...Jim says, 'Hang on', and gooses the big Buick in first gear...we're winding up, he grabs second, and turns the wheel...The sedan jerks into a big hooker, a full-throttle gravel shower, donuts that are 50 feet around! I'm plastered against the passenger door, about 5 revolutions and he lets off, the sedan lurching back to normal attitude...Much applause, they all loved it. We split, Badge Bandits will show up before long...Can't disguise this full-fendered midnite blue whitewalled T, so we get to Santa Clara Street and go right, to Mel's on the East side...some hot rods there, Ronny Durham's Roadster Pickup...Black Pete's '34, Johnny Tantillo's channeled Model A.
We talk a few minutes, then the group of us head up to First Street. Bill Moore's '32 show Roadster merges in with us on First Street, lots of eyeballs from the sidewalk.
We look like a 'hot rod gang'...I muse that I should have left the Ford home, and brought the channeled 'A' Coupe...but riding shotgun in a rod is better than driving my '56. Lots better!
After a brief cruise, we stop at the Sahara gas station for gas...everybody has a buck, we chip in. Sahara is cool, 3 islands with 4 pumps each, and fluorescent lights make the cars show up. Some chicks drive by on the turn around between First and Second, waving pom-poms out the window. Lincoln beat Willow Glen, Woo-Hoo! Yeah. Jocks.
We go back up Santa Clara Street, turn into Johns, we are 5 hot rods. I get out, and get in my '56, fire it up, and let the slicks slip as I lean on it in first gear. Stop at the stop sign at the corner, turn onto West Santa Clara. I nudge 40 MPH out of first gear as I pass John's front driveway, then goose it momentarily to make the front end jump up...then upshift for the 4 mile ride to the 'Ranch', our own "Burger Farm" in Santa Clara.
Our crowd hangs there 'til the wee hours...Spanky, Monk, Chili...Group of hot rods there, I turn in and park. Maybe tonight I can race Richard Marsh's '54 with the new 332 Police Interceptor...don't see his car...he'll be in, usually around 11...Probably race Coffin Road?

 

Cruising to me is all you described. Doing the loop of the main drag to be seen and see what else may be new to town was all the excitement when I was younger. Now if you go through those same streets at night there is not a car to be seen.

 

Main strip through town, turn around when you hit Sonic and repeat until your outta gas or the cops have had enough...Nowadays I load up my wife and kid and do about the same thing only the circle we make is alot bigger and its usually just us. Oh well better than sitting home!

The closest Ive come to old school crusin is down Congress In Austin for the Roundup. All different types of cars and people just having a good time and checkin ou the scene..good times for sure, Although the past few its more like parkin than cruisin! Also we go visit grandma in Ponca city OK once a year, they shut down the main drag and let you cruise all night, its a pretty good time to be had for that as well. Thats the closest definition of ol school crusing that Ive seen in years.

 

Actually the wife and I never cruised here in KC. But when I was younger and still bikein' for grins we used to cruise downtown KC after the bars closed. no one there and you could screw it on and listen to the echos between the buildings.

Sometimes in the Summer the wife and I will go downtown and do the same thing in one of the cars. You have to be careful not to run over any homeless guys but its still a hoot.

Ya know I don't have a clue where anyone cruised in KC. In the '90s the young kids were cruising on Noland Road. But the city shut it down. Times have changed a fist fight these days is a shoot out.

 

Pretty much the same here, except it was "cruising" the gut.

 

OKC, late 50s early 60s. Start at 23rd & Broadway, down to Main, across main to Walker, down to Reno, back down Reno to Broadway, then back to 23rd. again and again and again. With maybe a stop at Marshes drive-in for a Coke. Might even pickup a stop light drag or a buddy(some male) along the way. Especially if your ride was cooler or faster than his. Married life and kids spoil that for most of us. Now days since the kids are grown, we have some extra cash and the desire is still there, we do the next and closes thing I've found to the Old Days. Cruisin-the-Coast and the Lone Star Roundup. Then our Car Club has several 1 day TOURs each year. Besides, don't we build these hot/street/rat rod to drive???????????????????????

 

Growing up in a small boring town, we cruised Timberland every weekend. My oldest brother hung out at Little Italy parking lot which was beside the Sonic, (there was only one in town then.) Because I was familiar with that crowd, that is where I started. He and his friends were 4-5 years older, good if you wanted someone to by beer, bad if you were cruising for chicks.
My Senior year in highschool I started working for the Firestone store in town, and wouldn't you know it-it was right in the middle of the drag, (the cruising route.) The store manager had the cops chase people off the lot after hours, but loosened up tremendously when his employees started hanging there. It worked well.
Upon returning from college in Austin, I found things had changed. Not only did my friends not cruise any more, (we do grow up,) but no one did. Bummer!
I have many great stories from crusing, it is amazing that I survived. I do find it is ironic that we had one movie with two screens, a double drive inn and one shopping mall-and it was not part of the drag, and still we found ways to have fun. Now Lufkin has dozens of screens, numerous malls and stip centers and every chain resturant you can think of, but there is nothing to do on Friday (after football season) and Saturday nights.

 

I'll add two more versions of cruising. Back in the 60's the nearest Coors beer was 290 miles away in Sand Point Idaho. Invariably someone would say early Saturday evening "I feel like a Coors" and we'd pile into one or two cars and spend the next 8-10 hours making the run across I-90 and back. The other kind of cruising is just jumping in the '38 on a nice sunny afternoon and heading out to the Snoqualmie Valley and hitting the back roads. You don't see many people and it isn't about being seen either. It's about enjoying the sound and the feel of something I built myself and getting away from the suburbs. I don't have a radio in the truck, the mufflers are a little loud, the engine sounds great, and the air smells like freshly cut fields, or cowshit depending on what the dairy farmers are doing. Two hours of that and I'm ready to go back to work on Monday because the memories are good until at least Wednesday. And that is hump day. It's all down hill from there.