Event Coverage What happened to the old "cruise ins"?

One of the local car clubs holds a cruise in at the only operating Triple XXX drive in in the USA. The next one is this Sunday. If I go I’ll post pictures.


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Any one hang out a Green Gables at he Central Point shopping center at Mound and Central in Columbus, Ohio in the late 60's?
There was some serious street action on the weekends.

 

It's all the NON-car guys, that have ruined it for the real CAR-guys. Just like "cruising", in years gone by. Some 25 years ago, the city of Everett, Wa killed cruising off with emphasis patrols, $1000.00 NO CRUISING signs on every telephone pole (even in areas where there was never any cruising to start with), and even ticketing for driving back and forth more than twice in an hour along a main road. I'm just glad I was part of it all before the forced ending. The city still has a yearly "cruise-in", that includes a car show, bands, vendors, etc, in the down-town area, and there are several smaller car shows during the summer months. But, there are NO weekly, or even monthly, "cruise-ins", that I know of.
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
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There is a car event of some sort there almost every Sunday of the year.
http://triplexrootbeer.com/
Hell for good burgers there too. We used to stop there a lot when we were coming back towing the Sailboat because we could usually park in the lot next door pretty easily.
Back in the 80's I stopped there a lot with my dad when I took the 48 or my 51 Merc to Henry's Haulers as he could take the back road to Renton from there and I could get on 90 and come home.

 

A local radio station still promotes a Wednesday evening cruise event during the summer. But the aspect of cruising around was killed off around here with laws specifically designed to do so. It worked. No wonder young people lost interest in cars. Too bad there are not more cars and coffee events where it is just about showing up rather than paying for some fund raiser or competing for meaningless awards.

 

You need to be in Virginia around Richmond there are some Shoney's.

 

Don, what kind of jelly is in the jelly donuts? I have only found real ones at DD down here.

 

The Krispy Kreme jelly doughnuts I get are Raspberry. I don't know if they have any thing else.

 

Don, you and I have the same definition...exactly. We have both cruise ins and car show here but some people do mix up the terminology.

I hate people playing loud music at cruise ins and car shows, and I'm a music lover. I want to talk to people and the always too loud music is a PITA.

 

The only place that I experienced the true cruising experience was Clarksville, Tn. in the early 70's. We made the loop thru Shoney's (at that time they had a drive thru complete with a rent-a-cop) across the street thru McDonalds and either up the hill to town or maybe a race across the bridge over the River. Being stationed at Ft. Campbell (173rd Airborne Brigade), it was a way to connect with other car guys and gals, the social media of the day. I liked it so much that I stayed around after getting out, worked for Pop and Mom (Tony Centrella and his Wife) at his Esso station, and met My Wife (of 45+yrs)! My only regret is that I didn't have a camera to record all of the goings on!

 

It may not be within driving distance for many, however if able don't miss the Speedway Motors monthly coffee & donut cruise. the last Saturday each month from May through October The remaining dates are August 31, September 28 & October 26. 8 am-noon...... coffee, donuts, free museum tours to all who bring a rod or custom

 

So sorry to read this! The bastards that came up with this law should be ousted! What harm are the cruisers causing??? Sad indeed!

 

My observation: 2 of 3 times it's a DJ with too much ego wanting to BE THE SHOW and show off his equipment instead of lending to the vibe.

I agree with the car show vs cruise-in definitions. Also, I boil it down to movement. A car show is static. A cruise-in has cars coming & going (hopefully). I find old cars alot more entertaining & interesting when they are running and moving. I think that's why one of my favorite shows of the year is the GoodGuys show in Puyallup. Lotsa cars and a number of them driving around the fairgrounds. So... a car show with some cruising qualities.

Gotta56forme/Scott

 

Didn't they stop crusin on E st a few years ago? That was my thing in High school.

 

I went to the Frog Follies with 3 friends yesterday and the topic of cruise-ins came up while we were driving. One local cruise in I've never attended but had considered going to takes place around the county courthouse in a small-ish town. Apparently they (whoever "they" is) have a 50/50 drawing and dash plaques. What the ....? To me a cruise-in should be more of a spontaneous happening rather than an event. Any time it becomes something that's organized it's more of a car show, and personally I've never liked car shows.

Lynn

 

Another different type of "cruise in " is "Cruisin Ocean City ". This four day event is held the second weekend in May for the last 29 years. With boardwalk parades, two major shows, and at least a half dozen satellite shows, cars are cruising a 150 block strip into the wee hours of the morning. Registration for the big shows are limited to about 3500 entries '76 and earlier and approximately 3000 non registered cars cruise the strip. Great fun!

 

Call them cruise-ins or call them cruise nights, it makes no difference, they're still a drag.
Sitting in a lawn chair on a street the town fathers deem acceptable while giving people the
bad eye is not cruising. As a teen and into my mid-20s I went cruisin'. That meant heading
to Dog 'N Suds (Lemont, Illinois) to see who was hanging out. If it was too early we'd make
passes through the town until other guys came out. Then it was out to Downers Grove
(Big Boy), Oak Lawn (White Castle or Buss's Drive-In) or Joliet (Silver Frost). Stand around
the car, drink something, lie to guys from these other towns and then head to another town.

We'd slowly drive, admire ourselves as we drove past large store windows, show off and sometimes
make fools of ourselves. There wasn't a portable picnic table, umbrella, stuffed animal or
women in poodle skirts and saddle shoes. Actual crusin' died with the mid '70s gas crisis and
was replaced with the regularly scheduled cruise night. I think we love our car hobby so much
that we've ruined it. We've eaten, gobbled down and digested the thing we really dig and have
spit it out as endless parking lot car shows and bogus nightly gatherings.

 

We have been doing Cruise Nights since 1984.
This is out 35th year.
Photos are on our website
http://www.classicnights.com

 

I always ask for Link Wray's Rumble - sometimes I get a blank look - and sometimes the eyes light up and I get a smile.

 

This sums it up.

 

We still have a get together every Friday evening in the parking lot of a Tractor Supply in town. It used to attract 20-30 cars (I'm told, I'm kinda new to town) but nowadays it is down to the same half-dozen people sitting around talking about the old days. A local burger joint started a "cruise-in" but you have to buy something to attend. Not a big deal but some folks don't want to eat there.

 

I shouldn't chime in, as I haven't read all the other post. But to me, this is the difference. At a show you pay to have people {strangers} look at your car, and then have judges to tell you what's wrong with it. You have to try and kill time, because it wouldn't be polite to leave before the awards ceremony. Now a cruise, or cruise in are just some friends meeting at a burger joint, or a friends garage, maybe even a a park. There's usually food, BS, and we'll check out what's new to everyones Hot Rods. A cruise night can be anything from, an organized event, to some guys just calling each other on the phone to hang out. I remember back in the day. One of us would stop at a bank parking lot or burger place. Before the night was over. There would be a bunch of us just hanging out, and having FUN!!! If you haven't done that in a while, call up some buddies, and go for a cruise. Ron....

 

.................Raspberry. It was sort of an inside joke as I was hoping he would see this thread. He took some jelly donuts home from the aforementioned Krispy Kreme and when he and the wife bit into them the amount of jelly was so miniscule that it might have filled a thimble. It has been a joke since.

 

We have a good cruise-in here every Saturday afternoon, evening. Sometimes there will still be a few of us telling tall tales well after dark.!

 

We still have a Cruise In every Wednesday afternoon-evening at the Madras Oregon A&W/KFC. Not many show up, half dozen or so and usually not that many "old" cars. We do it all year long. Tell the clerk your with the Old car group(club) and get 20% off your order. Come on over Central Oregonians!

Dave

 

Back in the day we would just meet up at a local closed grocery store parking lot and just hang out. Until the cops told us to move on, then we would relocate to another lot. It kept everyone busy.
I like the garage nights we used to have. Go to someone's garage so we could see what progress they made on their project. If we were lucky they would be serving cold beer.

 

I miss garage nights as well. They were always fun.

 

I miss 'scooping the loop', stop light drags, 25 cent root beer mugs and greasy double cheeseburgers brought to my drivers window by short skirted carhops. This happened in my town every Fri/Sat night. You either showed or you didn't. No planning or organizing apart from making sure you had enough cash to last the night. Rules, planning and structure ruined all real cruising.

 

great thread , got me remembering Sunrise highway , Long Island in the 80,s .Cruise night , Pull in , get some chow , shoot the shite and then drag race on the back roads .Ben Ferracanes 32 , 3 window blew my doors off that night.. PIcked this up , by the time i finish it, im sure ill get some cruise time...i hope..lol