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

Well in SoCal...in the heart of Los Angeles. There is the Coffee Cruisers every Wednesday off of Venice at the Coffee bean. It is More of a meet up. Mostly The Odd Squad CC. It’s pretty consistent. Most the people that show will do a short cruise to dinner to a local place.
As far a Friday nights, in Burbank the Valley Cruise night seems to be getting bigger. They meet up at the Fosters Freeze until about 9pm. Then cruise down to Bob’s.
In both cases the business are ok with the cruisers and we mostly all buy stuff and are mindful of the regular patrons.
Not really a bring a chair to stand in front you cars type thing either. That would be Bob’s.

 

I use to be Draging (you put in the street name)

 

We still have the Church of the Holy Donut, Sunday AM in Burtonsville, MD, Rte 29 and 198. First and 3rd Sat. eve's at Jimmi Cone in Mt Airy, Md and 2nd and 4th Sat at Home Depot in Eldersburg, MD. Few old school stuff but still meet with friends and tell lies.

 

We still have monthly cruise nights in this part of the country. Usually from March-October. No admission, no awards, but usually a 50/50 pot. They are just a time to visit.

 

In my area we have several "Cruise In's" or similar..
However the once very popular Cruise Nights have all but disappeared..for Two reasons:
* Morons showing up
* Police being dick heads

 

I fear that the idiots doing burnouts in traffic as they depart will kill ours.

 

I hear a lot of bitching here about what's not free. NEWS FLASH, There is No Free, all events have permits, manytimes insurance required and then you whine over a small service charge at a show/restaurant/custard stand, why would a business owner want his business to lose money when a cheap ass group shows up and does not buy anything. I have been involved in some shows and organized a cruise night, ran it 4 years and gave it up, guess what , Nobody stepped up to carry it forward, it's gone. The whining, crying, talking is typical of all events, hobbies, etc. everyone runs their mouth, as a rule, no one steps up to help, I have seen this as a business owner, participant in many different hobby type clubs all through the years. Everyone should make it a point to Thank show/cruise organizers for their efforts, keep on bitching and you will kill the deal, then what, sit here on the HAMB and Bitch ?

 

So called "cruise ins" or "cruise nights" are bullshit. We didn't have cruise nights in
the old days of the sixties. We came home from work, cleaned up and then hit the
streets, either of our own towns or others. The majority of the time we dropped
some dough where we went. Business owners made some cash off of us and we had
places to congregate, a win-win for everybody. These days everyone sees dollar signs
and those not really associated with cars want their piece of the action.

I'm not bemoaning the idea of making money, my bitch is that things have changed
from actually cruising, in our everyday, extremely kool daily drivers, to sitting on
a sidewalk in a lawn hair or at a folding picnic table while someone sells raffle tickets
and someone else from a local restaurant caters burgers and sausage sandwiches.
Sadly, that's the state of the "hobby".

 

You don't suppose these two actions are related, do you?

 

Boy does this ring a bell for me. About 15 years ago here in the Ballard neighborhood, all of Ballard way was closed for a Saturday car show/gathering, I drove my car down early to park in front of Ballard Hardware, ( the old location, because I worked for them back then ) The entire day was great, till at the very end of the gathering, one person decided to do a burnout in the street, and it was on the section that had brick/cobblestones and the tire marks on the bricks, pissed off the local authority's, and that was the end of that type of gathering on Ballard way!

 

if theres lawn chairs, bands, money, vendors, a set time, special parking, pylons or barricades it's not 'cruisin' anything. It's a show or a gathering. If you jump in your hotrod, drive it ten blocks, park it, grab the lawn chair and sit for the next two hours, you haven't been to a cruise night, you've been to a car show.

 

A few years ago local ice cream joint started a cruse in but `was killed by the guys that burn out on a busy route.

 

back up

 

That's what I like. Seeing the cars and talking to old friends, seeing what's new out there. I spent the summer in FL because of the so-called pandemic, and there were a few good weekly cruise-ins. Now things are opened up pretty good again and getting back to normal. Can't wait to get back on the road again this spring!

 

Not so many Shoney's left. Most of them closed a few years ago. There was one left in Glen Allen, but it has been a couple of years since I went.

 

Went to a local"cruise in"in 2013 when i first got my 52 Victoria. Mild flatty, Lancers, skirts, duals; noth'n outstanding but, sharp paint etc. One guy came over to talk & look at it. It was early with 8-10 cars there.
No one else waved or said a word......i never went back.

 

Some of you fellows are talking "cruise-in" while I'm talking about "cruisin".
A hell of a difference. From 1967 to 1972 my pals and I went cruisin'. Hit the
local drive-in first (Dog 'n Suds in my case) in Lemont, Illinois. Meet up with
a few guys and have something to eat then move on to Downers Grove (Big Boy),
La Grange (Big Boy) and Oak Lawn (White Castle). Swap lies with guys from
those towns and possibly set up a race on Archer Avenue or behind the Chicago
Stock Yards. Next night it could be heading west to Lockport (Star B) and Joliet
(Silver Frost). At all these stops everybody was welcome. Someone might
throw jabs at your paint job or at your E.T. claims, but it was good fun.

The gas crunch really killed the cruisn' off. When bringing your car out again
became popular it was with a caveat. Pre '73 cars only...rods only, no muscle
cars...muscle cars only, no rods, no imports. Oh, and no cruising. Sit on your
ass in your lawn chair, buy a raffle ticket, stick your nose in the air. Don't you
dare lean on a car. Get that June bug off the grille! Where's the California
duster? A 15 cent root beer? Are you nuts? Try $5.00 beers or pull your own
pop out of the cooler you stocked. Junior Hitlers telling you how to park your
car on the street.

I understand guys want to get their cars out. Some to show them off, some to
gather with acquaintances, and the crab asses I can't figure out at all. These
are very different times with many reasons for not cruising from town to town.
But if you have the mistaken idea that "cruise-in" and "cruisin" are similar in
any way then you weren't part of that great '60s era.

 

"Cruise-ins" are kinetic with lots of moving objects occupying various places in time and space.
"Car shows" are stationary, occupying spaces but the time is static and moot.
Watch vid for extra credit........

 

When I started driving in the early 2000s there was there might have been one or two cruise-ins on the weekend consisting of about a dozen or so cars at the local ice cream place. They tried to have a couple of cruises at the grocery store but someone put the kibosh on that, and some groups of tuners hanging out at the Best Buy parking lot. I hear all the time from the old-timers about how every Saturday night would be packed with people cruising Holland state park. I really feel like I missed out on everything cool by about a generation.

 

I used to cruise with my friends we would drive around stop somewhere, drive some more stop somewhere else. Once a guy started hanging out with a girl we’d lose them for a while. Eventually they all got married and the wives weren’t interested in cruising. We started going together to eat sometimes the movies afterwards. Then the kids came. We didn’t have time to cruise anymore and the cars became an appliance to get us to work, go shopping or bring the kids somewhere. Out of all the people I used to cruise with only one of us has anything old to drive.

I don’t do the lawn chair thing and on the rare occasion I can go to a gathering of old cars I enjoy it even if it costs 10 bucks. Way cheaper than most things and life is short.

 

I was told there is cruise night about 130 miles north of me that is giving out Trophies. Don't know if it is true but if they are they totally ruined that.

 

We have a cruise in every Friday night. Cruise in about 5:30 have a hamburger, BS for a couple hour's, Go in to town and take a walk by the River, cruise back home and think about what a great day we had. That was all before the 14" of snow last night. Oh and eat a big bowl of ICE CREAM.

 

For the better part of the last 35 years there was a big cruise-in at the McDonald's at exit 81 and interstate 85 hosted by The Electric City Classic Chevy club on the 4th Saturday through October and there was always a huge crowd, when it started it was 99% vintage cars and everyone attending had a good time, the owner of the McDonald's was a car guy and he promoted specials and he did a good business.

Over the years the Club had some internal problems and the club disbanded, one of the members and his son took on the responsibility's to host the cruise-in and continued to do so until last year, the owner of the McDonalds sold out and the new owner didn't want anything to do with the cruise in, Tommy & his son tried to assure him he would do well that one night a month but he contended that all the cars would hurt his customers coming off the interstate.

I have talked to people who stopped to get a bite from all around the country at the cruise-in and they were amazed at all the cars, since the new owners policy about no cruise-in's I have driven by that McDonald's on the 4th Saturday afternoon and there was less than 12 cars in the parking lot, in the past there may have been 130 to 175 cars, they also had a huge grassy area behind the McDonald's that was usually full.

This last year Tommy and his son made a deal with the City of Anderson to use the Farmer's market to host a cruise-in, but to use it he had to have sponsors to help pay for the insurance and other maintenance fees.

Then Covid struck and the first two cruise-in's were cancelled, they have had 2 and hey were both small event's considering how large the previous cruise-ins were and where the market is located it is well lit but there is no restaurant on site and one of the sponsors has a food business and sets up a portable grill and has hamburger plates.

It's the only monthly cruise-in we have now and this Saturday cruise-in's for this year will be over. HRP

 

I am not and have never been a business owner, so I don't know the challenges, but... WOW, just WOW - seems like really short-sighted thinking, worrying about business coming off the interstate instead of supporting the local community. Not the first I've heard of such a thing. A decision like that may even alienate some of the local customers. Ohhh well...

 

What happened to cruise ins where lots of people just showed up in one place, or an area of town is easily explained. In most towns the powers that ran the town simply banned cruising, because some individuals turned it into a circus by doing burnouts, or tossing garbage and beer bottles out their windows. So the authorities cracked down on cruising, and wrote tickets to anyone caught cruising. They also broke up, and wrote tickets to groups of cars congregating in public parking lots. So the whole 60's scene was wiped out in very short time.
Those in the business of making money for themselves, or promoting their business, or car club simply jumped in and turned this ban into profit for themselves, or their cause. They started charging a fee to people who wanted to park inside their event, and guys paid it because they had no option. Then they continued to raise entry fees to a point that many car guys just quit going. That didn't stop them, as they raised the fees higher to cover lower numbers of entries.
With this year's lack of organized car shows, I've seen a welcome return to people simply getting the word out to meet somewhere on a Friday or Saturday night. And authorities have allowed this return to what cruising was because the people attending have been very reserved, and not done anything to get the attention of law enforcement. If there's anything good that's come from this year's restrictions it's a return to free gatherings of car people. I hope it continues next year too, and we can totally abandon paying some clown to park cars in his roped off parking lot.

 

His decision has certainly alienated many of the locals that have patronized the establishment in the past.

When we head out of town I drive by the McDonald's when we use to stop and grab a biscuit and coffee on the way, now we drive about 18 miles further and stop along the way.

I haven't stopped there since and from what I have heard none of the long time employees that have been there for years have left because he is so hard to work for. HRP

 

The Pavillions Cruise-in on Indian Bend road in Scottsdale is every Saturday. This is probably the largest Cruise-in held in Arizona. Here are some others: Kmart - Powers & Hampton in Mesa, AZ every Saturday, & Cruz,n Phil's in Fountain Hills AZ. every Sunday.

 

As far as Show's, the City of Anderson had a Downtown Car Show for the past 20 years, it as sponsored by the local merchants and each participant received a goody bag, there were no entrance fees and inside the goody bag there were 2 five dollar "Downtown Bucks" to use in any shop or restaurant.

It was a huge success and at that time I owned a business downtown and was also involved with the show.

For many years it ran smoothly, then after I sold my business and was no longer involved new people entered the downtown association and then greed reared it's ugly head, gone were the downtown bucks, then a ten dollar entry fee and later on a twenty dollar entry fee.

Like many city's the down town areas have evolved from regular businesses and restaurants a lot of lawyers have moved into the locations and since the main street was blocked off they started complaining to the city and this year due to Covid the Downtown Business Owners Association decided to cancel the show and stop hosting it entirely.

Our Car Club, "Tri City Rod & Custom" hosted shows for more than 30 years but we have gotten old and don't want to do it anymore, the fun is gone, too many headaches with location, permit's and insurance.

Again, this Covid crap has put a crimp in our club activity's, we have had a cancel our picnic's and just a hand full of us have started back to having meetings once a month and maybe meeting for breakfast on Saturdays.

Yeah, the shows & cruise-in's are getting to be few and far between, so just get in your hot rod or custom and just drive and have a good time. HRP

 

Cripes , those are as bad as the 1960's drivers ed. Films ! LOL

 

You can go to a cruise night every night of the week around here. From May to September . Some do start in April and some run to late October. Lots of not H.A.M.B. friendly stuff. Thank God for the several restrictive hot rod & custom shows like the one the Others just put on “Hot Rod Hootenanny” several were cancelled this year like the Fall Out & WhiteWallrama. Hope for 2021.