Event Coverage Did you cruise back in the day?

Grew up in Missoula Montana - 1968 - 1972 - cruised Higgens Bvd - started out in a 53 plymouth - moved to a 56 Pont, then to a 61 falcon then to a Ply Valiant Scamp - then the Navy - Went home with a 67 Ford Gal. then a 68 Mustang GT fastback - Guess I got old after that - but can't wait till I finish my RPU and go back for class reunion
1 more time - Jaxx

 

Cruising is a "perfect storm" of many factors that converged into a very short "golden age" of the car culture. The "suburbs" were invented which meant cars were less of a luxury and more common. Teens began to have pocket money and 'allowances' to choose and spend on their own preferences in music and radio stations. For the first time in history, they got a vote on which songs, which movies, which cars were "cool". They gradually became a demographic that was catered to. The typical family lifestyle still worked or shopped until dinner-time and then bunkered down at home each evening because most stores and businesses shut down for the night. That meant the lovely, paved, town centers were an absolute vacuum just begging to be used. It's no mystery why a few savvy business folks saw an opportunity to cater to these kids on wheels and create fast-food palaces to draw them in like moths to their neon flames. Your ticket to join the cruise required a vehicle and no particular place to go. Points seemed to be awarded or taken away depending on the car, the driver, the passengers, the noise you were making, and many other obscure factors.
"Get in, smile big, and hang on because we are rolling, looking for "Happy Time".

 

I grew up in a time and area on no action (customs/hot rods, even very few stockers) and we STILL cruised. I even cruise in friends new/newer cars that weren't into old cars.

 

Kids nowadays have it rough. If we got pulled over with beer as kids worst case scenario was dump it out. Now you're a criminal.

 

These stories go back to the 40s, the poster of which is approaching 90 years of age. Has anyone heard of the "Roaring 20s," and I'm not talking about the 2020s?

 

theHighlander…reminds me of the Waterford Police…they could not stand us cruising from the car wash to IGA… remember driving through the IGA parking lot and they stopped me and made me turn my fog lights off…they were known bullies by the locals

 

McHenry Ave. in Modesto, CA was George Lucas's cruising ground, upon which American Graffiti was based. However, the movie scenes were shot in Petaluma, CA, not Modesto. Modesto, like most towns/cities in California, has grown considerably since the 50s/early 60s.

 

Started cruising in 1970 when I got my driver's license and still cruising today at 70 years old (in the exact same car)!

 

We’re we’re hanging out one evening and heard an awful scrapping noise. We noticed it coming from a dudes van. One of the local stoners had a mid 60s Chevy van. He had ran over a bicycle and hung it up under the van. Didn’t know it.
He cruised through, bought some gas and cruised out still dragging the bike.
Hope no one was riding it at the time he ran over it.

 

Put a lot of miles on my 51, 55, and 64 and 65 Chevelle's in Flat River, Mo. back in the late 60's early 70's. Well, when I wasn't hanging out in Southeast Asia. Cooler full of beer and Friday and Saturday nights were so much fun. Street racing and going to dances and listening to the local bands play. Need to get me a Delorean and go back and visit!

 

Cruising came back big time after the release of American Graffiti. Lucas filmed part of it in San Rafael, Ca. I grew up there,and had a 55 Chevy 2 dr post in 1971.Cruising 4th st in San Rafael was fun,but the real car scene was up in Santa Rosa, Ca 50 miles north. Santa Rosa"s main drag was also 4th street,and it was twice as long as San Rafael"s. There were easily over 100 hot rods on friday, or saturday nights.Hundreds of kids hanging out on the side walk. I saw a 46 Stude pick up gasser pull a wheel stand completely across a intersection one night.The scene there was unreal it was so good.We drove the cops crazy,but there were so many cars that there was NO speeding. I was in a gals Road runner when she got pulled over for going too slow! My generation had so much more fun than modern kids can.

 

The McDonalds there in Anderson was the first McD's I ever visited (66-67)
I went to a year of college there when it was still a jr. college!!
Uncle SAM was hot after me...and a LOT of other young men about then.
Wouldn't recognize the town now fer sure!
6sally6

 

It is......right up to the moment someone gets killed.

 

I tell some of the younger folks.....we 'invented' cruising.
The small town I moved to after Anderson was in south Ga. and Friday-Saturday-Sunday nights (especially during the hot-steamy summer) went something like this......
Fill up the 64 Falcon with gas (100 octane/hi-test) about $7.00 would do it. With open headers and a six pack of Blue Ribbon I would head out to Sam's drive-in Restaurant on US 1S.
The other cars would be backed up almost 1/2 mile just to "circle" the covered canopy in the parking lot of Sam's. Leave there with a 'little squeal of the wheel' and head back toward town and circle the Dairy Queen on the way. Cruise thru the A&W..cruise around the town square (with the
small glass shelter where the town police would be.)
Then back toward Sam's ...rinse & repeat!!
By midnight I was parked at Sam's and watching the 396 Chevelles... Road Runners...Super Bees...440 GTX's...FE powered Fords...one guy had a Street Hemi Charger (that never ran right!) and 55-57 Chevys galore.
And girls...girls...girls!
Anybody remember curb hops??!
6sally6
One more short story.........Friday nights were local high school football games.
One unforgettable Friday night we went to see the local team compete with a school in the next town over. Wrightsville, Ga.
Schools hadn't been intergrated all that long but there was this one black kid from Wrightsville who TOTALLY dominated the game. The center would snap the football and they would give the ball to this kid...'every play'! He would run for 10-15 yards every play. ...
Hershel Walker in his high school football days!
Guess which team won!?!!

 

I'm a Valley dude so cruising Van Nuys Blvd was where it was at! We just figured that was what it was like everywhere. We were young, restless, and bored. We were looking for something ...didnt really know what we were looking for but we usually found it on the Blvd. Races, chicks, fights, parties, food, cool cars, AHHHH what a good time to be young!!!

 

My 1st job, in 1972, was a gas pump jockey at the largest gas station in our town. I worked every night except Sunday nights from 5 pm until closing time at 9 pm. When I got my license, the only car available o me was dad's 64 Olds Dynamic 88 with the 394 4bbl.
Our downtown are was about 10 blocks long, with a one way street going east the full distance, and then just a block north of that was another one way street going west. It made a great cruising loop. By the time I could "cruise the downtown" it was already a vey popular location for teens. Friday nights (if there wasn't a high school home game) or Sat nights were the big nights, but other nights had some cruising going on. All my buddies would meet me at the gas station just before closing time and we would do the Friday and Sat night cruising. My dad's Olds was pretty popular because we could all fit in it to cruise around, and it had enough power to hold its own, even with 4 guys in it.
We did that pretty much all through high school, but by the end of school, the cops were working hard at closing down the cruising, and the city put a pedestrian mall in two blocks of the northern street. The kids just shifted the cruise another block north for those two blocks, but the cop presence was enough to convince us to find other things to do. Just out of high school, my buddies and me started racing at our local dirt track. The 1st year was enough for them, but I kept at it.
In addition to the racing, most of the guys were also hooking up specific girls and were getting married. I too got married at 19 years old (we are still married, as are 4 of my 5 friends are still married to their first wives). The first date my wife and I want on when we started dating was cruising the downtown! All theses years later, we are still cruising.
In the early 80s, law enforcement relaxed their position on cruising the downtown a bit. I was part of a car club that organized a first ever Downtown Cruise night. We worked out a deal with the Mayor and law enforcement and set up an actual cruise of the Downtown area we cruised around in our youth, we blocked off the streets so there was limited access, collected money for parking spaces in nearby lots, and had 4 hours of a closed circuit cruise night. It was so popular, it has become an annual event that still happens once a year, though the club that started it is long gone. The 2019 event was shut down because of stormy weather, but we had a slightly event in 2020, (no parking lots), and another slightly modified event in 2021, the parking lots were back, but the cruise route was longer. Gene

 

A couple of local law enforcement officers were known to just take your beer if you were under age and still at least reasonably sober. Word was that it went in their personal stash and didn't get dumped out. There were some who would stand there and make you pour it on the ground though.

 

CLASSIC!!
6SALLY6

 

Got my license in 66 and my first 55 then put a 427 425 hp in it and down to College park Shoney's.Every night of the week from Shoney's to Mc Donald's in East Point and back if nothing happen up to the Varsity in Atl.Did that till Uncle Sam said Come here boy so I went 3yrs 68-70.But came back and Shoney's was still going on not to much Mcd's but Varsity.Meet my wife after that in 73 he had just bought a 72 Vega GT but we still cruised the Varsity every night for some 4-5 years.Always looking for a race in the 60's but had to stopped with the wife in it.Had the same carhop in the 70's at the Varsity he would see use coming and he would just bring our dogs and rings out.I still go to the Varsity today and get a change of oil.But my wife passed away last Aug but she is still there with me.The hot cars went to the upper deck in the 60's-70's.At that time I had the 427 with tunnel ram on it.I still hit the Sat night cruises south of Atl nowdays.Never grow up

 

After reading GENES experience above it reminded me of a guy we knew that had a 64- 88 or 98 that couldnt do a burn out, so he did a NEUTRAL drive drop on Van Nuys Blvd. He would pull up to a stop light, put it in neutral... Rev the HELL out of it and drop it into gear, that old tank would burn rubber for 150 ft and never spilled its guts on the road or let him down. They dont build them like that anymore.

 

'70/'71 before I got drafted. Cruised E St. in San Berdoo in my '65 Falcon 2dr. wagon. A 6 pack of Coors was $1.35 (or case price of $5.25) and gas was less in the 30's IIRC. But I was only making $1.25/hr as a bus boy. Good times.

 

We cruised all the time in the 80s. We had awesome music that fit right in with it.

Kids today are hypnotized by social media and video games.

 

We bumped the boulevard. Cruising was done on boats. Think Gilligan’s Island …

 

Jefferson Street- "The J" in Napa. A couple miles, 4 lanes the whole way. We would make a mass cruise to 4th St. in Santa Rosa or North Main in Walnut Creek about once a month. Denny's at the north end of The J for breaks, car wash on one side and a long strip mall with Mickey D's on the other, lots of room to hang out, until a few "incidents". Bonehead doing a burnout t-boned and rolled over another car, picture on the front page. My seriously crazy buddy who was known by his purple 57 Chebbie with yellow lightning bolts on the doors, with "Bolt 'n Bill", also had a matching, and quite fast, kart- so some guys bet bet him $100 he wouldn't bring it out on Saturday night- knowing he would. Make one loop before Da Fuzz got wind, and he lasted about 20 min., thru the wash, across to Mickeys with a couple hundred spectators, four cop cars, went around a few times before they boxed him in and the cuffs came out. Got serious when Mickey's hired a security guard that made Paul Blart look like a Seal, who lasted about a week before he started pushing on a guy who just got out of the Army and had a few pops in him, and got whupped pretty good, more pics in the paper. Folks downtown got seriously involved, no more fun. Spent a bunch of time out there in the 69 Mach1, roller cam, gear drive and 4.86 gears. Later, brought out the avatar Galaxie with the 14:1 427, cross-ram and 5.14's- run thru a tank of gas (didn't take long) and go get the Highboy to finish the night- or the 62 Sunliner- which was capable of holding up to six Daisy-Dukers at once

 

Great line that!

 

This guy with a badge n flashlight

 

Nothing was more fun in the 60's than cruising various hot spots around town, or cruising to places to eat and hang out with other rodders! We lived for the weekends when we could do it!

 

We cruised 4th St. in Santa Rosa, CA every Friday night in the late '70's. The cops tried to keep us from cruising by putting up no left turn signs to prevent us from turning around and were very diligent about traffic enforcement. It was two lanes in each direction for years. I cruised in a few different cars: '67 Ford F250, '36 Plymouth Sedan, '62 Jaguar MkII...
At some point they decided to trim down to one lane in each direction and it was much less fun, but by that time I was off to school so I wasn't too interested any more.

 

I cruised Market St and Magnolia in Riverside, Ca in the early 80's. Sometimes E St in San Bernardino .Drag raced on North Main & Agua Mansa in Riverside and Milliken in Ontario. I had a 67 Camaro! It was about the tail end of cruising. Mini trucks and bugs started to get popular then.

 

Yes. From 1968 to 1972 then I graduated college and got a real job and had to work afternoons and weekends.