Motion Pictures How true to life is American graffiti?

Gas turbine powered roadster on the street!!??

 

Further north in NJ we didn't differentiate the various kinds of "mooning". -- e.g. windows up vs. windows down, etc. They were all moons. But there were half moons.

 

Don't recall any 'mooning" on the streets so to speak, but recall in detail while boating some drunken wana-be sailors letting it all hang out !

 

Yup, I rode in it several times. It is in the LeMay Marymount museum now.
210 hp. It performed about like a really hot flathead.
I worked with the owner at Boeing for a couple years.

 

Lol mooning. I never had the balls (maybe didn’t hang low enough) to do it as a kid. Now in private surroundings…different story.
Good thing streaking came out later

 

..........That's quite a walk........

 

An American Graffiti moment from my life. Although the timeframe is 10 years or so later, the spirit is the same.

About 1973 1974. I was in high school and working at the local grocery store. One of my classmates... a local "bad boy" named Richard... had recently bought a pale yellow 1966 or 1967 Chevy 2 Nova hardtop with a HOT SBC 4spd. Mr. Felts was our High School singing instructor.

It was a warm evening. I had finished my shift at the grocery store and was standing outside, waiting for my ride. The store was part of a strip mall and situated adjacent to the drugstore. Richard and another classmate pulled up in the loud-ass nasty Nova and parked right in front of the drug store entrance. Unbeknownst to me, but obviously beknownst by Richard and his friend... Mr. Felts was just coming out of the drugstore. I watched as the automatic door opened and Richard simultaneously made that small block scream a couple of times. It was really REALLY loud against the walls of the store. And then Richard and friend, laughing their asses off, dumped the clutch and laid rubber for about 100 ft and they were gone.

Of course, it was enough to startle anybody in the vicinity. But there was actually nobody else around. So I was the only one to witness all this... including the site of Mr. Felts falling backward BACK into the drugstore and on his ass due to the unexpected commotion.

He was fine.

 

AG was released in 1973 and again in 1976, so more people were exposed to it and cruising really came alive. There were many unsanctioned gathering spots, if too many complaints, the cops ran the people off. Many of us hung out at bars, not in big groups.

Hot cars parked out front or in a gas station across the street attracted out of town cars looking to make a quick $20 to $100. I had a hot Impala SS with a nice 327 with slicks on it, later a formidable Nova SS. The cruising crowd would drag race on the local cruising strip and the cops were all over it fast.

The cops let some races go on in an unpopulated area until a fiery wreck happened, lucky nobody was badly hurt. This was Route 231 between Route 27 and 27A. My parents lived close by and we would go watch from the grasses behind the guard rail, after the bars closed. Usually a few of us split a 1/2 case of beer and a little weed. We got to see everything, good times.

We moved onto the largely deserted causeways or the Ocean Parkway where late night traffic was sparse. We never saw a cop. The races were pre-arranged for the most part. I guess most of us aged-out, or had jobs where we couldn't be out all night.

I live close to a main highway and around 1987 organized street racing came about. This went on through the later 1990's. The races went off in the wee morning hours, mainly during the week. Traffic was either slowed or stopped miles in advance. Pro-stock quality Vegas and Pintos were rolled off trailers, rumors were they payouts were as much as $5000 a race. From my bedroom window, we had ringside seats. They would run off 1-2 races and leave, the trailers would be sent out ahead to collect the cars and beat feet. One time the cops came up on the race when the cars were set to go... everyone made a hasty exit, race cars and a sea of spectators.

 

Been resistant to weigh in. I used to work at the all nite stations It seemed like half the world was out looking for a thrill. As far as A. G. tho, So Cal was the place for special machines. Wish I had been there.

 

one fella i particularly remember in my town had a model A coupe with an olds J-2 in it. he never made it back from 'nam, and i don't know what happened to his car...

 

Pic of the car from the Museum

 

If Pete says "A Chicken Dips Snuff", lift his wing and you will find his box !

 

American Graffiti was a documentary not a movie. It doesn't get more "real life" than that

 

where i was, it was a somewhat quiet group. but......the movie 'animal house' would be
represented of the college times. last room in the last dorm was out of control. lol.
my buddy was on 'secret probation' for hot wiring a roller. almost ran over the old
security guy. now its a big money college.

 

Being born (1942) and raised in the San Fernando Valley, I can tell you Amaerican Graffiti tells it like it was. I was there and crused all the GOOD places including Holly Wood Blvd. True it was not always exciting , but it was COOL. Things did not seem to be as corrupted as they are today. Evening mild teperatures thru most of the year made window down crusing a real pleasant experiance. Been there done that!

 

Why would it be shut down? VietNam was part of the movie. It just wasn't called out loud.

 

.....Because it's a very emotional subject that invariably winds up turning into a political discussion.

 

I graduated from HS in 62. Being in metropolitan LA was different than real farm country of central California. We had our spots to watch the fast guys were heard about and obviously there were a lot of boulevards to cruise in all the cites that made up LA.

I think the movie was a great depiction of ALL teenage/early 20’s life in America or at least how some of the older generation thought of us. Their opinion of us “not having a clue” about how to grow up and why we were not doing what they did. It think we did a pretty good job of fooling them.

I was lucky I was not stuck in a city with wall to wall buildings and a subway to get around. Cars, cruising, girls, and maybe an illegal beer thrown in…..It was a great time to grow up.

 

Oh yeah, another documentary. Belushi was actually a Brother of ours in his college years.

 

Belushi? The John Belushi?

 

Yup.

 

......I went to High School with Karen Allen.

 

Duval HS?

 

...Yep.

 

Small world.

 

....Indeed it is.

 

Yep, I’d say it was pretty accurate.
Growing up near LAX, I was 12 in ‘62 but a year later I got to go cruising with my older neighbor Lance occasionally (in his mom’s 4 dr ‘57 Plymouth - how cool) and by ‘66 I had my own cruiser.
First, there was the ‘Wich Stand-to-A&W Hawthorne Blvd cruise route and later in the ’70s, it was Van Nuys Blvd. My buddy Craig was the King of Moons. He was also the first to prove to us uninitiated that indeed, you could light a fart. The other kind of backseat shenanigans - keep everyone laughing.
We didn’t get into any races or fights, never scored any hot chicks but we sure had fun without being drunk or destructive. American Graffiti, I miss those days.

 

In the '70s, almost any young man could afford a 10-year-old muscle car. Nobody else wanted them... they were too old and burned too much gas. So there was a resurgence of the cruising scene for a while.

In the Detroit area, Woodward Avenue was to the west but we had Gratiot Avenue to the east. Though, at some point, the powers that be actually made cruising illegal in that area and things really slowed down.

At graduation time in 1975, I went with a girlfriend to her previous stomping grounds south of Detroit around Trenton and Wyandotte. We went to a huge local Metropark down there. It's a giant Loop. Straight in, do a big curve, and straight out. I'd say at least a quarter mile total length. I kid you not... there was almost nothing but hundreds of muscle cars side by side, both sides and the full length of the drive in and out. More muscle cars than I've ever seen in one place in my entire life. And these were just mostly teenagers. It was cool. All the different colors and styles, forward rakes, Cragar SS wheels, fat tires, spring shackles and garter belts GALORE. Led Zeppelin, doobies and boobies.

 

A group of 8 guys that hung out together after graduating HS in 65. We all bought late model or new performance cars..The the next year 5 of us got drafted, the other three joined the military...We all came home but it was never the same, jobs, serious women relationships and different attitudes , we all went our own way...

 

I am 77yo, enjoyed AG when it came out. I pulled 3 years with the 101st Airborne (66-69) and ets out of VietNam. When I got home,Kannapolis,N.C., the cruising scene was wide open. FRiday,Saturday, and Sunday nights Kannapolis was the place to be!! Plenty of muscle cars, girls, booze, and etc was available. Street races were held on Mooresville Rd. and the cops were not too bad. There were no hotrods but plenty of muscle cars some were pretty fast. I remember a Plymouth 427 Duster(1970?). a mid 60 Mercury Comet(baby blue), Lany Coley's 67-68 Mustang called the Street Boss. These were all good times but I always perfered SOCAL hot rods, that is why I have one today............