Waco Texas had a cruise in the 70's-80's....we called it "Cruisin the Valley".....approx 3 miles long with 3 lanes going each way. You made the turn at the Sonic on the east end then made the turn at the Wal Mart on the west end. Waco kids and every other kid with a truck, borrowed sedan from pop's or the hot rods in any stage from WAY rough to alcohol burning 67 Nova and a 427 beast of a 69 Chevelle....69 Camaro and 69 Super Bee were my friends rides...I had the 64 Chevy truck. Friday and Saturday nights the Valley would be packed with kids having fun and being pretty well behaved.....maybe a little light to light racing but the cops kept us from doing stupid things out there. Somewhere around 1986 Wal Mart shut us down from turning there....other stores put up signs not allowing to park and hang out in parking lots after 10:00pm....and that was the beginning of the end........a real shame.......great memories. Was actually close to the same type of cruising like you see on American Grafitti as far as carloads riding around having fun !
It's just that the majority of people just aren't that into it anymore...kids have always rebelled against what their parents before them think is cool so..."take a kid to a car show" might have some setbacks...like seeing hot Rods associated with old retired men and their crazed out poodle skirt wearing wives. The thing is that these were times where there was really nothing else to do. for me it was miami in the mid to late 90's...dosent sound like hot rod heaven, but it was cruising all the same...and we had fun...the cruise was coconut grove...then it was group of friends cruising to downtown, miami beach then ft. lauderdale...it was a lot of fun. but i think that was the end of that. maybe the high cost of gas has something to do with it. who really knows...its sad but we move on...maybe a revival will happen in the future, but i wouldn't count on it... cruising is dead and the worst part is that you can't relive it, you can't go to a museum to see it, you can't push play on a jukebox to play it and you can't whip out a photo album to see it... it was an experience most of us shared and will just play out in our minds
Speaking as a 20 year old with a few like-minded kids around me, it's mostly a cost and police/legality thing. Gas is damned expensive and two cars with loud pipes sitting at a stoplight beside each other is a good way to get your car "searched". I don't think the issue is about hot rodding itself. "Hot rodding" is alive and well, kids are just running the cars you can buy a reliable one of for a few grand (foxbody Mustangs, Camaros, Civics, etc.) as opposed to a relatively expensive and unreliable hot rod. In fact, here in Ontario, Canada I couldn't get insurance for any car older than about 1980. I can't even have a parent buy it and put me down as a second driver. Basically under 25's can't get classic insurance. The real issues come down to the fact that a night of cruising costs half a days wage with a healthy V8, and instead of minor fix-it tickets the cops can now fine you thousands of dollars, have your car towed, take your license, etc. for stuff like power adders or loud pipes. There are also fewer places that make good destinations for cruising. The drive-in and other places that welcomed congregation around cars in the outdoors are gone. I can think of one place in my particular suburb that allows young crowds of carguys to congregate, and it's literally just a bigass parkinglot, and not on a very good road for cruising.
Good point as well...and coming from a younger generation who is living it... But cops and hot rodders are like cats and dogs, oil and water.... Pissing off the authorities and snobby conservative folks is what it's mostly about... Don't let those old timers in their fiberglass high dollar replicas fool you...most of them drove real hot rods in their youth, pissed off alot of people and didn't give a damn. But let's face it, the penalties today are probably not as severe as it was back then... And to not be able to insure a car older than 30 years if your under 25 is nonsense...in other words...if that's the case, then that really sucks!!!!
We have a few car cruising days in the summer time. We cruise the coast or through town just depends on what we want to do that day. we start about 9:00 a.m. and are done about 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. sometimes we have a BBQ. All I know is we have a hell of a time and can't wait for our next cruise. I know that there is one car club that meets every Sat. night and cruise's for about 2 hours through a few small different area's where people are sitting outside eating or drinking. Cruising is still out there it's just not like back in the day when the streets where just lined up for days with cars
I know here they outlawed it, they fine people if they catch them doing it... they love setting up DUI check points on the main place to cruise as well, plus all the places kid's used to stop and check out each others car's are now developed up and there's no where to really stop and hang out... I miss it, but it was fun as a kid, I don't think it'd be near as fun now simply because I have no tolerance for the sh*t talking... but there also aren't as many kid's that are in to old cars as there used to be either, I've noticed a lot of teenagers and young adults driving new cars or some version of a tuner...
Ive just read every post. This one caught my intrest. It sounds like you need a new Girlfreind. Not a new job!!!
Well spoken! I was thinking te same thing. When my wife and I met, it was at a car show. She knew that I had cars before we got together. Now every once in a while she gets upset because I spend most of one of my days off in the garage playing with the cars. I always tell her that the cars were there before her and they will probably be there after her....that stops the complaining pretty quick.
im 26. in high school me and my friends would cruise around...mostly by ourselves. granted we didnt have anything cool but it was fun. maybe im out of the loop but i dont see alot of it here in KC. i can tell you that paola ks has a car show that is probably one of the best i have been to then they do a cruise night on main. only old cars allowed its pretty cool.
Cruising main was a right of passage. Cruise about a mile up main street, trun around at the tractor dealer and go back. Find a place to park and shoot the shit with your buddies, meet chics, etc. I think that gangs had a heavy influence on the bans, too many fights, etc. IPODS, PS3, X-box, Wi, HD TV, internet, soccer mom's, in my opinion have had a greater effect than gas prices. Kids today would rather stay home and live in a virtual world than go out on the town.
In the summer, San Diego county has 5 diferent cruizes a week, it's up to you if you want to have a cruize, organize and get it done.
Cel Phones = Reason Cruising is dead. We had to cruise to find out where people were and what was going on. Now theres no need, send a text.
Cruising is dead because the latest generation is a virtual world of electronic instant gratification generation. They don't want to work for anything. And the simple things in life like working on a car, hanging out in a garage, BS'ing with your friends (in person) don't entertain the latest generation.
I had not thought about the cellphone angle until just now, after reading the above post. In the days pre-1990, you had to go hit the local cruise to see what everyone was doing and what the Friday night plans were. Now, you tweet, text, or call. Sucks the fun right out of things. I'm glad we didn't have that crap back in the day. There is something about face-to-face actual human interaction that forums, texts, and tweets will never replace.
I have been reading through this thing and i was cruising every thurs,fri and sat. nights growing up....my cruise spot was gratiot ave. in michigan!!!! come to find out it still is the hot spot but things have changed alot rice burners and such.. anyways it really sucks because nowadays kids just want to play video games and text rather than go out and HANG like we did..... Boys times have changed and will continue to do so...me and a few friends are forming a car club and our objective is on Sat. or Sun. morning's we go and cruise all day and end up where we end up will see what happens....
I hear you on that one...one of fun things to do is get to a cruise in just to find out where the next one will be...going on to websites is just not as fun...especially if they have pictures of the previous show....half the fun is getting there so why spoil the other half of the surprise...
Well, I understand the mentality...since I'm one of those guys that would rather have a day in the garage or cruising in a hot rod or classic car and my wife would much rather be at the mall, and cruising there in a new european luxury sedan.... but I'm not sure any lady would like to be spoken to that way... whenever I'm put into that situation, I just smile, say sure no problem...do something with her and sneak on over to the garage to play....or I'll say things like...sure would be great having your mom or your sister around....that basically means that she will be too busy with them and not care what the hell I'm doing anyway...And I get points for acting sensitive and caring...without putting down or pissin anyone off....lol
Seems to be a lot of different ideas about what cruising is... you don't need a bunch of cars or other people or things going on to enjoy your ride... just get in and drive. To me, that's cruising. I cruise.
The way I see it, The younger generation is missing out on allot of fun. Its not my place to worry about what they want to do. I know when I cruise, I get thumbs up from little children. The seed was planted. What they do after is their choice. I'm thankful I can still cruise my ride.
I am a young guy...only 23 and I have watched the cruising and parking lot meets on Fri and Sat nights die in my area in the last few years ... just recently me and a few of my friends started shining up the rides and cruising around town and hanging at our local sonic and we noticed that the high school kids gradually started to flock in to come check out our rides and now when i see these younger guys they always stop me and ask me ?s on where to get parts and how to do things as I read threw this thread I realized when I was a teenager this very same thing is what drove me to get into custom trucks so if your not breaking your ride out of the garage, cruising on the weekends, and taking a few minutes to talk to that snot nosed kid about your ride shame on you
small town usa i miss it bad my town i lived in still runs all night friday and sat you have old timers and ganbaners little rice cars and the 4x4 filling the streets . cops or cops sometime they mess with you i live in mesa now i always here someone somewhere is setting something but it always end up being cars in a lot with a ton of guys dress all rockabilly saying how crappy all the cars are done when most of them drive newer stock cars like civics or neons small town is the place to be one day i will make it back
I grew up in Whittier, Ca and cruising there on Whittier Boulevard was done for decades and ultimately killed by the brilliancy of the City Council kowtowing to the merchants; who ironically LOST sales from all the kids who needed gas, ate at the various restaurants, bought crap from the stores, etc. Every "adult" generation thinks "...the kids these days are so stupid". "Things are so much more expensive than when we were young". Its all bullshit. Kids are just as hormonal and as immature and as addicted to stuff like video games (it was pinball or slot cars, or Pong, when they were younger). So everyone can save their pontificating and should be mature enough to realize (but aren't) that if kids are'nt all lined up staring at each other's cars and ogling each others girls, they'll be off somewhere doing SOMETHING and chances are you won't like what they're doing in those places IF you even know what "it" is. Cruising is entirely harmless....and its fun.
The Jalopy Journal
