Lake Street (Mpls, MN) in the 60s

In the background of the first picture of post #240 with the Red Owl store is the old Minneapolis Moline factory where they made Minneapolis Moline tractors. I used to drive by there and the lot by Lake Street was full of brand new MM orange tractors.

 

Don't forget Zapatas on Lake! Besides Lake Street and St. Paul's loop, there was Central Avenue in Nordeast Mpls. and the Sun Drive-In

Does anyone remember this black guy, I think his name was Gene Pitman or something like that. He'd show up at that lot on East lake, across from Porky's/Aunt Nora's, with a Pro-Stock Challenger on a trailer? The car looked the part, anyway, with all kinds of decals, etc. He'd take it off the trailer and fire it up, and OMG! The damn thing nearly shook itself apart!

There were a couple of guys that I used to go to for tuning/valve jobs, etc. When I had Mopars, it was Lee Sprague. With my Chevrolet SS 396, I went to Lou Feger Racing in Wayzata. My Mallory Dual-Point distibutors were re-curved at Smith Auto on Lake Street.

Oh, by the way, the first brand new vehicle I ever bought was a 1976 Triumph Bonneville from W.I.W. on Lake Street.

 

We cruised Lake Phalen a lot in my '41 Chebby back then too. Often saw Gene Sonnen in a '40, Bill Casey in his '36, Bob Nelsen in his '41 pannel among others.

Ron

 

Here's one for the Mopar crew ... Anderson Dodge on E. Lake St.

I've seen a number of references to Smith Auto Industries ... I spent a few dollars with Ted back in the day, also. Anytime I stopped by Smith Auto, I had to swing around the corner of Lake St. and Lyndale Ave. to check out what Smith Bros. & Fetrow had displayed in their front window ... usually a cool drag or custom motorcycle.

About a year ago I was back in Minneapolis to see some friends and I drove by the old Smith Auto building on Lake St. It was some sort of yuppie coffee house/bistro whatever ... in a weird way it kind of bummed me out to see what it had become.

 

OK... I open the first page of this thread and....so this is kind of spooky.....a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about a wild painted Fairlane wagon that I was looking at buying back in '84 or '85 as a poor collage kid.....I knew it was an old drag car as it had a big yellow sticker on the dash for the NHRA nationals.... the wild paint was in good shape also...I really wanted that car...

I could not afford the car (think is was like 1200 bucks or so at a used car dealer in Eau Claire, WI). When i looked at it it was running a stock 289 with a automatic, so the big block was gone. I believe most of the lettering was rubbed off also.

I had done some google serches a number of times looking for any pictures and always came up empty.... low and behold I open this thread today, and there that same car is.

Anybody know where it is today? Like I said, back in the mid '80s it was still in great shape, no rust and the same wheels......crazy shit!
Tom

 

It was restored a few years ago. I saw a pictorial feature on it showing before and after shots ... it was looking pretty sad in the before shots. Sorry, I don't remember where I saw the pictures or who the current owner is. As I recall, Richard Charbonneau held a NHRA national record with the wagon, either in a Stock or Super Stock class.

I remember seeing Charbonneau race it at Minnesota Dragways in the early 70's.

 

Here's a couple links to photo of the current state of Richard Charbonneau's wagon. Cook was running the 427 for a few years, but I think it may have a 390 now...still a 4-speed though...always shows up for the Nationals at BIR. It would be awesome to see it restored back to how Richard ran it though, but I'm sure that paint job would be a nightmare to duplicate.

http://dragracecentral.com/DRCPhoto.asp?ID=214264
http://dragracecentral.com/DRCPhoto.asp?ID=212041
(Didn't want to post a copyrighted photo)

 

Sounds like they are opening back up, i looked them up on facebook, dont know for sure but thats what i got from the facebook page.

I used to go there alot, interesting place

 

Anyone remember a fairly well known '57 chev wagon 2 door panel....it was white, and painted on the tailgate was the word "Adios!"

 

Yeah, it was pretty crazy paint... at the time I looked at it the car was it pretty nice shape, too bad the paint and car suffered.

What is interesting, was that I always kept the car in the back of my mind, and wondered on the history....knowing me, if I would have bought it, I would have kept it, because I can never seem to sell anything...

 

This is great the car is still out there... when I looked at it, the car had a generic 289 stuck in it.... thanks for sharing!
Tom

 

Sounds familiar to me. May even have a picture somewhere but finding it is another story.

 

Last fall, an MSRA friend picked up some old Hot Rod Magazines at one of the swap meets. Inside one of the magazines was the following article from 1955. Not Lake Street but Twin Cities Related.

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HOT ROD PARADE DEMANDS ANSWER

TO RACE ON STRIP----OR STREETS? BY DAVE MUSCH

The car jockey's cooled their heels on the State Fair Grounds parking area, their "bombs" glistening in the sun.

More then 100 hot-rod addicts organized their forces and 41 specialty rebuilt cars preparatory to staging a protest parade through Twin Cities' loops. Each guy was a potential burst of TNT --- hardly in the mood for platitudes.

The toolers (hot-rod fans) staged a parade for a dragstrip, which in common parlance is a half mile straightaway section of asphalt where the guys can stage drag or time races to determine which car is the best.

"People think were wild, crazy," a dark-haired fan said, "but we aint".

"We've been trying to get such a strip for three years , but got no results", he added.

The guys are members of the Gopher Timing association boasting of 52 clubs and more then a 1000 members from the Twin Cities, nearby areas, and even Duluth. But there's nothing more frustrating then a timing club without a timing track, the guys said.

The hot-rodders have a lingo all their own; They don't drive cars but machines or bombs; the drivers are car jockeys or toolers; they soup up their motors, not race them, and they drag it or burn a path when they takeoff.

They spend most of their extra money dolling up their rigs but often the results can't be seen unless you lift up the hood. Gleaming chrome parts are the trademark of a really hot hot-rodder, and the purr of the delicately timed hot mills, as they call their motors, would set any mechanic on his ear.

"We'd be satisfied with a track on a flat surface anywhere", a young driver said. "Even an old highway section would do."

What will happen if they again lose their plea?

"You know, these guys built up their motors from nothing," a club official said. "Once you get it in your blood; you can't get it out. You can't shut it off like a water faucet."

The guys said there'll be sneak drag races on a secluded highway some night, someone might get hurt and they don't want to take this approach.

"I read once in high school that the United States was lucky during the last war because it had so many guys who knew about motors ." a red-haired youth said. "The guys learned about em because they tinkered around , like we do. Maybe some day they'll need guys like that again."

Some of the signs bristling from the parading hot rods read: This car is legal ... Most cops agree ... Stop Sign Or Strip ... Do We Race on the Street or a Strip --- It's Up to You!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twin Cities hot rodder's are shown in Photo #2 lining up before staging their protest parade through the Twin Cities loops.

In photo #3, Warren Westerlund, 1802 Hartford, shows his car's chromed motor to Sharon Norling, 3924 Twenty-sixth ave. S., Minneapolis, one of the many onlookers who inspected the cars.

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I've asked several guys who were around back then if they remember anything about this event or the cars in the pictures. So far nobody does.

 

Great old newspaper clippings!

 

Thought I would bump this up too see if there are any new Mpls. Lake Street stories or pictures.

 

No new stories but brought back some hazy memories. I graduated from Hopkins Eisenhower in 1980 so most of my experience is in that area - I grew up about a block from main street and remember being in bed on summer nights during the late '60s and hearing big V8s winding up in the distance. There were usually a couple cool cars cruising on the weekends but it mainly seemed like a lot of kids in mom's daily driver. I recall a few cars though... the red '63 split window being driven by a girl I never looked twice at before then... or the '69 Camaro convertible pace car I was talking about at a party yeas later, only to have a guy there tell me that was his dad's car. The trailer park I'd walk through on my way to school had a (blown?) early '70s Camaro parked there that had "High performance cars don't kill, low performance drivers do" on the tail.

When I got my license I was into sports cars so didn't do the cruising thing. Or any serious street racing. We did screw around though. I got my first car as a senior in high school, an off topic British sportscar that was about as powerful as, oh, I dunno, a 1972 Triumph Spitfire. Pulled up to a light one afternoon. Guy pulls up next to me in a Karmann Ghia. Oh yeah, race of the titans here. Light turns, we go, I win. No one else noticed we were racing.

Or so I thought. Got home that evening and my dad is on the couch reading the paper. My mom walks into the living room and she's pissed. Turns out my mom and dad were at the light too, on the cross street. Oops, didn't see them. They saw me though. Mom lectures me on having a car, how she doesn't think I should have one in high school. My argument is "but Dad had a car in high school!" Mom replies "yes, but he never raced it!" Dad has yet to look up from behind the paper. Mom thinks this is his cue. Says it again. "yes, but you never raced it, did you!" The paper slowly drops. dad is smiling. "Only when they thought they could beat me, honey". Paper slowly rises again.

Conversation over. Never heard another word about it. God damn I miss that guy.

 

I graduated in 1964 from Shakopee High School. I worked in the Parts Dept. for Malkerson Motors, It was a Chev, Pontiac, Olds. dealer ( still there under a different name). In the Spring of '65 I bought a new 442 Convertible, a 4 speed car. My Buddy Randy and I would head for Lake Street on Saturday nights and partake in the activities. We also looked for the young lady with the "Signage" on the back of her car!! We were told it was a white 63 Corvette! I'd have to go back thru this thread and count the number of different cars and colors that this girl had. Interesting how stories change! We never saw her either, but like Bigfoot, the Legend is there. I also remember all the car lots on Lake St. Remember the one with all the old Mn. Highway Patrol cars? Dozens of 63-64-65 Plymouth and Dodge 2dr.sedans, 383, 413 and 426's , some 3spds, mostly "Tork Flights". There was a Midnite Blue 63 Pontiac Catalina 2dr. HT with a 389/tri power and column shifted 3 spd. that sat on another lot. I remember that car like it was yesterday for some odd reason. The Yellow '41 Ford 2 dr. with chrome wheels and black wall tires, no front bumper, nasty rake on it, coming out of Porkies as I was pulling in. That was a fun Summer! I got Drafted in April of '66 and didn't get back to Lake St. til the Summer of '68, got married and moved to Alexandria, Mn. bought a Peterbilt and spent the next 45 years Cruising the Highways of our Great Country, Never made it back to Lake Street, maybe this Summer!!

 

Hello all,
I see a few of you were looking for Ted Smith who used to own Smith Auto. I'm sorry to say he passed away on December 20th. His service will be tomorrow in Plymouth. I will never forget his laugh and his smile.
Be well, Amy

 

Lake Street is not what it used to be back in the 60's....... But then again neither are we.

 

Lake Street had a preponderance of used car lots from the Mississippi River on the East to Hennepin Ave. on the West.

There was also a used plumbing store. It was called Honest Carr, used John Dealer.

 

Just stumbled onto this thread, and couldn't stop 'til I read the entire thing! What great memories! I was a Lake Street rodder in the second half of the '60's, and early '70's, and remember so many of these places, events, and people. Harold Chev, Grossman Chev, and Jay Kline Chev, were my candy stores, and Grossman even sponsored my '55 Nomad one season at MN. Dragways, with Valvoline Racing Oil and parts for the 327.
Do any MN Dragways folks remember the team with the yellow '57 Sedan Delivery drag car, towed on a trailer by a yellow '57 Sedan Delivery? It was a pair of brothers, and for the life of me, I can't remember their name!
p.s. I think that Muntz Jet was for sale at Tuesday Motors for years. I saw it parked next to a maroon '63 convert with a 409/4 speed. I wanted that car so bad!
Please keep this post alive, this has been a blast!

 

I remember Mathiesrud and Langseth, '56 Chevy, yellow wagon. Names are as I remember, probably are close?

 

One of the Del Counts band members had a new '64 GTO. Saw him cruising Lake Street several times. Silver with DEL COUNTS and musical notes on the front fender. Real chick magnet, I'll bet. By the by, The Del Counts still plays in the metro area. Great times.

 

It was Paul Pitman, and Lee Sprague is my stepfather for the last 44 years. It's nice to see the comments about Smith's, I grew up there, Lathrop's paint supply and the race track. Lee Sprague is still doing good!