Who crused Central in the late 60's in Phoenix az

Except for two "Reunions" (aka circuses) a year, central is a dead thing. I still make a pass up and down once a week or so just for old times sake. Got tougher when they put in our light rail to nowhere a couple of years ago. Now it's all just parking lot deals on Friday and Saturday nights all over the valley. The city got so damn big that it just wasn't always easy to get down to Central. 35th and Northern has been my hang out for the last fifteen years or so, but it's just park and B.S. kinda deal. Sad thing is, no body gets out and drives at "cruises" anymore. There is a whole generation that doesn't connect a cruise night with anything but lawn chairs and churros...

 

Was living in Phoenix 72-73 going to school and hit Central on a regular basis, lived close to Camelback and 15th by the Christown Mall. Sounds like all towns have banned cruising and they are not like we remember

 

My older brother, 12 years my senior, street raced a lot on Central and was in trouble often with the law because of it. When I became of 'car' age, and my parents realized I was also a Hot Rodder, they did not want me going on Central ( following in his footsteps ).
My brother ran several cars on central, mostly Pontiacs. His quickest one by far was in the '72-'73 time frame. It was a '69 GTO Judge with a flat black 'glass tilt front end. Under the tilt was a roller cammed 428, backed by a th 400 and 4.88 rear. It was known for doing wheelstands on Central. It was street raced heavily several nights a week.


So, one night while cruising Central myself a few years later, in my own '69 GTO I got a flat. Of course, I did not have enough sense at the time to carry a spare and a jack. I normally call my dad to come and help me. Anyway, i could not do that being on central so I drove my GTO on the flat to 3rd st and Thomas, sw corner, I thik it was a Mobil station and called him from there.....

He said " You are not cruising Central are you??!!" I said "no Dad, I am at 3rd st and Thomas.

Young and dumb for sure.

 

Yeh, kinda looks familiar. Back then if I was there, I was busy in the pits. Maybe you remember a rail with a red metalflake T pickup body and a big key for a push bar. It had a 6-71 blown SBC on gas.

 

if your post was "Who crused central in the mid to late 70's in Phoenix az" i could say i was there a bunch of times in my moms 63 belair 9 passenger wagon.... with 8 of my friends. lol, also crused Speedway in Tucson in the 70's

 

'Course, there was also the night that I didn't quite make it home before the 'copters came over and spent a good part of the evening with the bug "parked" behind the trash dumpster behind that very Mobil station... Good thing the damn things are small!
Sure miss that station, at it's last incarnation it was owned by an Iraqi guy by the name of Adnan. One of the nicest guys to ever walk the planet. Back in the days when the Plymouth had no gas gauge, I started every day putting 5 or 10 dollars worth in. A couple of times when money was super tight and I needed to get across town to pickup money from clients, That 5-10 dollars was paid later in the day.

 

Hmmm, interesting story for sure.


I see in some posts people here talk/write about cruising from the library just north of McDowell up to McDs just south if Indian Sc. McDs used to be on the west side of Central.
When I cruised in the mid 70s and later, we all made the 'loop' going south, turned left a block north of McDowell, then 'looped' around a city block- 3 left turns then a right back on Central. Must have been 1st or 1st pl.
The cops would ambush cruisers there many times. They would set up fake stop sign violations. EVERY kid cruising was pulled over and given a stop sign ticket and then , possibly more. They got me a few times.

Anyway, cruising north was always past Camelback. We usually u turned where the diary queen is or was. Anyone else remember cruising from McDowell up to just north of Camelback?
The biggest BS night on Central was when I was a sophmore in HS driving my primer gray '69 GTO with 'glass tilt front end, etc. Cop pulled me over and wrote me 4 tickets. horn not working, no license plate light, exessive noise and the bieegest BS ticket of all. Registration not it plain sight? I had my registration in my glove box. Cop wrote me a ticket for not having it visible either on my st column or on the visor. Not sure if that law still exists but, for years.... whenever I got pulled over, I would take the registraion out of my glovebox and set it on my dash. No cop or dps ever since has hassled me for such a bs ticket.

The cops were obviously trying to curtail cruising. I was never really much of a trouble maker on Central. I just liked to cruise my GTO and hang out with people of the same interest. Still do!

Here is a bit of trivia for you guys....

Does anyone remember how the police finally was able to stop cruising on Central? It happened around 1986. I rememeber it well, Want to see if anyone else does..??

 

Re: Police on Central. I was pulled over a couple of times an given warnings along with a lot of questions about the car. I think they just liked it. I did get a total BS set of tickets from one cop one night at the Jack in the Crack on Central - it was sort of close to Park Central. They lit em up just before I pulled in. I had a hankerin' for a cheap-o cheeseburger with extra sauce. The first two tickets were for non-street tires, noise, and then broken tail light. I only had one anyhow, it was a glass T-bucket. I said my tail light isn't broken! He took his baton and smashed it - he said, "well it looks broken to me - got any thing else to say?" He didn't seem to have a sense of humor or appreciation of my machine, so I clammed up. He actually had the nerve to tell me if he ever caught me on Central again he would impound my car. I stayed away for about a week. I talked to some of the cops I new and they said he didn't work Central, that he was on a temporary assignment that night. I never saw him again -

 

I didn't make it till 1977, but still the same a great time. We are trying to bring it back, we park at McDonalds every Saturday night 7:00pm and there has been good turnouts. I still have my 67 GTO that I cruised with, and my 65 Belvedere to. We used to park at the car wash next to Bobs Big Boy, a ggod time that is for sure. The cruising signs are gone come on down and help us try to bring it back.

 

You had an amazing life and write a great story. I know your neighbor hood so well.- or knew it - I miss those warm nights and sleeping til 4 PM then hitting the new apartment complexes that were trying to entice new tenants by throwing pool parties and free food happy hours. We would show up in our rides, like my T and jump in the pool, pick up a girl and get fed. That was like breakfast - then the day got interesting, cruzin', racin', maybe go to a drive-in movie, Mr. Lucky's, then an after hours party or bed down with a babe and the sun is coming up. I think I have traveled every mile of road that was Phoenix back then. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!

 

Was still big when I was there in 1982. Thomas ave & 3rd also comes to mind, think we used to make the loop for another trip down Central.

Was in Pheonix last year, my god has it grown, didnt even recognise it anymore.

 

I didn't start cruising Central till 85. I used to cruise in a 59 F-100 turquoise and white with chrome smoothies and babymoons or I would ride with a classmate in his dark blue SS 396 Elky! That Elky was wicked fast, I never saw him lose a race. He had these old hard polyglass radials on it and we were cruising through the McDonalds parking lot. There were some pretty hot chicks there so he was gonna smoke the tires and show off a little. They were just too hard, no smoke they just spun and peeled the crosswalk tape off the parking lot lol. The girls just laughed at us

 

Any one?

 

I lived in Phoenix in the 60's and remember cruising that area.But please excuse me intruding in here for another reason.I have been trying to find people from Phoenix from back in the 60;s.Not very easy with online info about the 60's,and how I was led to this forum.Caught my eye and brought a smile to my face remembering those cruises.lol Does anyone remember a furniture store in Phoenix in the 60's called 'Leaders' furniture store? It was owned and run by a family with last name of 'Perry'. I can not find any information as to what happen to that store,and the family that owned it.
Please if anyone knows anything about this let me know.I will see if I can find any pictures of those cruises to show later.Thank you so very muchmosie

 

Sounds like you have led a pretty interesting life as well! I sure miss the general lack of responsibilty from my early play era; you know, as long as you could show up for work on Monday - all was good! 'Bout the same time frame I found out that APS would indeed shut off your electricity if you risked "paying next week" to pay for more louvers punched this week... One reason why I own that very same press these days.

I think I miss the friendship/family aspect of what Central was back in the day, most. When that was shakey with my own family in those late teen and early twentysomthing years, I could call a batch of friends on any given night and say Let go to Macayo's and an hour later we'd all be drinking eating and laughing. It was always great to include the girlfriends or young wives in the deal too 'cause they alway supplied their hot single friends. I guess after you start the first business or have the first kid that stuff sort of goes away... Damn adulthood!