When I lived in Connecticut there was a BIG cruise night at Two Guys department store parking lot on the Berlin, Connecticut Turnpike. Probably several hundred cars. Well it got out of hand and the local, Newington, Connecticut police department called for reinforcements. It looked like a Hollywood movie when many, and I mean many, police cars from several departments came streaming down the Turnpike two abreast. That was the last time that they had a cruise night there.
We only had trouble from the cops. One of the worst, 2 plain clothes roll up and got out, we thought it was someone looking for a race. There were 5 of us, 4 cars, just drinking a coffee, shuckin and jivin, nobody else. "WHO OWNS THIS CAR!?!" one yelled. Mark says "I do, why? Who are you?" "Who am I?" Pulls his badge, shows his gun on his hip, "That's who fucker." Now we're all together, wondering what the fuck, "Well what do want me for, what did I do?" "If this fuckin car is here when we come outta the bar it'll be dragged off on the roof, and that goes for all of you!" and the 2 started walking away. "Have a drink on me!" I said and they turned around. "Who said that?" "All of us." I said as we got in our cars and left. They stood there acting all Billy Badass. Corner of Schoolcraft and Telegraph, bar side by the bridge in the late 80s. Coulda went bad, but it didn't. Just 1 incident where cops were the shit starters. I have pretty ultimate respect for law enforcement but hey, nobody's perfect.
I was arrested 7 times before my 18th birthday. But, I've only been arrested twice since! Add to that, my old man was the official doc for the Texas Rangers... and is currently up for the HOF. So, I have a very intimate relationship with law enforcement. My thoughts? I respect police officers in the same way I respect my neighbors (wait, most of my neighbors). I am polite and somewhat distant. Cops are regular people. Law enforcement is a job. Some of them are fantastic at it and some of them have no business being in the business. Period. People that consider all cops to be heroes are naive. People that claim all cops are crooked are typically crooks. But this feature wasn't really about good cops and bad. It was about perception and culture. How the life of a hot rodder was easier on the west coast back then... and the general theme of all my historical crime posts on hot rodding is this: We live in this sort of soft "Betty Boop" period of "classic" cars. It's warm and cozy and safe and... It's very easy to forget that the birth place of hot rodding rests at the feet of hoodlums.... punk rockers... social outcasts to a degree. To me, reality is far more interesting than the dumbed down perfection of history books. No polish necessary.
Now in Newington ,Ct. you have to take out a permit for a cruise nite or car show, for $200. Per event! So, if your having a cruise, 4 times that summer you have to get 4 permits! The town just doesn't want car events anymore! The little zoom zoom cars, are making it bad for all the cruises!
I wonder how they'd deal with a 'word of mouth' event; no published notices or flyers, just guys in cars getting together. After all, they are public streets, how can they arrest you for just driving on them?
We've found a few counties that had no "anti-hot rod" laws on record, but had officials that openly stated that hot rods weren't welcome on their streets and they would stop at nothing to remove them or escort them out of town. Some of them get nuts... Yeah, personally I love those kids... I mean, their cars are sort of stupid to me, but "hot rods" were stupid to old people in 1950, so...
Driving back to Seattle from the recent Monroe swapmeet, behind me, was a way cool 1965 Lincoln Continental, that had been modified into a FWD ! It wasn't a rat rod by any stretch of the imagination! I was not able to get a picture of it because I was driving, but when he did pass me, I could see that the body was clean and straight, and had the proper sized tires and wheels, it wasn't loud, and it was painted black! Talk about thinking outside of the box and riding in style, as a " HOODLUM " Urban assault/all terrain vehicle, this thing was impressive!
“Hot rods on city streets were a relative new thing in Florida. The public feared the unknown and pointed fingers towards things they didn’t understand.” “Conversely, hot rods and hot rodders were a known commodity in California. Hot Rodders were your local grocery bagger or gas station attendant. Kids of parents you knew and maybe grew up with.” Hello, Teenage shenanigans cause problems for the local police, even in So Cal where the notion was of acceptance in most circles. But, for the local police, there were some that just did not like the brash teenagers and their cool looking cars. Envy perhaps, but whatever the case, it was all over So Cal as to being pointed out and pulled over for the minor infractions. The most cases were right on as far as a moving violation, but for a fix it ticket, that was time consuming and unnecessary for us. After a fix, showing our friend’s dad (a CHP officer), getting him to sign off on the repair or alteration, we were happy to send it off to the DMV. For most, after the letters were sent off, or the DMV rep was shown the fix-it ticket, ok signature, it was back to normal “teenage stuff” again. Jnaki Contrary to popular belief, the acceptance in So Cal was there as there were a lot of CHP officers and local police that were custom car fanatics, dry lakes racers and some were even drag racers with their cars at Lion’s Dragstrip activities and big races. When my Impala got stolen one Summer night, the local police came out with two cars to investigate. They made the call to others, all over Long Beach/Lakewood areas and were on the prowl. It could have been one car, one uninterested policeman, but it was two and they were being helpful as to where it could be. They knew of industrial areas in specific locations we knew about, the Signal Hill area warehouses, and with the description, they told us it would not be on the road for long. The last place they said was to think about flat parking areas in neighborhoods, like parks and schools. I knew of the local Long Beach schools and my friends knew of the Lakewood Parks and locations. We cruised around until 2:30 a.m. looking and found it by chance. When we found it and called the police again, they took over and within minutes, came to the exact location. It was one of their hot spots, but hidden from the passing cars on the streets nearby. A non descript neighborhood park that had a parking lot with a far corner hidden by trees and shrubbery. The Impala was sitting on 4 sturdy commercial milk crates, with nothing damaged, except the missing Buick Skylark Wire Wheels. But, on the other side of the picture, there were some that just would not let hassling teenagers for the slightest infraction on our cars alone. A normal 58 Chevy Impala with the stock level stance given the stop because of being too low. When the teenagers got out of the Impala and the height was measured, the sedan passed with flying colors. It could have been low with 4 teenagers on a double date scenario, but with we all got out, the car went back to its normal level stance. Great work brings back tons of memories... thanks... @themoose The time it took, the insistence of the police of the infraction and then not saying sorry for the mistake rankled our hides more than once. Perhaps, it was envy or just plain stupidity. We, teenagers knew that several hundred pounds would make any car lower than stock. But, that when we all got out, physics plays a part and as simple as that… no ticket was issued. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
