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Are/Were there any popular cruising spots around your area?

5K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  Slipangle 
#1 · (Edited)
Back in the 80's, I still lived out in rural Southeastern Pa, right near the De/Md border. I couldnt wait to turn 16 and get my license, because on Friday and Saturday nights, Newark De's Main street was a major cruise spot! People came from far and wide, from 4 different nearby states! De, Md, Pa, NJ

When I was 15, my Dad actually allowed me to go with my friend Steve and his older brother Gary in Gary's Hopped up VW beetle up to main street. It was packed from end to end with cars....... :thumbup:

It's about 1 mile long, 2 lanes and 1 way traffic. 25 mph speed limit. It's also home to the University Of De, and main street is lined with stores, shops, restaurants, a little mall, a theater, etc. In the spring, fall and winter, there are wall to wall college girls as well! You could also park and just walk and meet people as well, and check out all the cars. ;)

So from as far back as I can remember and much earlier, it was a big weekend cruise spot, but then they really cracked down, and finally by about mid 90's, it kinda ended.... :(

The cops had tried in vain to do something to clear up the cruising, even though most people were just having fun and not causing any trouble. The problem was that the senior citizen population, who didnt even live near main street, and were in bed by 9pm, nonetheless didnt want the "young whipper snappers" to be out cruising and having fun apparently....... There was rarely any crimes committed, other than an occasional burnout, but most didnt even do that!

They tried limiting the number of times you could go around to 3, but unless your car really stuck out, they couldnt keep up with it. I never got caught going around more than 3 times!

On Fridays, Hot Rodders, who were the primary cruisers, would first go to Cecil County dragway to run their cars, get the number sprayed on their windshields, then come and cruise main street afterward and brag about their times.

Nobody actually ever raced on Main street, but they'd set up races at the track later, or out in the country in Md nearby.
But it was great while it lasted.

But now its over......... :confused:
 
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#4 ·
Oh heck yeah! From the sixties thru the seventies we had a pretty decent cruise down the main drag going about 8 blocks, it would be packed! I sure had a good time out there, great memories.

Brian
 
#5 ·
Most little towns around here had cruise spots.

Eleven miles to the East of our home farm in the town I went to school everybody cruised around the square. Around and around we would go. There was plenty of parking to sit and chat with friends. After a home ball game there would be a line up to get on the square there were so many cars going around. I would go cruise there at times but the town's chief of police hated me and made it a point to stop me every time he saw me. He would have to search my car every time I came to town, I don't know what he was looking for but he never found it. I guess I was one of those rough boys that needed to be kept in line. I suppose those burnouts that he kept hearing about were not helping things but I was only costing myself money wearing out my own tires not stealing my employers blind like some of my classmates. I believe his police work could have been better spent elsewhere. Since I was constantly harassed in that town I got to where I didn't hang around there much. Fortunately there were other towns and I was kind of centrally located so it didn't make much difference where I went.

Eleven miles to the North of home was another small town. There you cruised up and down main street then out to the truck stop at the edge of town and back. The chief of police in that town was the best small town cop I've ever known. He told me that he was a peace officer. The town had hired him to keep the peace and it wasn't his job to just go around writing tickets. He would stop me and give me five minutes to get out of town when I started to get to rowdy and I always took him at his word and left. I got to hanging around that town a lot. I was there enough that he got to witness some of my burnouts and he still didn't give me a ticket. I was going with a girl that lived around the corner from the chief. One day I dropped another engine in my car and took it up to pick her up. She got in the car and when I dropped it into drive she stomped her foot down on mine and the open exhaust on the old Ford just roared. Massive amounts of smoke rolled off the back tires and down the street we went. That evening I was getting gas when the chief pulled in. I hadn't bothered to put the hood back on yet so he strolled over, leaned on my fender and gazed at my engine.
He said, "So you have a hot machine here."
I replied, "No, No, it's not that hot."
He said, "Well, it will sure spin the tires! Keep it down around my place during the day. You woke me up from a good sleep."
No tickets were issued and he didn't even tell me to get out of town since I was in good boy mode by that time.
The world needs more peace officers. :D


Cruising is all pretty much dead around here.
 
#6 ·
wretched ratchet said:
Back in the good old days we used to Cruise Princes Drive In and Main Street on Friday and Saturday nights and sometimes, if we had enuff money for gas, we would drive to Galveston and Cruise the Sea Wall and Broadway. Great times but gone forever.
We would cruise Prince's Drive In on Jensen Drive at Tidwell Road in Houston on Friday and Saturday nights. I went M.B. Smiley HS (graduated in 1960) and that was the most popular gathering spot in NE Houston. I had to put the date there because the NE Houston Independent School District and the Smiley HS demographics changed a lot since I went there. The school was abandoned and was closed in 1998 due to crimes, vandalism and theft by the teachers and students.

One of my associates had a new '59 Impala, solid red, 348 CI, tri-power, 4-speed. His Impala was lowered so low that it would disappear as it circled through the cars at the drive in. We checked if it was low enough by placing a pack of cigarettes under the rocker panel. He paid for his Impala with a paper route throwing the Houston Chronicle. The big car club in N.E. Houston was the "Night Prowlers" . The Night Prowlers had weekly car club meetings on Laura Koppe Road and were also known as the Laura Koppe Gang. I stole one of their plaques and still have it as a souvenir today.
 
#7 ·
I`ve complained many times about the end of the era. We used to have a place in town that was the cruise spot. When the 80`s ended, so did it. By that time, I wasn`t old enough to drive, I wouldn`t be until 1990. It seems like it`s fitting now, the 80`s was one of the most incredible decades ever and I felt a loss inside when they were over, I could feel the change coming and of course, it did and it seemed like it wasn`t for the better.
In the early 2000`s, I flew to KC to meet up with my then g/f. Her and I went on a weeks vacation to Oklahoma. While we were there, we cruised down a main street. I seen guys hanging out in parking lots of closed buildings. I seen Camaro`s, firebirds, corvettes, chevelles, torinos, mustangs, mavericks, chargers, challengers, malibus, trucks. Guys with there chicks just hanging around looking for a race. It killed me inside to see it and not have my car with me. It made me want to move there just so I could be apart of the scene I missed. The one hang out that was here in my town was a huge parking lot of a plaza that has few stores left open. In 1989 the cops cracked down on it. Nobody was hurting anybody. no fights ever took place.
Young people just hanging out together was all it was. However, they always try and say that young people can`t be together in groups without starting trouble and they can. What adults of many cities, especially here in the south where I`m from, they don`t seem to understand what causes drug use? What causes alcohol use? What causes teen pregnancy? What causes kids to get in trouble? The answer is so simple which is likely why they don`t know the answer. The problem? THERE`S NOTHING TO DO! there`s no place for a teen to go, no place for them to hang out, no place for them to do anything entertaining. So when the cruise spot was gone, the teenage crime rate went through the ceiling. I never got in any trouble, But I knew some that did. A friend of mine who stayed in trouble during those years of the early 90`s, we were talking about those days and he said "You know why we went around pranking, getting in trouble and all that stuff? Cause there was nothing to do, they took away the cruise spot and there was no place for us to go, this place is so out of it due to the bible belt. what did they expect us to do? Sit down and play checkers or something? One thing I can say, it seemed adults in charge of the city at that time were complete morons, now that were adults I`m sure happy we don`t think like they did. You give teens a place to go and something to do you cut down on crime, teenage pregnancy, the whole 9 yards, just give them something to do, but no, you want to be stupid and encourage them to get in trouble by taking everything away"
 
#8 ·
I agree a lot with what you said. I personally don't remember any fights or vandalism or anything like that. I do remember meeting others to go race though! :mwink:

I remember very well the exact time that they put the clamps down on the cruising. They made it illegal to make a U turn for many blocks, and that you couldn't pass a particular spot more than twice in an hour :rolleyes: And in a few weeks, it was over, no more cruising.

I remember this time for another reason as well, right after that, we are talking just as the cruising winded down, someone lit my 68 Camaro RS on fire. Yep, I was living in an apartment and my ex-wife got someone evicted and that night our 68 Camaro was on fire out in the parking garage. I'll never forget how the guy who did it came driving past and I told the cops there he was (it was witnessed by a neighbor and she pointed the guy out to the cops too) and they did NOTHING, they went and talked to him and he went driving off. I remember saying to the cop "It sure is a good thing you aren't wasting your time out on the strip with the cruisers". :rolleyes:

Yep, today, it's too late, with all the gang crap going on in town it probably would be a bad idea to have a cruise night. :(

Brian
 
#9 ·
cruise'n

u gonna be on kirkwood hwy this sat, late afternoon ????? cruise'n all evening.... ya i agree with ya on newark, john had 2 really nice shows but got into a fix with the fire chef and he bailed out of any more.. newark cops see u 2 times and the 3rd is a charm... u get a ticket for cruising....
 
#10 ·
Well, Over this side of woods on Long Island is the Mecca of cruise nights aside from southern California. Almost everyday there is cruise spot is taking place anywhere on the Island. From the city most of the Island and there are the mild to the insane cars. Top quality cars that you see in magazine. Stock, modified, Street Rod, Muscle cars, blown, and Rat Rods, trucks of every types and everything in between. I have seen guys pull up in a coffin street rod and Standley Steamer, blown 427 ice cream truck. We do not have a drag strip to race. Wish we did.

The location are
Sunday Morning from 7AM to 11AM, The Oak Beach Park Parking lot (formerly The OBI) on Ocean Pkwy. 150 cars

Mondays, Quite nothing going on

Tuesday from 4PM to 9PM Yaphank Fire Dept. in Yaphank. Almost 200 cars
Bald hill in Farmingville.
Town of Oyster Bay also run a cruise night on Tuesday, can go up to 400 cars

Wednesday, Independent Plaza in Selden.

Thursday, Oakdale shopping plaza up to 400 cars. 4PM to 9PM

Friday, Massapequa Rail Road Station. Run by the town of Oyster Bay.
The grand dad on Cruise night at Bellmore Rail Road Station. Run by the Town of Hempstead. Over 500 to 600 cars. 4PM to 11PM
Maschutt Beach in Hampton Bays. Run by Beach Hut


Staturday, West Islip Bob Store parking lot, next to McDonalds. On Sunrise Hwy.
Cedar Beach on Ocean Pkwy. Run by The Beach Hut.

Look at the lg1969 Photo album
 
#12 ·
Unfortunately having been born in 86, I'm too young to appreciate it, but here in phoenix I know they used to cruise central ave. My dad tells me stories from time to time. We still have the pavillions on the east side, but that's not much of a "cruise" and the cops come and break it up when it gets too late. I doubt they'll ever get rid of it though.
 
#13 ·
Only because I had the opportunity to live in Florida do I realize that this isn't a silly question.

Of course, before my time there was Woodward, and of course it's basicly back through most of August. When I was growing up in the '80's cruising was more on Gratiot, I assume that the existence now of a "downriver" cruise means there must've been cruising there.

There's also weekly bike nights in Royal Oak, there's places all around with weekly cruise nights. It's diminished, in my subjective judgement, from what it was in the '80's but then again I could be wrong just because with kids, we are rarely out after dark.

Okay, and I have to share these even though they're parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mknP9XvHhuM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KLcI6dqssc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDCCcxlKzDU
 
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