In West Virginia, there are still alot, and i mean ALOT of cool cars, but we don't cruise much anymore. From the mid 60's to about the mid 80's there was a loop here that everyone would make with their old cars, with various "lots" we would stop and talk cars in. Sometimes for BS'ing, some times a display of power would come out of it :3gears: :Brow: . Seems nowadays, that if you see an old car out....it's going to and from a car show, or to the local Dairy Queen for ice cream. Do they still "Kruze" in your hometowns? John
The ricers took over the cruze scene here in Louisville starting about 10 years ago, and it finally died out completely in the last 2 or 3 years. Of course there are still a handfull of diehards who run the strip to this day, but not enough of them to consider it the cruising spot anymore. To be perfectly honest with you, once it became a rice convention, I didn't really care if it lived or died.
Long island is the hot spot for cruise nights. Most of them are the "park it and drink coffee" types. No one really cruises up and down the boulevards nowadays. During the summer, there is usually one every night of the week. Some of the bigger ones are: Bald Hill every Tues night- usually about 500-1000 cars. Huge huge parking lot that get so filled that the Police close off the lot. Thursday night the Lion's Club has a cruise night here also. Crowd is a little smaller. Bellmore train station on Friday night- By the middle of the summer, there are so many cars that we fill up two huge parking lots. Tufbuick says they're going to close the lot this time at 7:00pm due to the incredible volume of cars. Koh's parking lot Sat night- This cruise in is a little smaller. I enjoy this one alot better beecause of the smaller size and the fact that its not on a weekday. I dont have to rush home and detail the car. Captree Marina / OBI parking lot Sunday morning- Im sure youve seen Tufbuick's pictures of this one in the past. Another "mega cruise in". Happens Sunday mornings from 8:00 AM to around 11-12 in the afternoon. Real popular with the gray haired Corvette guys with the 30 year old wives. Im not sure about Deer Park Ave. This was a hot spot on Friday and Saturday nights about 15-20 years ago. I think its still popular with the ricers. Car Caft magazine rated it the hottest cruise spot in the country in 1985. They actually had a start/finish line spray painted in the street. After the magazine did the story, Deer Park Ave exploded with muscle cars. It was a sight to behold. We had people coming in from other states. It was one for the books. And Im proud to say that I was in the middle of it all. I used to put a 100 miles on my car in one night. Wouldnt get home till 2AM. Now Im lucky if I can stay up past 9. I actually got interviewed one night by the local news in my white GSX!. Im sure Im leaving out a few. Maybe some of the other LI guys can fill in the blanks
Woodward Ave We Kruze the famous Woodward ave all spring summer and fall, as do many with Classics, PRo-Street, and ricers, and newer hot rods..Vipers, Vettes, SSR's and the like. The big problem is parking to chat..there are no loitering rules in every parking area....so the true Krusing is dead.....cops will empty parking lots every hour along Woodward ave Fri and Sat night...and get pissey about it. So we do alot of car shows..and the finish it up with a few loops on woodward. It's still alive here on Metro Detroit!! :bglasses:
There aren't cruises, but a BIG car show. Starting in mid-late May and going until the second week of September every Wednesday night. There is a featured lot for the featured cars of that night for instance, Oldies, Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, Import/air-cooled/replicar/motorcycle, 1960's & 70's night, Buick/Olds/Pontiac, Red/White/blue, Corvette, Ragtop, Ladies night, Pony car, Cadillac/LaSalle/Packard/Pierce-Arrow/Imperial, Mopar/AMC, Muscle/Street rod, Super Chevy, Emergency vehicle/military vehicle/hot truck, and Rained out night. :Brow: Parking isn't allowed till 5:00pm but cars are lined up at 3:00pm and earlier on some nights.:shock: It's a big show, and the only bad thing is the cops who work overtime because of it and have to stop every old car for not having a front plate. :spank: ou: Who's gonna put a plate on a rechromed bumper or newly painted fiberglass bumper? No ricers, and if there are any they don't stay long. They look for a race, then 30 minutes after they and a muscle car left, the muscle car comes back victorious! :3gears:
never wasa cruise scene here as far as my recollection goes...born in '71 Around here, if you see a 36 year old car, I'm either going to, or coming from...work :TU: Closest thing to a cruise spot around here is a custom tube shop that caters to old cars. Right now there is a mid '70s Cordoba, looks like (come on, you love 'em), a 67 GTO, two '68 GTOs and a shoebox in their lot. On random summer nights I drive by, and the place is lit up, with the employees and other old car guys hanging out in the lot, with a dozen or so hot rods and muscle cars. that's it. but it's cool. Like an amusement park for hot rods.
Cruise scene??????? Whats that??????? The largest gathering in my area is in front of my house before we leave for the track, and thats only about four or five of us. Tom Jenkins
In Harrisburg here the "cruise" scene died in the 80's with the advent of ricers and what not. In the late 60's up to the mid 70's we used to "do the circuit" which was up 2nd st down front st in Harrisburg, it was nothing to see 5-20 cars running in packs going up and down the circuit and the sound of glass packs echoing in the alleys sounded perfect, of course at the lights sometimes your foot would slip and you'd accidently hit the pedal too hard if there was competition :Brow: :Brow: next to you. Or you ran across the Harvey Taylor bridge -- 5 street lamps equalled a 1/4 mile-----If it got too hot(police wise) we would go to York and hit that area or if you really want to make some money ( 5-20 bucks-a lot of money back in 72)we would go to Pottstown and do the "loop" down there!! Of course on Saturdays in the summer we would go to York US 30 dragway and have the grudge races. Good times, good memories and cheap gas, although 5 bucks alkmost filled your tank, it was still more than a lot of us made an hour :eek2: . The circuit in Harrisburg now is nothing but Yuppie bars and clubs and since the drunks are all over the street walking even the ricers have to go out of the area to play. On the first Saturday of the month during the summer there is a local "malt shop" that has an area that everyone meets buts its not the same, basically you sit and bs and leave--not like the old days!!! Too much reminicing(spelling??) makes my eyes :ball: , anyway thats the way it was here.
The town I live in has a little bit of a loop. I say little because the town only has 45 000 people in it, so there isn't a huge scene. Its mainly ricers, a couple of Mustangs and a few older cars.
There's a few handfuls of people here in this town who own an old car and I see most of them out "cruising", or just driving around for the fun of it. This one guy has a '75-'77 Vette convertible with a 4 spd, you can tell by the way he bangs the gears. :Brow: A few older buicks driving around too once in awhile.
Cruising..Street Racing..did a lot of it mid-late 70`s to mid 80`s.The city used to send water trucks out to stop any potential street racing.I did a cruise down the old circuit last year(Carling Ave for any Ottawa historians)I was the only muscle car to be seen that night.I must be getting old as times sure have changed.. That`s o.k I have great memories and stories I can always tell :TU: Later,Tony.
We have several around Pittsburgh theres a huge one on Saturdays at a local church. and a good one at Walmart every Friday. Fortunatly ricers havent taken over here
Out here we have mainly park nights. Nothing wrong with it,but when you get 150 cars in the parking lot,kinda hard to cruise up and down the main drag and keep it civil. Kinda sucks tonly time you get to hear these babies is when they come or gh well,a few buddies and I are talking about doing an actual cruise night that ends up at the park night.
People with tinted windows and a few with rims, a mustang here and there (v6 girl driven mustangs, you wouldn't know mustang was a performance car driving around here) with a 4th gen camaro popping up once in awhile and too many fart canned 4 bangers will go up and down main a few times but I'm one of the very, very rare few who display the presence of the big block anything.
Cruise-in's We still have tons of car shows....usually one or two each weekend once the weather breaks, and a few cruise-ins. Usually one of the Wendy's here in town has a cruise-in once a month, and a local hot-dog shop sponsors a few. We used to have all our old cars out every friday night, saturday night, and sunday afternoons. We would cruise from our City park, down to point park, and sometimes up to Marietta Oh (Home of the MOPARS). There is alot to be said about non-organized cruising, where guys just show up, shoot the bull, and there is no judging.....only cars. Maybe I am becoming one of the dinosaurs we used to make fun of back when..... :bglasses:
cruzin i can remember going to van nuys bl, i think wed nites if i recall, would take an hour to go 2 1/2 miles, than turn around and go back. great times. :3gears:
We still have car shows on the weekends here. There's a roadway that runs about 5 miles along Lake Ponchartrain called Lakeshore Dr. . It is 2 lanes in each direction with angled parking on both sides and about 100 yards of open area on each side of the road for picnics, barbeque, etc. like a long park. It even has restrooms along the way and a place to get a bite to eat. As long as I can remember that was THE place to actually cruise New Orleans. Then, in the mid '80s, they closed 2 lanes on Sunday's to make it one way traffic. So you had to make a big loop to get back, but you'd pass in front of the beer store along the way. It was SOOOO cool. Everybody would park along the side of Lakeshore Dr. with their stereos cranked and watch the hundreds of cars cruising by. The view of the lake is nice too. (the lake is 24 miles across, so there's big boats roaring by too) In recent years our idiot police dept has started cracking down on people parking with hot rods at the lakefront. A few have been towed for no reason, people arrested for stupid reasons, etc., etc., so not many people bring their hot rods there anymore. They did away with alcoholic beverages in the parking areas several years back and now I don't think you can even wax your car in the parking areas. :af: Thanks N.O.P.D. for screwing up a decades old tradition! :spank:
Yes it's cranking here on Long Island,N.Y. Jason,you got most of the good one's,Bellmore was my favorite untill it got so crowded.Bald hill is good too.Wading River on 25A, the King Kullen shopping center has one every Thursday 6-10pm.The Nathans in Oceanside on Long Beach Rd. every Wednesday night 7-10pm is a good one with buy one get one on the dogs.There are a couple of actual cruise nights still going on,the sports complex in Holbrook runs every saturday night 6:30-10:30,and in Lake Ronkonkoma Friday and Saturday cruise to Raynor Park.
Lake George, NY is upstate NY's mecca for cheasy tourist attractions and high school kids with not-so-great cars to come and show their stuff. Cruise scene is alive here... there are two places that weekly hold a cruise night and almost constantly have an old car in the parking lot (that was driven there) during the on-season months. There is a big mix... mostly imports or younger kids with hot-rodded 80's cars because the older people who have the older cars are afraid to bring them out. Honestly, I see more 20's and early 30's cars restored to perfection out driving than any other classic car. As far as I know, Im the only person under 30 that has a car older than them in my area and drives it.
