Is real cruising dead?
 

I graduated high school in the early 80's and during that time we went cruising! Nowadays, I think it's a dead ritual. There are "cruise-ins" around (aka "Coffee and cars" because somehow everyone now has to drink coffee 24/7) but these events are more like "park-ins" because aside from getting there, no one is driving!

I found this clip on YouTube. It's pretty accurate for the time.
https://youtu.be/FfXD6bmsjL0


Is anyone lucky enough to still be cruising the old fashioned way? (ok, not the REAL way which also involved lots of drag racing or at least stop light to stop light jumping, that we just can't do much any more).

Oh, and note the part of the video where the cop talks about the "usual" things kids to wrong and what he does about it. You know, open containers, drinking and driving, and rowdy driving. So he just gives them tickets and sends them on their way. Yup, the good ol' days!

Not so much like that anymore, LOL. But every saturday night in Victoria BC Canada there is a couple of spots everybody goes to and cruises between. Every sat there is Cruise ships that dock in Victoria and the car owners like to cruise down to that location and sit for a bit the cruise back home through busy part of the City, making a little noise. No stop light stuff, a couple of early coupes got impounded for 7 days for havin a little fun.

All thru the 80's Hempstead Tnpk in East Meadow and Levittown, NY was the local cruising grounds. Some time in the early 90's that went away. I haven't heard of any cruising since.

Certainly, 1958-style cruising is dead, yes. Sure am glad I got to participate, though!

Up until a couple of years ago, the annual cruise in Penn Yan was nice. Typical car show on Main Street, but at the appointed time entrants were invited to "cruise" a route of about 9-10 miles- with volunteers and rent-a-cops controlling all intersections. But volunteer help dried up, so now it's just a car show.

The Vintage Festival in Watkins Glen (Sep 11-13 this year) is always fun- not just for sporty-car types, but for any "enthusiast" vehicles. I usually just find a spot on the sidewalk and watch the constant "parade" of interesting cars for a couple hours. This year I've agreed to display my Pontiac hemi engine with one of the local clubs- but I still plan to "enjoy the sights". Club members will get to "cruise" the historic Grand Prix course through the village!

I live in Niles MI. & in a town about 25 miles away there is a cruise every 1st. friday of the month in Goshen IN. Goshen use to be the cruise capital of the USA. At least it was in the early 80's before the people in the town got all upset about not being able to get through town at 10 PM, but the people that were complaining were already in bed at that time. but they got the town to curtail all the cruising & it went away. But now it's back because after all this time they finally realized that all the cruising car had people in them that were spending money at all the drive in's & stores in town that were open at that time of night. It only took them 25 + years to understand that cruisers have money to spend. Now because the town is almost broke they want the cars back & are helping to get them in the town at night now. Also we have a cruise in & car show every wed. which a lot of the cars do cruise a little while here on wed. just to feel like we did back then when we all cruised for hours at a time. It's about time they realized they need us. It's starting to come back & thats good for all of us.

Here's a thread that will recall part of the story & reasons Cruising's decline
==> http://forums.hotrod.com/hot-rod/70/...fun-governers/

Hot Rod, PHR, Car Crap, etc. for years ran stories about local crackdowns across the country to end cruising and automotive gatherings...

I have driven both Birds this week during the day and noticed I was the only vintage car in my few drives I did. People act like I am driving something from another planet. It is getting stranger every year driving a classic. It is like you are the Lone Stranger now instead of one of the pack, like it used to be....

Hard to find cruisers at car shows.My junk has been off the road for 2yrs.Prior to that i would cruise like i did in the 80's.2 tanks of gas in a night and barely leave the county.Have found a couple others that rolled with me just because we would see each other 10x's in a night lol.Good places to find the likes are car washes(self serve) late night restaurants and gas stations.Always enjoyed late night cool weather driving.Less A-holes on the road but more deer though..Fired mine up last night and im ready to hit the roads again.

"Real" cruising is for kids. We stopped cruising and drag racing every weekend when we were old enough to get into bars.

Anyone who grew up in the '60s or '70s on this side of town remembers Whittier Blvd. Now there are zero cruisers and plenty of street signs threatening fines.

Now - driving around for fun - I still do that all the time. Plenty of other classics always out here, too - especially on the weekends.

It died around 20 years ago
 

I live in a small town of 2700. In the early to to mid 80's on every Friday - Saturday night there was always someone continually cruising our 2.5 mile drag. Up and down up and down we would sometimes put 100 miles on and never leave town !!
Lots of 60's 70's muscle ...lots of variety but always a majority of Mopars. We would hand out at the Texaco gas station usually at least 12-20 cars minimum.. After it closed at 9 pm it was the gather spot where the guys would talk drink beer and decide to go out of town to race at the marked out 1/4 mile. All with pre stage and stage area painted lines. If it was a still night could hear the boys racing it up out of town.

Sometimes we shoot the poop for awhile and cruise for a while.
We had town police and they had one cop car and a force of 1 chief and 3 officers. We would cruise and as long as you were not ripping the streets up we were rarely bothered.

As time moved on and lifes changed for some jobs away, cars sold for marriage the cruising all weekend faded away the next generation never really continued on what we did for cruising and cruising more. By mid 90's was rare to see someone cruising the drag and never seen a car sitting at the Texaco after 9:00.
Today Texaco is now a off brand gas station our 4 man cop force is gone replaced by a huge municipal force and I and one friend occasionally will meet to cruise the drag and drive out of town past the ole marked 1/4 mile the paint marks long since disappeared.

Only thing left is our 2 cars and just memories now.

Yes here it is gone.

what happened to the rank this thread

Yup. It wouldn't seem the same now that we're all growed up.

I grew up in a small town south of Lansing, MI. We would cruise a little bit in our local town, one end to the other. We'd stop by Quality Dairy, pop the hoods, shoot the shiz, talk to the girls, and find out where the party was. We could hit the "Pot Lot" behind the row of downtown Main Street buildings, or see if somebody had an older sibling who could buy us some beer. I'd get followed all the way to the town limits by the PD, waiting to bust me for something. And I have one of those "Squealing Tires" civil infractions in the books.

We'd go cruising down Cedar and Pennsylvania in Lansing, or sometimes we'd go hit the west side and cruise Saginaw Ave. We'd do a little stoplight racing, and see the occasional girl give you a "flash" if she dug you or your car. Best one ever? A pair of hotties sitting up on top of the seats of a 67 Fairlane convertible. Got a tandem show while driving the 78 T-top Formula.

But it was all predicated on chasing tail or chasing a buzz. When you grow up you have easier access to both. You buy your own buzz, and stop chasing tail to marry it.:wife: And then years later you get a muscle car to remind yourself that for a brief moment in time you were the king of the world.;)

I couldn't really imagine doing it now. Driving my old car has become more of a spiritual reconnect for me these days, or a means to a thrill via racing.

I couldn't have put it better than Squidward.

Sucks to grow up and have responsibilities that force you to become an adult.

Western New York Summers are too short but there are cruises (sometimes multiple cruises) on every night of the week. Restaurants, bars, VFW's, Legions, Bowling Alleys, Churches, Auto Parts Stores, Casino, etc. all have cruises. Some have bands, all have food/beer/drinks available for purchase. Most are well attended 100 + cars. Some super cruises have more than 600 cars attend. They are good excuses to drive your car and are all within 25 miles or so from my house. They last from about 5:00 pm until 8 or 9:00. I usually try to get to a couple each week and a regular car show on the week end (weather permitting). See lots of cars that you don't see at the shows. WNY has a huge number of classic cars.

Goshen "almost broke?" Not hardly!

Weather permitting, Fri Sat Sun hold 3 different locations for the old car folks to gather, parked, walk and talk.

I enjoy the break from lawn work, & the drive to & from, & sometimes have 1 good conversation with a local about performance tricks.

The Bikers/ Harleys cruise the roads while us car folks watch them go by.

I thought this thread might evoke some fond memories and stories.

Yes, I know cruising, real cruising as described above which involved chasing girls and cars and other things to waste time on a friday or saturday night, is dead. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS TODAY? There certainly are the cars for it again. I understand that the street racing is a bad idea, but what about the street cruising where we went up and down a strip all night? Or all met at one known spot like the above mentioned Texaco? (For us in Rockland County, NY, it was at Super Amusements Arcade on Rt. 59).

Yes, Long Island and NY has great summer cruise ins. And now that all us kids are all growed up like responsible adults, we even have very organized events like this "Cruise to the Show" event. It doesn't hurt that our County Executive is a car guy (that's his gold Vette in these pics). Even Governor Cuomo also has an old Vette he's brought out to this show before (BTW, those two politicians cross the isle over their love for cars).

Cruise to the Show video: https://youtu.be/rNDTewkZ3p0

I mean, look at this web site: http://cruisetotheshow.com/. It's like his personal picture page for car shows! LOL

And yes, when they close down Oyster Bay every Tuesday night for the car show, all the local restaurants and stores do every well, including Billy Joel's motorcycle shop.

But where are the kids driving up and down Main St. USA? I guess it's a dead and buried pastime.

Cruising in Rockland County, NY in the 80's:
(I wanted to get mine in here)

Started at Super Amusements, the arcade on Route 59 in Nanuet. Hung there until others arrived. Maybe left for a lap down by The Nanuet Mall, especially when the movies were letting out. Rolled down the windows in January to look "cool" (as if the girls were going to say, "hey, nice car and they even have the windows down at 10* weather, let's hop in their car!"

Then on Sunday nights it was a big gathering in the Masters store parking lot, which later was the flea market, and later moved to a commuter lot down the street. We all met up, some after a day of racing at Englishtown to show off our shoe polish racing markings. Then the hard core folks would wait until it got really late and would go up on the highway to race. My friend's dad told us they were doing the SAME racing at the SAME spot in the 50's! I actually thought that was very cool. We even had Car Craft do a story on our cruising (I was away at school that night!!! darn it!)

Oh, and the mecca of cruising was down the shore. Yes, the Jersey Shore - Seaside Heights. NOW THAT was some real cruising fun! Driving up and down Ocean ave in front of the boardwalk. There were more girls driving REALLY nice new cars (convertible Vettes, IROCS, and some older cars too) and boy was that fun.

That's the first place I started to see The Man cracking down on cruising. "No Cruising" Street signs were posted (would love to have one of those signs). Cops would ticket you if you passed by too many times, etc.

Yes, this was cruising. Burning a tank of gas and not going anywhere as said above. Looking for girls or trying to show off what your car can do with the new cam you just installed.

I guess American Graffiti is just something to be talked about over coffee on an early Sunday morning gathering at the parking lot where OBI used to be (where the Long Island Iced Tea was invented).

So for now, we keep our fond memories alive as we keep our old cars alive. I guess it's better than the alternative! :clap2:



PS I was feeling nostalgic last night when I started this thread because I watched Hollywood Knights. Nice GTO.

Now here on Long Island , you cruise your car, some guys pull up next to you to race so you jump on your car, then lights go on. The cops are undercover, using an impounded car to bait you and now right you up or impound your car.
They wait outside hang out spots pull you over and harass you because you have a muscle car.
The cops now are young geeks that I guess were never into cruising around. I used to cruise Hemstead Tpk, and rt 231 all the time late 80's thru the 90's. Nathans in oceanside was a 45 minute ride we would go with about 10 cars every week, race there and back. Now you would be arrested, and the local news will have you looking like a criminal. SAD DAYS NOW

I grew up in northern Colorado and people would come from miles around just to cruise in Longmont. Now, the city of Golden holds a "supercruise" the first Sat of every month in good weather and several thousand cars show up. It's pretty much gridlock on the streets but an incredible event to see.

For the most part, true. Cruising for me ended when I bought the wedding rings!