Do kids cruise their cars anymore like in the old days?

I was thinking the other day about when I was a kid and cruising the "strip" in my old Charger. I remember when the local Police started cracking down on cruising in my hometown in the late 80's to early 90's. I think it's dead now. I'm from a place that there is not much to do, so that was a fun and cheap thing to do back in the day.

Where I live now, I never see kids out cruising their cars. Or at least, the places I go to on a weekend don't have kids in their cars. I know there are a ton of kids (and adults) with performance cars as the local monthly cruise-in is always packed.

So, what about where you live? Do you see any kids out and just cruising around anymore outside of a planned local car event?

Attached are some pics of my car just prior to a Saturday cruise night back in '85.

Nope. But then by 8pm I'm in bed.

In Spokane WA, years ago, the kids would go down town and cruise the street, Riverside. Fridays and Saturdays were always busy, all kinds of cars. It was always fun, but the gestapo recommended to the City Council to pass an ordinance outlawing it. That was the end of an era.

Yup. In Renton we used a one-way street thru down town. They barricaded it, no more fun there.

Mansfield Ohio, Park Avenue West, still sees some cruisers from time to time, mostly in the summer. The popo crack down from time to time, but it still "gets busy" every once in awhile

The police shut down cruising due to traffic concerns and people misbehaving.

Today's youth has a different set of priorities.

Today's youth don't have a big interest in cars other than transportation. The tuners were the last enthusiast and most of them are older now with other priorities.....Back in the day Hikes Point was the place in Louisville. Sometimes hundreds of us punks just driving around looking at each other. Downtown 11th street was the place to street race for a while.

We talk about this very subject ever so often. On Saturday night in our small town of 8,000 or so people, Main street (and it's adjacent parking lots) were FULL of young people "draggin' Main" to see what was up. That was in the 70s.

Now you could bowl down Main street by 9 PM on Saturday nights.

Was outlawed in Sacramento in the 80s

No.

Fr the last 5 years i would work hard to set up a "Cruise" night in our area and it went well for the first few years but since the main place we all met at closed down its pretty much a bust. There are some new people who are doing it now and they gave it a good shot in 2016. So we shall see if things keep on getting better in 2017.

Here is a photo of a little press i got in the local paper.

Stu

I would say within about the last 5 years it's completely died here.

Have to say it's a good thing:

1. No noise from Posers with their loud stereos and blue bottle exhaust on a 305.

2. Less accidents in town

It was fun while it lasted, but I'm glad social media is their thing instead of poluting and burning a hundred bucks worth of fuel for nothing.

yup
but nothing like we used to do back in the day..lol

i just happen to know some gearhead youngsters
who drool over the hellcat
the hobby is still alive here!
they are out every weekend night fri,sat and sun
the local wawa's are the hot meeting place
they have a bunch of parking,free wifi
during the summer months on the main drag they will place cops
in the wawa parking lots just to keep the people moving along.
these kids will stay until they wear out the welcome
and then go on to the next wawa,repeat,rinse
some of them have some pretty fast rides on a low budget
you would be impressed by a few of them.

A part of Americana that is gone. Sad.


https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ame...amp;FORM=VRDGAR

We have cars shows/cruises here that attract hundreds of cars and you won't find many under 35-40 at these events driving, or spectating. Drag strip is the same way. The silver haired dudes that have disposable income make up the majority, and without them the track would probably close.

In Tulsa on Friday/Saturday, Memorial Dr. is packed with cars & kids. I always forget about it till we happen to be in that part of town & it is nice to see proper socializing.

Cruised around the capitol back in the 80s. It was PACKED, but then again it was Street Machine National's weekend...

Back in "the day," it was Brookside, here in Tulsa. About a two mile circuit, if you ran all of it. At one end, a burger joint and a car wash, to turn around in the parking lot. At the other end of Brookside, Bel Aire shopping center. Either turn around in the lot, park in the lot or go around the block adjacent to the center..
Along Brookside, these were some of the spots:

Der Weinerschnitzel [hot dogs and the like]
McDonalds
Quik Trip convenience store
A couple full service gas stations that closed early, and one that was 24/7
A grocery store with a huge lot.
A Jr High school with a big lot.
2 strip clubs and a bar.
A host of other businesses, closed in the evenings.

We tried to be respectful of the property we parked on and the business lots. Supported the gas station [full service] and the two drive in restaurant [a root beer stand and Penningtons]. That way, we didn't get run off. Lasted until the eighties, then yuppies moved in and opened their businesses. Complained and their squeaky wheels won. Now kids hang out in a newer part of town, as previously stated. Cool, but not as cool as I remember...way back when.

BTW, we raced a bit, stop light stuff. BUT, there was a 1/4 mile section marked off on US 75 highway...lots of money traded hands.

I was not pleased with this either. I graduated in 1983 and even though I only had a 318 69 Dart, I still loved to cruise it. By 1987 the city oof Sacto had banned cruising, soon thereafter there were other small towns nearby joining in against us ruffians. I had at least 3 "loitering" tickets from back then.

In my small town, there was a drive-in restaurant on the north end (burned down a year or so ago) and a gas station on the south end. Probably a 3 mile stretch. The town grew up alongside US HWY 411, so the strip was right down the center of town. Anything adjacent to that were side roads to housing. So, the cops knew where to go, but we only had 4 or 5, so at any one time, there was probably only one on patrol. Especially, late at night. I had a few run-ins with them. Some deserved, some not. Used to go to other cities looking for action too. Seems there was always something going on.

Attached is a pic of the old drive-in. The pic is from the 2000's and not really a good representation of what it was in it's hey day. I remember it had a couple of speed bumps on the entrance and exit sides. You were cool if you could roll up to the speed bump and get your front wheels to hop/jump over it. I never got that technique down pat. Same on the rear wheels.

29 now and when I was in hs we were always up to no good driving around. I was usually the wheel man. But car cruising has been shut down by everyone. Even just get together a are no more. Cops or restaurants/sonic don't want us there

When I was in high school we used to have so many cars on fri and sat Main street was bumper to bumper. Turn around at wendys and a gas station. One time the gas station manager got a bur up his ass and blocked the turn around for a few weeks. Lost so much business he changed his mind!

Even with people stopped along side the street in various places traffic would be backed up. We had epic water gun and balloon fights all through town. Wasnt any street racing in town, you really couldnt with the layout and traffic.

Towards the end of my time the city and cops started the loitering bs. Basically kids turned hardcore into drugs. It's hard to blame it on the death of cruising, but you could easily make a case it contributed. Plenty of drinking and pot use back in the day, but raging, rehab level drug use was unheard of. Old folks carry on about drug use there, im sure they cant figure out a lack of ANYTHING to do will push people to invent something go do.

I was back in the area 5-6 years ago and people were pleasure driving hot rods on the big main connector road. I was shocked as we never did that much, I joined in the road runner that day. I checked that night and downtown was dead as a door nail.

Yes it was huge in the early 80's in Beckley, WV. Cruising Valley Drive and parking in Hecks Parking lot...talking big to girls from other high schools.

It's officially dead and has been for twenty years, as are cruise ins and car shows around here. The only people with older cars are old guys now who never drive them anyway. I know of tons of nice older cars collecting dust for years due to lack of interest or else they are over-restored. I don't see the hobby coming back as the cars are way too expensive now for most people to afford.

I see gatherings of tuners and 4X4's on the weekends around south eastern MI.
KID

I have some cool pictures from the 1982 Street Machine Nationals at Cal Expo.

Lived in the East Bay at the time and the big cruises were in Walnut Creek and Livermore.

Agreed.

The police gave us little hassle as most were well behaved and took our contests of acceleration out of town. Up on Berlin Turnpike racing light to light was not uncommon.

Now it will get you thrown in the pokey quick.

In my neck of the woods it's more like gathering in the Tim Horton's parking lot cars all parked, no cruisin'.

Yup. Tuners, stock imports with fart cans, rusty diesels and a few Scatpacks that daddy bought them are all you really see up there anymore.
Cruising is what makes my whole Nats experience every year, and I would love to find a place that still partakes.
Bucyrus, Ohio used to be a great cruising spot, and people used to "shoot the loop" in Marion. I would guess that neither is a hotbed of activity anymore, although I know there were still cars out and about in Marion circa 1994. Crap, that was 22 years ago. Never mind.

I still cruise around our town, but most of the time, its just me.

Our town has an organized "Cruise Night" where they actually cruise the streets we used to cruise back in the day! They actually block off the area, and have an established circuit. The Police are there to be sure everything is good. They have made it a big deal, there are food vendors, they have a band playing, an organized burn off contest, a muffler rapping contest, kids bounce houses, and open the streets to cruising between 7 pm and 10 pm. They rent you parking spaces in the lit parking lots ($12 reserved, or $10 day of, and usually fill the 1,000 or so spaces by 5pm). Last year there were over 1,000 cars and probably 10,000 people. Its a great night.
There is a web site www.freeportcruisenight.org and a lot more stuff if you google "Freeport IL cruise Night"

Its not a nightly thing, or even a weekend thing, but its a great 1 night event every summer. Gene

Your link doesn't work.

In here someplace?

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Fr...p;hsimp=yhs-002

http://www.freeportcruisenight.org/

Try it again, I was editing it while you were trying to check it out. Gene

Yup, it works now. :-)

My Wife is from Pottstown PA, which was once one of the top cruise towns in the Country.
But Cops shut it down, & the city made it 1 lane each way... so now its dead on Friday & Sat nights.

But this is what it looked like back right before the end in the early 90's.


I used to go down and cruise there in the late 70's to mid 80's when it was wall to wall performance cars.
A few of which it seems were still making the cruise when the above video was made in 91...
Like the red Mustang with the wheelie bars near the end & the ZZ Top looking street rod.

I get mine out and cruise around all the time...a few others local to me do too.
Nothing organized you just show up or not...
There is a younger group of ricers with a few diesel trucks that hangout at a local parking lot.
They started a "Street Outlaws" list a couple years ago...they call themselves the 301...
Just a bunch of fart pipe honda's and a couple newer Mustangs. I tried messing with them 1 night with the Dart...pulled in and told them I wanted to see the "Gatekeeper" about getting on the list.
Evidently they never did a lot of racing and developed the list by money spent and who they thought was fast. The guy told me a bunch a guys got butthurt once the list was posted on facebook. Evidently they all wanted "participation trophies"...

"participation trophies"

Go to the local wrecking yard and put up a dozen or 2 bent antennae. Drill a hole in rocks, stick in antennae. Good enough for them.

I remember cruising back in the early seventies growing up in Pittsburgh ( North Hills) but when my family moved to N. J. in 73 I never saw much cruising. The popular thing now is "cruise nights" cars and people hanging out in large parking lots most of the time sanctioned by a local car club. There is one on Friday nights about two miles from my house that some friends attend I go hang out sometimes plus there is a good italian restaurant there for dinner.I used to bring my D150 there but a few years ago they began only allowing 25 years or older cars/trucks as it was getting too crowded with new Vettes, Mustangs etc. and there wasn`t room for the old cars. At least next year I will be allowed to bring my D150 as it will be 25 years old.

Cruise-INS are fun as you can walk around and check out all the cars and talk to the owners, but CRUISES are better, and you can still stop for burgers and talk with friends, then back out into the loop.

Cruise-ins are not even close to the same as kids doing the drag with their buddies. It's not at all the same & if you didn't do it when you were young then you really missed out & you can't replicate it.

Wow! That place was legit!

I'm a high school teacher. The majority of my students see cars as transportation. Cruising is old school. Gas is too expensive to idly burn up. Living in Houston, the city is too spread out to have an "official" cruising spot. Years ago cruising Richmond Ave was the thing to do, but the cops, constant traffic congestion on secondary streets, & price of gas has negated it. Also, all the buttheads that show up drunk or stoned trying to get on the local news have put the squash on cruising. I'm always surprised by how many of my students either don't own a car or even a driver's license. Kids today don't get as hepped up about owning a car as I did in my youth. The few students that I have that are gearheads just talk about making their 5000 lb truck run faster, or they are posers w/ their v6 bowties & ovals or import cars w/ obnoxious exhaust systems.

Lots of people who used to go cruising later were part of the anti-cruising brigade (later to be spun off as the anti-saggy pants brigade).

Now we have Cars & Coffee and other similar things so it's still there, just different.

At around $2.50 / gal, I'd say the price of gas is not the issue.
Cars are not the social objects they used to be. Blame the internet, blame mobile phones.

My 2 sons (17 & 20), cruise their smallblock, manual 5 spd musclecars every fri night.
They run down to Woodward and meet up with friends.
We have dedicated weekends of organized cruising......on Woodward, Gratiot, Fort st, Telegragh. All different dates.
Cruising is not dead in Detroit.
There's even a few fb pages that are dedicated to it.

There are different kinds of cruising in my area. There is a huge love of muscle cars and sports cars in pierce county WA. You can't drive anywhere here without seeing multiple on the road. In the summer, down on Ruston way, the hip hop culture dominates the style of cars that cruise but everyone still loves muscle cars there too. In other cities in the county, kids still get together with their cars and hang out

This is really popular with the younger crowd out here. We also have a sunday night event downtown which is supposed to be really good.

Cruising with the teenage crowd still exists, its just gone about differently. While there is not as much pride in cars as there once was, any car seems to be adequate. My daughter seems to "cruise" from place to place with visiting her friends working at various locations; fast food, starbucks, grocery store, etc.

Is the Weds. night PIR event still going?? Used to be really large?/ Granted, not cruising but .......

The Wed. Night cruise-in at PIR is the first Wednesday in June, and usually goes until the end of September. They have extended it in October when the weather behaves. It's still a massive event - two years ago, we had well over 1500 cars on the opening evening. Last year, the count seemed just as impressive.

Used to cruise Gratiot in Roseville and East Detroit in my teens (early 2000's). There was a lot of people and some very nice cars. Roseville started to come down on it and I have no idea if people do it anymore. Got a couple of loitering tickets as trophies.

Around here you will find the tuners meet at Walmart parking lot 10-15 cars. Park and hang out, occasionally I will go with my son in the road runner. Most all the kids are well mannered, ask me questions about my 71. But it's not crusing per say.
It is NOTHING like when or where I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale during the 79' to about 86' when I moved away; Nebas Roast Beef had 75 to 100 1st rate cars every Friday and Saturday night with continually shuffling of cars, as well as continual crusing 2 miles away on Ft. Lauderdale beach.
It was car heaven!

Do the kids cruise like back in the day...No. Different worlds.

After reading all thee above thread I feel sorry for some of you guys in other parts of the country...and I mean that sincerely. It seems like it is feast or famine. Either lots of enthusiasm and Events or lots of Elites/Regulations/Bad Apples etc killing the Events/Cruising.

Here in Central Kentucky though, cruising and car shows are bursting at the seams. It might look like shameless self promotion, but go check out my website...www.thecruisenightpage.com....and go to the calendar and Galleries. You can still see all of the 2016 Events Posted and all the pictures that My Staff and I take.

From April-May on you will see there are 2-3 cruises/Shows per day on the Weekends..Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Then Katie bar the door the rest of the summer. It jumps to 4-5 per weekend dayday. There are some August and September Saturdays that have 15 events.

Granted, some National Events are listed too, but if you push it you can make 3 or 4 in night if you just want to cruise in, grab a dash plaque. Pick a direction and you will most likely find an event.

All that being said it is a few late 30's through 40's. A lot of 50's and 60's and a sprinkling of 70's. We even had an D-Day vet that cruised with us pass a year or two ago and one Pacific Theatre Vet that still is with us driving a 45 Willys jeep.

The 16-25 Crowd keeps to themselves and cruises...or rather..parks in a lot down town Lexington known as the pit. Same references as above. Tuners, a few Mustangs, Covettes, etc. Mostly not interested in the older people or older cars. The Street Outlaw shows are going to get some of these kids or other people hurt. Just what being a kid is about I suppose.

Anyway, for us Old Geezers, The 50's Drive in is called the Parkette Drive-in. 4th Friday I have a cruise in there and we fill the place up with New/Old Classics/Originals/Traditional Hot Rods/Rat Rods/Vettes/Mustangs/Challengers/Everything. Get a Dash plaque , Draw for a Door prize and Get a Poor Boy and Fries. You can't beat it or the really nice people who cruise in. Good times.

This was longer than I started it to be, but even you guys in cruising oppressed parts of the country can get some Cruise-In's going. Yeah, it's not the same as rolling all night like back in the day, but it is really good excuse to it out and ride for a while. Maybe hit two or three??

Get a place..Like Parktte...Sonic....Hardee's or Wherever the old Hang out used to be and see if they will let you have a cruise. If they will sponsor it, great. If not, just see they wouldn't mind. I bet when they look at the receipts at the end of the night they will ask you back. Like I said before, we literally have too many. Not a Bad problem to have in the summer.

Where I live, there a large groups of cruisers,
groups as large as 100, mostly tuner cars.

If you want to fit in, get an import, speak Spanish,
hang one of these from your rear view.

Yesterday and today I was in my home town visiting my folks. I went up and down the old strip and it was dead. Granted I did it around 7pm and that was kinda early, but nada.

I may have to take the old Charger up there and cruise it once again, just for nostalgia sake. Maybe, I'll do an impromptu cruise-in announcement. I'm sure some old geezers like me still have hot rods squirreled away.

I wonder what the best way to get the word out would be? Nobody reads newspapers anymore, so that's out. Maybe a city Facebook page or something? I know one of the people at the chamber of commerce, maybe I'll run the idea by them.