There has to be some great stories about cruisin the blvd.  I don't know when the cruising started but it had to be in the 50's or early 60's and went all the way up to the baracade of the late 70's and then the lights went out some time in the 80's.
I lived by the shell station on strub, the cars cruising north would turn up my street and turn around at my house which was on the corner of a cul da sac.  Those v8's would rattle the windows of my bedroom, the kids would be partying and having a blast,  couldn't wait till i could join in.  It could take over a hour to travel about 2 miles on a friday or saturday night.  You never knew what would happen those nights, street race between signals, full on drag races on santa fe springs rd, meet some girls, do some partying, get in some fights, etc..
jim

Very educational photo: bras, Rivieras, Buggy bars and Type 3 panel... Cool

couldn't agree more with you this time.

Hi Deano was just Reading this and Saw you Mentioned Jay Steel  I dont know how well you knew Jay But he just Passed away two Weeks ago he had been sick over a year he was a Great Guy and knew his shit when it came to machine work he did all the machine work on my 67 nova 327 and  some of my Vw stuff.

I remember stick city, they were on the corner of whittier and ocean view.  they had some cool muscle cars back then. They moved out toward's la habra accross from the whittwood mall, at one time they had a few super birds on their lot, I remember checking those cars out thinking they why did they ruin a bitchin looking charger and make that thing with the wing?  I think they were selling them for 2500.00 at the time.  Street Rods moved into where Stick City was, and I remember they had some real bad ass cars in there. 
One night in the summer of 78 I was cruising the blvd. in my red 70 bug (riviera's, zenith carb, ss header, buggy bar), when a bunch other cal look bugs were going the opposite direction,  jeffery hickens waved for me and my buddy (he had a red 70 chevelle with a 396) to follow them, so I did a u turn and caught up.  We went to santa fe springs rd, where these 2 bugs were going to race.  A yellow late model vs a primer blue early one.  prior to when they started there were 4 head lamps facing us, but when the race began 2 disapeared, I still remember wondering what happened to the other set of lamps, when they started bouncing.  I don't remember who won the race, they raced a few times that night but the hook was set with me for wanting a fast bug.  Neither of us could believe what we had just seen and talked about it for the next couple of weeks.  the guy with the blue bug was trying to get his bug into the 10's, which he eventually did, then he followed up on his promise and cut it up into a baja.


blue car, jim bell, got me my job at auto craft machine in la habra
tan car, i think is jeffery hickens
other blue car is ken white's 55
panel at the end is steve vale's.

stiick city was IT.. you would see a straight axel 55 chevy to blown t-buckets there. Spent many a night there cruiz'n,especially during the "van" days. How about the famous stories of the hot chick in the vette that said on the lisc plate frame," If you can beat me your can eat me...." great cruiz'n time when there was ALOT of hot cars on the street.bill

TGFYM

 gosh darn it all to heck,I'll tell you what.....



classic.    carry on please.

Hey Deano, are you missing a bowling ball?

Hey Deano, are you missing a bowling ball?
[/quote]

Oh, boy, that's a story in itself... a new application for rental bowling balls. We were lucky that we didn't kill someone or get thrown in jail!

Okay then.... There was this guy  , who hung around some other guys  who all had nothing to do one Saturday night in La Habra then to get into trouble. About 10:00pm, someone, somewhere hit a telephone pole (not them) and took out the power in most of La Habra, especially around the 300 Bowling Alley (Whittier Blvd, and Cypress). So, this gang decided to visit the bowling alley to see what everyone was doing with no lights on. Once inside, all they found was a bunch of drunks, so these guys decided to steal some bowling balls. One guy grabbed a few balls, while the others opened the main doors, so they could be "bowled" out into the parking lot... Get the picture? The balls were then loaded up into the get-away car, a 1969 Chevy 396/4sp/375hp Chevelle (fast car!). With balls and gang on board, they drove around looking for places to deposit them. The first move was to throw a ball out the side window about 40mph on Imperial Blvd. and Euclid Street, near a construction job site, where it shot right through a wooden shack like a hot knife through butter. Nice. Then, ball #2 was thrown out on Harbor Blvd. going about 50mph where it hit the curb and bounced back and hit the S/S hub cap of this same car! Ouch! Driver was not happy. So, they decided that there needed to be more speed for the third and final ball toss. With that, they blazed up Fullerton Road at full speed and threw the ball out the driver's side window (going about 65mph+). The ball quickly passed the Chevelle, tore across the opposite lanes, hit the corner curb (on Arbolita Drive) and shot up in the air, and cleared the roof of this house! This 16-lb. ball went out of sight into the darkness.... Our gang got the hell out of there in a hurry. They later wondered what those people did when they found a bowling ball in the backyard, doing untold amount of damage.... Of course, this is only a wild tale that was told in third person, and did not include anyone from this forum.... 

HOOLIGANS!!

here's another story, involved a buddy of mine on his way to cruise with his girl friend.
My high school buddy was going to get rid of his mini truck and was trying to decide what to get.  I was trying to tell him he should get a bug and cal look it out, he continued to tell me vw's couldn't beat a v8, noway  no how, and they were too slow.
He ended up buying a used datsun 240z (this was 78).  Anyway this particular night he is driving up beach on his way to cruise, he had just picked up his girlfriend, washed the car etc.  he pulls up to a light, on the other side a cal look bug pulls up, and on the other side of his car a baja bug pulls up.  they were going to race at the light, and weren't even looking at him, so my buddy decides he will join in and make them look foolish.  well they both blew his doors off!  They then all 3 pulled up at the next signal (the vw's were ignoring him), and figured this time he would get on it and show them.  well they blew his doors off again. 
The next week he found a 68 sunroof bug and put a 1776 in it, and we made it a cal look.  With in the year, he swapped out the 1776 for a 2 litre with 48's.

I wonder why people dont just cruise their cars for fun anymore. It seems like there is still a large number of young people into fast cars and classics too. I know that people used to cruise El Camino in the SF Bay Area back in the 60s and 70s.

So what was it? Was this the only thing to do then? I cant believe that all young people were interested in cars at that time. Im very curious. It would be very cool to have a huge scene like this to take part in every weekend.

Jeffery,
were you with me when the girls were flashing us out of that van?  they would pass on one side of the street, then we would run accross the street so they could flash us on the return trip.  I remember there were 3 of us, and those girls flashed us for quite awhile.

I agree there was no better place to be at that time.  I got in a fight one time at the police station, while drunk coming back from the fox hunt at ocir.  I did a jim rockford move with my power wagon, hit a 65 impala and then went down a side street (the guy was trying to run me off the road), the next morning when I checked out my truck my wheels were all blue, with a little dent below the gas filler.  Mark, let this be a lesson to you, the guy was from Lakewood, he got the fighting in public charge, and I got nothing.
There was another time I rode down the boulevard and back on the hood of a ford granada.  lucky I wasn't killed, especially since it was a girl driving the car.
I got in many races, especially with ford mustangs, for some reason they always thought their cars were fast (I think they still think they are fast).  It was even better when they would have their girl friend with them.
Then there are the stories of all the girls, I believe you stayed late one night to give me back my keys since I had left them in the ignition of my bug after being picked up by some girls.  good times!
jim

I'd be glad to have survived it...some crazy stories!