Cruisin Whittier Blvd. Stories Thread....

[johnl]

Ok, we have lots of storys from Whittier Blvd., Mark already asked when it all started. But what was the reason for "closing" Whittier Blvd.? Or do people still cruise Whittier Blvd.?

Good question !!  I remember the local neighborhoods getting angry with all of the cars making noise and using their driveways to turn around.  There was a street just past Bob's going towards LA that a gate was installed so that no one could enter the area.

Why people don't do it today?  I would speculate that kids don't have much interest in those things in these times.  Look, you guys are the odd balls in that you still are into cars and don't get asorbed in your computers or other electronics of today.  I watch the youth of today consumed by some gadget in their hand and they have no idea of what is going on around them.  Yes, I know I sound old and I am, but we had fun as kids much different than the youth of today.

Maybe I'll get a car out this Saturday night and take a drive up to Whittier Blvd. and see what is going on.  I'll bet I'm the Lone Ranger out there.

Any of you local guys up for a drive on Saturday night??  If so lets set a location and time to meet and see what is really going on.  I'll bring some Hemi as the VW has issues currently.

[Georg/DFL]

I would speculate that kids don't have much interest in those things in these times.  Look, you guys are the odd balls in that you still are into cars and don't get asorbed in your computers or other electronics of today.  I watch the youth of today consumed by some gadget in their hand and they have no idea of what is going on around them.  Yes, I know I sound old and I am, but we had fun as kids much different than the youth of today.[/b][/i][/color]

Good point, John. There is only one thing to say: Reality beats fiction BY FAR!
Sad to see so many kids living in virtual realitys.

[jhicken]

I don't think that is right everywhere. Go to VWVortex and search GTG [get together]. Here in Jersey there are weekly gatherings of the eurotuner crowd and you'll get crowds of 500 guys who gather, cruise, and shoot the shit about their cars. Also, here in Jersey, during the summer there is a cruise night about practically every night of the week in a different town. These are small towns that have 1/2 mile downtown main streets that the township will reserve parking for the cruisers along the street, as well as allowing cruising up and down the main street. Mosty populated by 70's muscle, hot rods and other street cruisers. A handful of our club goes down to our local Friday night cruise often and we have a special night where the city reserves special parking for our club and we'll get 30 or 40 of our club cars to attend. The age range is shifted though 40's - 60's however there is a younger crowd still present, but only about 30%.

The street life still lives, it just has changed over the years.

-jeffrey

[johnl]

I did some more research regarding drive-in places to eat and did find the Hody's located in Lakewood, CA.  They closed in 1970, but there are photos of this place plus others discussed.

http://www.roadsidepeek.com/roadusa/southwest/california/socal/socaleats/socalcoffeeshop/index6.htm

Life was definately more simple in those great days way back. 

[deano]

By the mid- to  late '70s, Whittier Police began to close off key side streets to discourage U-turns and turn-arounds, which forced cruisers to drive all the way down to Pico Rivera to make a turn back to the east. Even though most businesses were closed by the time the crusing started, and mostly on weekends, I do not think they were the ones complaining. Muscle cars began to get a bad rap in the mid-sevenites, with the first gas "crunch" and gas prices heading upward to 75 cents per... So, public view of all this horsepower was not exactly positive. Bring on the K-Cars. Mini trucks really began to invade Bob's in the late seventies as well.

I recall cruising Bob's one night in my buddy's 1967 Impala 427. We removed the hood and installed a set of injectors sticking out of the hood. We made one pass, and got as far as Colima before two cops pulled us over. They did not like the tall Hilborns, and demanded that we take it home now! It was fun while it lasted. But you couldn't buy a street race with those sticking out of the engine compartment!

[Rennsurfer]

NICE, John! This was torn down right before I moved into the house that I still live in.



That corner ended up being home to Love's BBQ. A very '70s and red interior. It was recently torn down to make way for a Chipotle. Decent burritos, but every time I'm in there, ordering... I always walk around the parking lot on the way to the building and wonder about the good times, great cars, and all of the people that used to spend time on that very site. (sigh)

As for Johnnie's Charbroiler, that was still going strong as a car hangout up until sometime in the '90s. I remember people pulling me over and telling me to take my all original '66 Honda 300 Dream there for Cruise Night. (I still have that bike) I drove up there, one night, and sadly... it was closed down. A Los Angeles County landmark, for sure.

Thank you for posting those sites about those places, John. I'd love to see something started up again in the Lakewood/Downey areas. I remember when people were cruising Bellflower Blvd. from Ramona to Alondra. A bunch of us local kids tried to start it up again in the '80s. We were shut down on the second night. The local Sheriffs were pissed.

You're right about today's current generation of kids. It's mind-blowing to watch them all focused on some silly electronic device. Another reason that I'm grateful to have my childhood when I did. Because I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of what used to be in So Cal.

[Worm]

Actually, Whittier Blvd is quite long... it starts in La Habra and runs through Whittier, Pico Rivera, Montebello, and into East LA.  The part with all the stories is only a mile or so out front of Bob's Big Boy Hamburgers.

Okay, for those of you that are unfamiliar with this cruising Whittier, and how long is the street, etc...  Think about the movie, American Graffitti and multiply the sheer number of incredibly hot, fast, cruising cars by about 50 and extend the street length times 10.  It could take up to an hour to go from one end, turn around and make a full cruise back.  I could'nt resist this thread.  I read the first page and skipped to here.  I'll go back later and see that I hopefully didnt repeat too much.  I grew up in Brea.  Brea basically bordered next to east Whitteir.  I remember taking my first car (my Moms), a 69 Pontiac Lemans (cheaper version of the GTO), got into so many races and ended up burning the rear tires bald after only having my license 7 months.  My Mom took the car back to Sears and said something was wrong with the tires as there was no tread left and they were only a few months old.  Ha!  They gave this nice ol' gal new tires.  Too funny.  I never told her.   I then bought a 67 Fastback and we would pile 5 or 6 people in it sitting on laps, etc, and cruise the blvd.  Scotty's Drive In was our place.  Across the street from the Plush Que pool hall.  Our main goal was to street race for decent money and two of my bros both had 1970 Oldsmoble 442's (4 barrell carb, 4 speed, dual exhaust).  Looks like your grandmas car all low in the back and kinda lame, but the 70, vinyl top and hub caps, was one of the 10 fastest production cars ever out of Detroit.  A few mods and these cars were screamers. 
Okay, a non VW racing story.  We snatch a race with Mr Chevy Nova guy.  He spent tons of money and we heard the car was a pig.  $150, standing start, on Greenleaf Ave 11:30 p.m.  No problem.  We cheat...... we win.  Its that simple.  So, we arrive on time and there were literally 200 people lining Greenleaf that all heard about this race somehow.  Turns out the Nova dude works at Whittier Speed Shop (V8 hot rod shop).  The three of us rallied up and my bro Ritchie took the $300 in hand and we dropped him off at the finish area.  I came back to the start and said I'll start the race Hands Up style.  They agreed.  Hands up is simply, both arms in the air and when they come down.....GO.  (just like the guy on Pinks...simple).  Now, the 442 is a dog off the line(tires break loose too easy to hit it hard), its ALL top end and midrange.  We had done this many times before.  We cheat... we win.  So my bro in the 442 stages and then he knows to look for my hands, not my arms. The signal to hit it for us was when I closed my hands, then...... my arms go down.  Hole shot, game over.  He wins.  We thought, no problem.  Well I am at the start, Ritchie is at the finish and this massive crowd starts getting really aggressive about us hiding nitrous, and that we ran the gas on em' and didnt tell.  Stupid people, we cheated the easy way.  So I ended up running down the middle of Greenleaf avoiding traffic with 50 people chasing me.  They were yelling to attack my boy Ritchie and HE starts running towards ME!  The 442 goes sideways across Greenleaf, slides in hot near us and we both DOVE into the open windows and bailed out of there yelling and laughing.
We were not able to take that car back to Whittier for quite some time.
Hope I was'nt too long winded.  (and non-VW)
The really sad part is, there are SO many stories about that place it could fill a book.  It was BY FAR.............THE place to go.  PERIOD!

[DKK Ted]

This is my two cents, I cruzed the other end of Whittier Blvd. back in the day with my 67' Camero Rally Sport W/327ci W/factory heads. But when my foot felt a little heavy, I was off to Whittier. And now I live in Whittier, and love it. Last year looks like at Rubys Dinner, they started a cruz night every Friday with no problems with the police. But these car are American musle cars only. Why couldn't the VW crowd do the same thing at a spot in Whittier on Whittier Blvd. My wife and I went to Rubys for a burger and there was a flyer for the cruz nights to start up again next month. I called and was told that it was open for American pre 74' cars only, NO VW's. But I agree, be nice to get a few guys together, take a friendly cruz down Whittier Blvd. to a spot and just hang out and talk about the old days.  

[low oval]

Ok, we have lots of storys from Whittier Blvd., Mark already asked when it all started. But what was the reason for "closing" Whittier Blvd.? Or do people still cruise Whittier Blvd.?

Actually, when around the time I started driving (mid 70's) they started putting up the baracades on all the side streets from coliima to painter. At that time you could only drive on the blvd, and couldn't exit (2 or 3 miles).  Then in the early 80's I heard the city of Van Nuys shut off their lights on cruise nights, which ended cruising in that city.  Whittier followed and that is how they stopped the cruising.  I remember coming back home and visiting my parents driving down whittier blvd. with all the street lights out, that was wierd.
John is right about the bar accross Edmaru (which was the street Bob's Big Boy was on the corner of). I don't when they put that thing in, but it was there when I was a kid.
I know in the late 60's and early 70's the residents were getting tired of vandalism occuring, my parents house was no exception, the kids would throw beer cans, bottles, trash, etc. on our front and side yard and sometimes into our pool in the back.  My dad one time was approached by Whittier's finest and asked if they could park in our driveway on occasion, which my dad ok'ed.  The city would have motorcycles cops hide in our driveway on some Friday and Saturday nights.  Those cops would have a field day popping kids for illeagal u-turns and doing burnouts.  I'm sure the businesses who weren't open at night also complained.

Worm, I've been waiting for you to chime in, I knew you'd have some good stories.   Plush Cue, I forgot about that place, I used to hang out there as a kid, my stingray was stolen from that place.  use'd to get stoned and play foosball there all the time when I got a little older, in fact some of the guy's from the club would hang out there with us.  Scotties, used to be bully beef, corner of ocean view and whittier, huge crowds would hang there as well if I remember right that is were the muscle car crowd would be.

[Jesse/DVK]

These stories are great guys! Wish I could be there. Time to built a time machine .

I'm 21 now and among my friend one of the few who has an (old) car and loves to drive. There aren't a lot of cruise nights here in the Netherlands. There are some get to gathers but everybody is just parked the whole night. No cool driving etc. That's really bad..

The only place I can remember which is about the same as you guys describe is the DFL meeting in Hannover on the 30th of April. It's at an oldskool diner and there is some cruising, great atmosphere.

Can you guys post some pics of the early days?

[Sarge]

Here's some more interesting reading..... I like what HOTRODDON had to say (scroll up a bit) 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3691294

[Rennsurfer]

HAHA!! Good stuff, Worm. Sounds like typical stuff that you were involved with, back then. Nothin' but good times. Keep the stories flowin', people.

Jesse, the only problem with postin' pics is that we were too busy havin' fun and living for that to happen. Sarge and I were talking about this at Drag Day. We were thinking how cool it would've been to had a video camera, back then, or even photos to have. I couldn't afford a movie cam and even though I brought a camera just about everywhere... even I was guilty of not taking pics of Whittier Blvd. Wish that I did. Probably be the only ones, today. HAHA!!

Oh well, at least we have the great memories and people are kind enough to post the stories up here. We need to start a VW rally thread so we can gather up what little pics there are and post up the fliers. Those were some fun times, as well.

[johnl]

Here is a thought.  For you locals the Garden Grove Main Street Cruise goes on every Friday night.  It opens at 4PM and usually runs until 7:30 or 8:00PM.  Here is a link to check it out from my friend Dave Lindsay http://public.fotki.com/wackydave/cruise_nights/cruise-nights-2009/02-20-09-historic-m/

This cruise has been going on for about 14 years and I use to never miss it.  Went last Friday for the first time in about a year.  There are a few places on the street to eat from $$ to very reasonable.  I've seen VW's there before and they will let domestic and foreign in. 

If any of you are interested, let me know and I'll show.  I only live about a mile from there and if anyone is interested you can come to the house after and see the garage and some of my junk.  Currently it is a mess, but you are invited.  Only thing is I usually go to be early on Friday night as I get up at 4 to 4:30AM to go to Cars & Coffee in Irvine.

[low oval]

heard this event is closed to foreign cars isn't it? (vw's, honda's etc.)  I  would be up for this maybe April 10 or 17.

[Worm]

How about a thread on how you cheated to win a race?  Ooooooh theres one for yah.

After the hand close cheat start I wrote above, I thought I could share another silly old guy "secret"

In the hot rod V8 days back at Whittier Blvd.  One of our boyz had a Chevy Malibu that had a TON of torque in the small block and hardly any top end.  He was solid stoplight to stoplight, but top end he ALWAYS had his doors blown off.  Fun, in your face races took place at the traffic lights, but serious money races were always held where you could air out those motors in a decent distance.  Tired of losing money, this sneaky little bastard knew he pulled the hole shot every time and was always ahead of the car next to him until that car opened up and smoked him in the distance.  So he (this is great) installed a toggle switch on his dash that went directly to his tail lights so when he blew ahead of his goat and was in front, he immediately hit the toggles and the brake lights went on!!!!!!   And 9 out of 10 times the other guy would freak and hit his brakes as well, thinking that the police were about or something.  He stayed on the gas and kept a goin' and started winning money regular like. 

If yah ain't cheatin; yah ain't tryin'!

I'll quit if I have done too much but truth is I have a ton of these stories.......

Worm-O-Matic

[Rennsurfer]

I'll quit if I have done too much but truth is I have a ton of these stories.......

You better NOT quit. More stories, please.

[OgCalLook]

I'll quit if I have done too much but truth is I have a ton of these stories.......

You better NOT quit. More stories, please.

X2!!

[johnl]

heard this event is closed to foreign cars isn't it? (vw's, honda's etc.)  I  would be up for this maybe April 10 or 17.

I just had a phone conversation with Gary Brown (Gary's Woodcrafts) on Main St.  Gary runs the show and assurres me that ALL foreign cars including VW's are welcome.   With that said I hope some of you will put this event on your list.

I may or may not be there on the 10th as it is my birthday and Christie and I are doing other things (Disneyland) earlier in the day.  For sure I will come any other date that you guys will show.  Just let me know in advance and hope to see everyone there.

John

[Brian Rogers]

Bump this back up. Back in the day I dated a girl who lived just off Whittier to the west of Bobs. At this time I drove a '62 T-bird with S/S Creagars and Bellflower pipes, blocks on the rear. White boy in a lowrider     Like waving a red flag in front of a bull, cops would fallow me into her driveway wanting to know where I was going. She was used to it, but I didn't last with her or getting rousted.

[low oval]

what year was this?

[Brian Rogers]

'Bout 70 or 71. The barracades hadn't gone up yet and I was shooting pool at Black Jacks at that time. Or we sort of met at the coffee shop a Uricks. She waited tables there to get through school. I'd some times get to take her the long way home.

[low oval]

man, when I did an all nighter  I used to go to jack's for breakfast.  also went to high school with a urich kid, he was a year older.  always had nice cars.
you and your girlfriend were a little before my time (mid to late 70's).

[low oval]

I was urged at Nick's to keep this thread going, so here's another story.
begining the summer after high school my parents would go to europe for 3 weeks, i would come home from college just before they left and would have the house to myself.  anyway I would sometimes throw a little pre cruise get together on friday or saturday night (it helped to be in the right state of mind in those days).  We would usually start it up in the early afternoon, this particular evening some of my friends were in the house, while me and the rest of my friends were out at the pool.  Out of nowhere we here this car screeching it's tires as it drives around the corner of my house.  We all take a look over the wall to see an abandoned yellowish/gold datsun b210 in the street.  That's when we started hearing the siren.  Now in those days I remember there being 3 stages of partiers.
1.  the paranoid one,  they all started pannicking and running around.
2.  the mellow one, that was me, but it was my house.
3.  the one who doesn't think he appears altered.
so now we see whittier's finnest pull up at my house and check out the car, the cop looks around and decides to come and inquire if we know or saw the driver of the car.  Well, prior to this we decided I would have to confront the cop, as well as the guy who thinks he's fine (everyone else ran for cover).  The cop rings the door bell, of which I have to answer, when I open the door you could see the look on the cop's face and he kind of took a step back.  luckily he ignored what was going on, and just asked if we knew the owner of the car and his where abouts, which we didn't.  we had walked outside with the cop (quickly), and now I was trying to get my buddy away from the cop, and let him get on his way, but no my buddy wants to just bs with the cop. Just one more lucky event.
not a cruising story, but we did go cruising afterwards.
jim

[Brian Rogers]

I lived in Whittier 'till '74ish or so. Kid I ran around with had a nice '61 or '62 Impala 2door hardtop. This was in '68 when Jimi had released Axis Bold as Love. Kelly had a Muntz 4track with that tape ONLY. Don't want to remember how many times it got played on cruise nights. Hated to listen to that one until I recently started playing guitar again.

[jimi323]

I lived in Whittier 'till '74ish or so. Kid I ran around with had a nice '61 or '62 Impala 2door hardtop. This was in '68 when Jimi had released Axis Bold as Love. Kelly had a Muntz 4track with that tape ONLY. Don't want to remember how many times it got played on cruise nights. Hated to listen to that one until I recently started playing guitar again.

i'm 27 years old...and my greatest sadness is to haven't ever seen Jimi Hendrix... only you can really know...but i think that 60's and 70's were  a great age to live..
better than today...and if it isn't true...i like to think that...
(sorry for my english)

Fabio

[Nico86]

 only you can really know...but i think that 60's and 70's were  a great age to live..
better than today...and if it isn't true...i like to think that...

You're not alone 

[LuftsickTero]

Van Nuys movie trailer from youtube

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z3MOXwdkJp8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Z3MOXwdkJp8</a>

[jhicken]

yup, just like I remember it.....

-jeffrey

[marc1951]

Whittier Blvd!!!   Where do I start?
I've piloted several cars down the Blvd on a weekend night.
I (and everyone else) would wait in line for an hour just to cruise through the Bob's car service. Of course, you wanted everyone to notice you so you had to do a burn out while looking cool and then just chug out the exit like it was no big deal. I had a corvair powered bug which got a lot of attention but after waiting so long in line I got a little anxious when it was my turn and punched it a little too much.......almost hit a car hop and nuked the trans. It's not cool trying to push a broken car out of the way while everyone is laughing at you!
For a while (different car) I would take out my steady date and after dropping her off would head up to Whittier
Blvd and if I couldn't find a party or get into some other trouble would pull into Bob's just before 1am (when the car hops got off) and give one of them a "ride"  <grin> I was such a bastard!

Anyone remember Howard Muse's (supercharged "Mouse Trap") cruise car? He basically took an H gasser and hung lights on it and went looking for some action. The Whitter Blvd traffic jam wasn't a good enviroment for a race car, though. LOL

At 10:00 the police would start walking the Blvd and busting people for curview and loitering. Someone in our club knew the owner of Marvin Reality which was on the blvd and we all had notes saying it was ok to be there on their property........pretty cool.

I could go on and on.......most of the time I got into trouble, it started on Whittier Blvd.....sigh!

Marc Buehler

[wolfswest]

nice, I have to say it again, very good topic!

I'm gonna search van nuys blvd on dvd, like the trailer.