A smile for these times. It was great growing up during this era. Gas was fifty cents a gallon. I remember we were shocked when it reached a dollar. Ha.
My poor mother…I burned so much rubber…:)
We cruised to a shopping center that was at the edge of town, parked and talked with school buddies.
I fondly remember a time when I stopped to talk with the guy who would become my husband, and someone I knew parked on the other side of my car, so I rolled down my other window. Then someone my ex knew pulled on the other side of his ’72 Le Mans, and that continued until there were twenty or so cars lined up and we all had our windows down so we could talk to each other, like the game telephone. Nothing like that ever happened again.
Enjoy the time of joy and innocence. I feel bad for the younger ones who have no idea how powerful cars used to be, as well as the fins and styles.
Edited to add:
So I was thinking about this post, and I thought that I left the impression that I had one of these classic cars and was well off and spoiled.
Okay, so at the time of cruisin’, I was three years out from my folks’ divorce, and still trying to make sense of it all while going through puberty, no less. Very trying time, when I thought if I didn’t get out of the house, I was going to burst. My Mom had traded in the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser for a ’76 Cutlass and let me go out.
At this same time, she was serving cheese soup over crackers as my dinner on more than a few nights. This was quite a change for me, as we had never worried about money before and I just wasn’t grasping why Mom was feeding me crackers as my supper.
So, yeah, cruisin’ was my escape and I could feel normal for a time.
Just wanted to clarify. I am sick of reading comments about how some folks didn’t get to cruise, and those of us who did, were spoiled brats. Most of us cruisin’ were not the rich kids of our small town.