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August 18, 2006
Cruisin' in the Past
I'm going to take a break from condo's and HOA's for today and write about a local charity event that grew from a few people who wanted to have some fun and raise a little money in 1995, to an event that drew 1.7 million people, from all over the US and the world last year. I live in Michigan and grew up in Detroit. Cars were our lives. Everyone had a freind or relative who worked for GM, Ford or Chrysler, or one of their many suppliers. I hit driving age during the very best years of US cars, when the "muscle" cars made their debut. I used to be able to do just about anything to repair or re-model cars then. (Today, I can barely find the oil dipstick) Passed on from parents to children, this passion isn't so much trying to re-live the "good old days", as paying respect to the people who have restored, maintained, waxed and so carefully drive those cars that I wanted to drive back then.
The "Woodward Dream Cruise" is a one-day celebration of big, fast, gas-gulping, smoke-belching cars. Not autos, not sisified hybids, but real, honest-to-god driving machines. Thousands will descend on Woodward tomorrow (actually they've been here driving around all week, but tomorrow is the real event). Woodward is the main drag running from Downtown Detroit for some 30 miles out through the suburbs. It's straight, 8 lanes, a boulevard most of the way. About 10 mile north of the city line, a stretch of Woodward used to be fairly quiet, with one of the classic drive-in restaurants, Ted's Drive-in, located near the center of this stretch. If you had a fast car, this is where you came to test it against the best. Oh, there were other "strips" in other parts of the city and suburbs, but this was the one to drive on if you wanted to show off. Ted's is gone now, and this stretch of Woodward is now filled with offices and condos, with traffic that is heavy and constant. Kids are too busy on their cell phones and clogging up the malls to spend time just cruising. It was our way of getting out of the house and meeting with friends.
For 12 hours tomorrow they'll cruise up and down Woodward, showing off their lovingly restored GTO's, Camaro's, Charger's, Barracuda's, Corvettes, Cadillac's, Mustang's, 442's, Road Runners........You'll hear hemi's, 350 4-barrel's, 440 6-barrel's.......you'll hear the Hurst gears shifting, hear the squeals, and smell that rubber that's left on the road as they peel off. And no one will mention the price of gas for a day.
So tomorrow, my wife and I will take a couple of lawn chairs, a cooler, an old transistor radio I somehow still have (no iPod, oldies seem to sound just right on a tinny little speaker), and find a spot to park myself for awhile and just enjoy the day, inhaling exhasut fumes, eating a real burger and having a couple beers. Everyone deserves at least one day a year devoted entirely to whatever it is they want to do. The "Woodward Dream Cruise" was started by individuals with a love of cars, and volunteers still run it today. They must be doing something right, we're expecting 40,000 cars and over 2 million people this year.
For more info on the "Woodward Dream Cruise" visit their web site at: http://www.woodwarddreamcruise.com/ or :http://dreamcruisephotos.com/; http://jalopnik.com/cars/2006-woodward-dream-cruise/;
also, a neat video; and a great blog from last year; and the latest news coverage and videos. Enjoy, I will!
Posted by joewest at August 18, 2006 4:06 PM