Woodward Cruise? Nahhh, Telegraph was it!!

[Meddle]

The Woodward cruise is just a newfangled, Yuppie version of what Telegraph used to be like every weekend all summer. Between about Joy Rd and McNichols or so was jammed.

Dearborn Heights and Redford Township PDs had to step in just to keep traffic moving. Parking lots of every fast food restaraunt along the way were packed.

New cars, old cars, custom cars, street rods, everything you could think of.

[gazhekwe]

Telegraph is where we hung out too, from Mackenzie territory.

[Jman]

Newfangled? I was cruising Wooward before there was a Dearborn Heights.

Back then, the most popular vehicle in that area was the farm tractor.

[dtowncitylover]

Tell that to my aunts and uncles, my mom and dad and all of their friends, sorry Woodward was the place to cruise hands down. Perhaps Telegraph, too, but it's not as cool [[or iconic) as Woodward.

[313WX]

It's all a matter of opinion.

Far eastsiders would say the same thing about Gratiot.

[Fury13]

Yep, you tended to cruise near your neighborhood. For eastsiders it was always Gratiot, for westsiders it was Telegraph. For everyone else it was Woodward -- which was always the most popular of the three cruising strips.

[Gsgeorge]

The WOODWARD dream cruise wouldn't be anything without WOODWARD.

[reddog289]

Cause I am from the far westside I would hit the GRAPH, When I was a teen.My last two years in high school were spent on Telegraph and on Main St in Plymouth.When I had my Comet running though Telegraph was undergoing construction and so I avoided it.I enjoyed this years Telegraph cruise,Might have enjoyed Woodward more if I wasn't so late.As for the tractor jokes about Telegraph. My Dad said they cruised the Graph when it was a dirt road. My Mom hit Woodward back inthe 50,s and said I should have been there.

[Bobl]

This Eastsider often cruised Woodward, way back when.
Big Boys, Totem Pole, Ted's were stops. Trowbridge Rd. was a diversion.
Loved Totem Poles "secret sauce", and those cute but elusive Oakland County girls!

We were known in some circles as "the beasts from the east"....

[gnome]

Attachment 2728

When you can use a street name to deliver the message that your car can out-run anything on the road, - a street name that is known nationwide for being an unofficial test track - I think one can safely assert that Woodward was number 1 in the nation for cruising.

Telegraph? I'd say a distant third way behind Gratiot.

[satellite beach]

In about 1970 Hot Rod mag ranked the best steet strips and cars. They had Woodward as #1 ,Sunset Strip out west, followed by Telegraph.We had two out of the top three.The cool thing about the graph was white shirts from Ford would sneak down with prototypes to see how they held up.You could see some bad iron hanging out in the Corvetts parking lot.

[Gannon]

That's cool, 'Beach, thanks for the confirmation.


My world was Telegraph, but we were a decade late for the real horsepower wars.


Redford and Dearborn Heights cops sure were fun to play cat-n-mouse with...bummer when we got caught. Luckily there was always some testosterone meathead with a louder or more obnoxious car for cover!



That might make an interesting storyline, memories from those engineers along with their driving records as proof. We know each one of the car companies test-ran their stuff, but my guess is GM and Dodge didn't see fit to go all the way over to Ford's home strip very often...but Telegraph WAS on the way to the Detroit Dragway from Pontiac and the Bloomfields!


Simply at Dix, as my sister used to hear those radio ads.

[luckycar]

Every town I visited in California in the 1970s had a small version of the dream cruise.And I mean every town.I imagined this went on all over the country in the 50s thru the 70s.It was a way for kids to hang out ,meet up,check each other out.Sort of like facebook or texting,but with the people talking to each other in person!I did all three streets back in the day.I remember Woodward dying out first,then Telegraph with Gratiot holding on thru the 80s.I'm just glad that can I can be here to see all 3 have their cruises in the summer.The Fort St. cruise earlier in summer is great too.

[gazhekwe]

The movie American Grafitti celebrates cruising, southern California style:

Tagline: Where were you in '62?
Plot: A couple of high school grads spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/

It's always worth a look this time of year. Harrison Ford appears in his first big credited role in a Hollywood blockbuster as Bob Falfa.

[missn]

The movie American Grafitti celebrates cruising, southern California style:

Tagline: Where were you in '62?
Plot: A couple of high school grads spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/

It's always worth a look this time of year. Harrison Ford appears in his first big credited role in a Hollywood blockbuster as Bob Falfa.

Actually, American Grafitti was set in the San Joaquin Valley. Definitely different from Sunset Strip or the San Fernando Valley. Much more like Middle America in the Stockton and Modesto of 1962.

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "Telegraph? I'd say a distant third way behind Gratiot."

"Cruising the graph" was a pretty widely known phrase back in the 60 -70's era. The other I remember was Gratiot, ironically I never remember hearing one thing about Woodward until the last 10 or 20 years. Never heard one word about it back in the 70's. I guess it just mattered where you hung out. But to say Telegraph wasn't much is just ignorance. The graph' on Friday and Saturday or about any night was just one huge hang-out with classic and built cars with several quarter mile tracks. Keep in mind, Telegraph goes right thru Ford employee suburbia. We had several "Hypo" shops out this way, Ramchargers etc.

For whatever reason or maybe it's just the way it appeared, the cops just ignored us out on Telegraph. [[Most of the time)

[Sstashmoo]

"Simply at Dix,"

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! At Detroit dragway! wheel to wheel competion, See Dyno Don Nicholson is his Color me gone... You'll pay for the whole seat and only use the edge. .. Still remember those radio ads.

[gazhekwe]

It was SIBLEY at Dix, not simply at Dix. The Drag strip was located at Sibley at Dix.
...The Little Red Wagon, roaring down the track with its front wheels 16 feet straight up in the air! Sunday, Sunday...

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "hanging out in the Corvetts parking lot."

Where was that at?

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "It was SIBLEY at Dix,"

I know what he meant, and yes I know where SIBLEY is...

[Gannon]

as my sister used to hear

I know exactly where it was...

[Meddle]

Quote: "hanging out in the Corvetts parking lot."

Where was that at?

I'm guessing they mean E.J. Korvette's at Telegraph & W. Chicago, N/W corner. Sort of like a K-Mart or Target.

[Sstashmoo]

Oh I remember them, just couldn't place on one Telegraph. So that's where it was.. Probably seen it and didn't pay any attention [[ or was going too fast . I heard the name EJ Korvettes was derived from they were eleven Jewish investors and they were all Korean Veterans. Eleven Jewish Korean Veterans. Anyone else ever hear that? Urban myth? Those were nice stores incidentally.

[Gannon]

Korvette's was on the SOUTHwest corner of W.Chicago and Telegraph...where the Bally's and doctor's offices are now...the lazier health nuts going to Bally's use the old escalators!

[satellite beach]

That's the place.Everyone would hang out and swap lies uhh stories about how fast they were.