Woodward cruising - 60's and 70's.

**Bigb23** · January-16-11, 10:36 PM

I'm now reading a book that came out late last year, called -
“Woodward Avenue – Cruising the Legendary Strip” by Robert Genat.
Great photos of Ted's, Totem Pole, Susie Q's, Mars, Maverick's, Big Town, and the Hunter House. Also the stories of Hodges Dodge, Royal Pontiac, Gratiot Auto Supply, and Hollywood Speed Shop. And it has the insiders view of the Big 3 engineers testing one off 60's muscle cars on the strip.
My cruising experiences were as a kid in my older brothers back seat in the early 60's and when I got my license in 1970.

Of course, the book has all of the famous places on Woodward of the 50's and 60's, how about posting the little known Detroit area cruising hot spots of the time ?

Mine was at the Burger King at 12 and Gratiot - 1971 – 74, in my 71 Nova Super Sport.
Great times.

**gazhekwe** · January-16-11, 10:58 PM

Daly's on Greenfield near Joy. Of course, my girlfriends and I walked there, no car.

**preserve** · January-17-11, 11:59 AM

A & W, Southfield/Fort St. in Lincoln Park

**luckycar** · January-17-11, 01:58 PM

Northwood Shopping Center,until the cops threw us out.The lot in front of Pier 1,until the cops threw us out.The lot between Coral Gabels and Janet Davis Cleaners,until the cops threw us out.This would have been 1973-75.Now I just drive around in the 1967 442,and park where the cops won't throw me out!

**cmubryan** · January-18-11, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by luckycar

Northwood Shopping Center,until the cops threw us out.The lot in front of Pier 1,until the cops threw us out.The lot between Coral Gabels and Janet Davis Cleaners,until the cops threw us out.This would have been 1973-75.Now I just drive around in the 1967 442,and park where the cops won't throw me out!

Anyone have any history on the Northwood Shopping Center? How long has it been there? Was that grocery store always there as a Kroger?

**lpg** · January-18-11, 10:38 AM

Daly's on Dix and Outer Drive in Lincoln Park with my 68 Road Runner was my favorite. Sometimes the Shack on Fort St. near Goddard [[Wendy's is there now). Couple of times at Little Skippers on Fort in Wyandotte. Only 1 time Blazo's on Michigan Ave east of Telegraph. That's where I got into it with my then girlfriends soon to be husband.

**luckycar** · January-18-11, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by cmubryan

Anyone have any history on the Northwood Shopping Center? How long has it been there? Was that grocery store always there as a Kroger?

I seem to remember a JC Penny there.Maybe a WC Grant?I may be foggy on this....

**RickBeall** · January-18-11, 01:02 PM

My Dad was a pharmacist at the Cunningham's in the Northwood shopping center in the early 1970's. It was an all night store so the parade of characters never stopped, and of course got looser and wilder as the night progressed. I only remember the gist of his stories, but not the stories per se. I remember him talking about a truck pulling up with a rock band in it, they had their own generator, and they had a concert right there in the parking lot with the hippie chicks getting all crazy, and everyone being drunk or stoned. The ice cream truck in the nearby park sold dope.

And just by a happenstance, I am currently writing a song about cruising good ol' Highway #1, Woodward. I'll have to post a link to it in this thread, and we can all drive Highway #1 one more time.

**cmubryan** · January-18-11, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by RickBeall

My Dad was a pharmacist at the Cunningham's in the Northwood shopping center in the early 1970's. It was an all night store so the parade of characters never stopped, and of course got looser and wilder as the night progressed. I only remember the gist of his stories, but not the stories per se. I remember him talking about a truck pulling up with a rock band in it, they had their own generator, and they had a concert right there in the parking lot with the hippie chicks getting all crazy, and everyone being drunk or stoned. The ice cream truck in the nearby park sold dope.

And just by a happenstance, I am currently writing a song about cruising good ol' Highway #1, Woodward. I'll have to post a link to it in this thread, and we can all drive Highway #1 one more time.

Nice! Where was Cunningham's located in the shopping center? Do you remember any of the other stores there?

**luckycar** · January-18-11, 03:06 PM

The Cunninghams/Apex/Arbor/Rite Aid was at the opposite end of the center from Krogers.

**cmubryan** · January-18-11, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by luckycar

The Cunninghams/Apex/Arbor/Rite Aid was at the opposite end of the center from Krogers.

I believe it was Perry's not Arbor before it was Rite Aid and then closed. Anyway, how long has Kroger been there? Any other major stores that were once at Northwood?

**eriedearie** · January-18-11, 06:50 PM

Well BigB - my cruisin' was mostly at the A&W on Conner near Gratiot and down the way a block or two was Woods Drive In, across from Detroit City Airport. Big Boys on 8 Mile [[near Dequindre?). Once in a while we'd venture out in the burbs and cruise through Ted's. This was around 1963-67. Usually in my 1960 Chevy and later in the 1967 Chevy Impala or my friend's 1959 Dodge. Always had Motown Sounds blarin' on the radio of course.

I recently went to a class reunion and one of the guys confessed to me that him and his friends would always eye the lot for my 60 Chevy cause they knew a whole carload of us girls would be in it. I never knew that little fact. I often wondered how those boys could find us so quickly. Little did we know that 5 or 6 sets of eyes were scouting for that car.

Gosh, good times, great fun, no worries, happy days!

**Kathleen** · January-18-11, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by cmubryan

I believe it was Perry's not Arbor before it was Rite Aid and then closed. Anyway, how long has Kroger been there? Any other major stores that were once at Northwood?

Correct. It was a Perry drugstore, then Rite Aid, which closed. The building was remodelled inside and reconfigured with its own parking lot for the Beaumont Hospital Daycare facility while all the hospital construction has been going on.

There was a small J.C. Penney store in Northwood over where the Office Depot/Party City/Dunham's stores are located.

**RickBeall** · January-18-11, 07:10 PM

There used to be a Kresge Dime Store at Northwood in the middle somewhere. You walk in, the old beaten wooden floor, the clothes and stuff in these big rectangular bins on the floor. The Cunningham's had a soda fountain. I think they all did. They had all you could eat fish on Fridays. The little personal size juke boxes with the flip pages were full of Motown hits. By the 1970's I think the soda fountain was gone.

**Bigb23** · January-18-11, 11:56 PM

There seems to be a lot of downriver memories here. The author of the book grew up in Allen Park and cruised the A&W there in the early 60's. He even gives the Google Earth coordinates of the restaurant, and it's still there.

45 15' 56.81" N, 83 12' 02.95" W [[It's not the sixties anymore !)

There seems to have been about 15 Daly drive ins back then.

**eno** · January-19-11, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by RickBeall

My Dad was a pharmacist at the Cunningham's in the Northwood shopping center in the early 1970's. It was an all night store so the parade of characters never stopped, and of course got looser and wilder as the night progressed. I only remember the gist of his stories, but not the stories per se. I remember him talking about a truck pulling up with a rock band in it, they had their own generator, and they had a concert right there in the parking lot with the hippie chicks getting all crazy, and everyone being drunk or stoned. The ice cream truck in the nearby park sold dope.

And just by a happenstance, I am currently writing a song about cruising good ol' Highway #1, Woodward. I'll have to post a link to it in this thread, and we can all drive Highway #1 one more time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5FN6hg9cxg

**Bigb23** · January-19-11, 12:15 AM

Well, so much for those coordinates !

**RickBeall** · January-19-11, 06:31 PM

Hi Eno,

Mr Pharmacist, give me some energy! Ha ha, I never heard that one before. I wish my dear old Dad was still alive to hear that one. Well, I can send the link to my Sis.

**BagAJellyDonuts** · January-19-11, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by cmubryan

Nice! Where was Cunningham's located in the shopping center? Do you remember any of the other stores there?

There was a Florsheim shoes, McDevit's religious stuff store [[great place to pick up a few extra scapulars) Maskills hardware. Cunninghams had a soda fountain, The cool part was way back then the stores had displays. As a kid you always had to do the "jumping jack" along the glass that made you look like you were floating in air.

BTW it was a Woolworth's not a Kresge, don't know what the difference was, at least it wasn't a Ben Franklin

**Wingnatic** · January-19-11, 07:12 PM

For me it was hanging out at the Totem Pole and Big Boy's . Woodward was always mentioned in the car mags based in California during those times . Wasn't there a nurses uniform/scrubs place at the shopping center ? I could have sworn it used to be called Foley's uniforms . maybe Life Uniforms then and now . It would make sense having the hospital nearby

**RickBeall** · January-20-11, 05:43 PM

Woolworth's ... that must be why I don't remember it having that little pet section that Kresge's always seemed to have with the painted turtles, gold fish and bubbling water.

**RickBeall** · January-30-11, 02:13 PM

Put on your fringe leather jacket and pile into the car of your friend who is a couple years older than you, get a couple Q's or whatever and crank this on your stereo.

This is a link to a song I just wrote about cruising Woodward:

SoundClick.com

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10211305

or here's a direct but long link:

http://jamq.org/jamqueuemusic/StLoJ1...-Rick_KeyE.m3u

After writing this, I was stuck in the 60's for a couple days and my wife had to talk me down.

**eno** · January-30-11, 02:44 PM

psychedelicize me brother Beall. Got the suburban boy blues.

**gazhekwe** · January-30-11, 10:18 PM

The music sent me on a trip, too. Very nice. Cruising along with the windows open and the radio up loud, the whole summer night is ours, until midnight, anyway. Darn curfew!

**grumpyoldlady** · January-30-11, 11:18 PM

We cruised Daly's on Groesbeck just north of 8 Mile Rd, and Big Boy's on Gratiot...both of them..the one around 9 mile and the one farther out...can't remember just where. Also there was a place on Harper just north of Cadieux, but can't remember the name of that one either. Me and my brand new yellow '68 Firebird convertible, along with a few friends made the rounds. Sure wish I hadn't sold that car in 1974. It was getting rusty and had gone through more than a couple trannys. I sold it for...now don't beat me up....money for a down payment on a '74 Gremlin, lol.