CRUISING
This was our favorite pastime when I was sixteen. My dad and my grandfather both had Ford Falcon station wagons, and this is what I have to drive. I installed an 8 track tape player in ours and hooked up a set of 12" PA speakers from a Lafayette pa system we had used in our band. Young people today had nothing on me with their big stereos. For FM I used an Audiovox FM Convertor which converted your AM radio to FM. Cars back then only had AM radios by the way. We would cruise around the circle of town in one direction, and then turn around and cruise the other direction to see who we didn't see the first time. We met a lot of girls cruising, and for a young lad that was the whole purpose of being there. For some however it was to show off their muscle car. My dad later bought me a 1973 Chevrolet Vega. My friends had Volkswagon Vans, Volkswagon beetles, Karman Ghias, Ford Econoline Vans since we were musicians. We would cruise sometimes until 4 am until we were the only ones left before we went home. There is a place we would go to use the bathroom which is called the Speedy Chef. It is still there now. Cruising is now illegal in Elkin, NC now. It became real popular even after I was a little bit older, however the Elkin Rescue squad was right in the middle of town and the rescue trucks couldn't get out while people were cruising so they passed a law that you would receive a ticket if yor were believed to be cruising. There is no cruising here anymore. There is no place to hang out for the young people. Those good old days are all gone.