border: 1px solid; We meet a lot of talented artists through our Photo lab LA events. It would be interesting to see where everyone is at now. Copyright 2022 Goodguys Rod & Custom, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Since I had just completed several years Makes an H2 seem like a Chevette! The candy paints, the graphics in the side sculpting, low profile white line tires, low stance(hydraulics?) Somehow, the industry continues to grow. Wednesday night was always cruise night on Van Nuys Boulevard. Van Nuys Cruise Night is shaping up to be a long term event, every 3rd wednesday of the month it's happening! The latest edition of Van Nuys Cruise Night, a San Fernando Valley tradition reborn on the thirdWednesdayof every month, drew several dozen vintage cars and many spectators last week. Go wrap yourself in bubble wrap wuss. I always had a change of clothes on mine. The good old days vs reality! Van Nuys Airport on December 03, 2016 in Van Nuys, California. The ritzy, private enclave is set in a remote stretch of hillside between Brentwood and Beverly Hills just north of Westwood. 1940-ish six unit apartment complex that occupied the space between 'our' Which is your favorite ride? var plc439655 = window.plc439655 || 0; Far cry from todays plasti-dip craze. Please observe posted parking signs. Not only riding, open beverage container was legal (if your were 21+) since the driver could not reach it. Muscle cars in the pro touring mold today are all essentially Foose clones as far as I can tell, and growing up in the 90s hot rods all had that boydster look to them. Wednesday night was cruise night, I knew this very well He had to sell it because he couldnt afford to feed it. Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard Photographs From The Summer of 1972 Cruising had flourished for nearly two decades on Van Nuys Boulevard, Whittier Boulevard and on countless other streets and avenues in cities and towns across America, but in the year 1972 there was a visible resurgence in this youthful evening pastime. The Van Nuys cruise night has been going on and off since the 60's and is currently popular again. . Van Nuys was like Disney World for cruisin' though. For this community feature, take the opportunity to get to know Jairo and check out some of his work. What city is the heart of the San Fernando Valley? With the monthly draft numbers now down significantly and our military presence in Vietnam diminishing, young people, especially young men, were once again enjoying the freedom and fun of youth without the foreboding that had accompanied turning 18 during the previous half-dozen years. What night is cruise night on Van Nuys Boulevard? Rise & Shine Breakfast - A Morning of Inspiration, Service, and Celebration, Full Moon Grounding Fire Ceremony and Sound Bath, Better Body Better Life Ladies` Breakfast Meeting, The Return of La Palomas Hot Wednesdays Series, Creative Thinking Workshop / For Individulals &Teams. 43.8k Followers, 385 Following, 629 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Los Angeles Cruise Night (@losangelescruisenight) In Van Nuys there are a lot of coffee shops and parks. Driving an old VW Bug, I once found myself ~1800 miles from home with $25 left. border-color: #000000; Olga Grigoryants is a multimedia reporter focusing on urban development, business and culture. Literally everyone The boring blockiness is a feature, not a bug. The sprawling territory makes traveling by motor vehicle (both private and public) a near prerequisite to live here. Of course, you realize that all those hot chicks are grandmothers now. The cruise lines are not the first to make the transition the cruise lines are now making. The old stainless steel fire extinguisher we filled with water and pumped up with free gas station air helped cool off a few people in our misspent travels. . Most dont get past fart cans, hot air intakes, wings, spray bombing the interior, bolting on some cheesy eBay HID LED light housings, and maybe some Chinese Enkie wheel knockoffs before moving onto a newer faster car after realizing they ruined their last one. This vibrant collection of cars is accompanied by an equally vibrant collection of people, all of whom have gathered to showoff and appreciate the legacy of car culture that is so uniquely apart of this citys fabric. on the street was often very minimal, I needed to hand-hold my camera The Van Nuys Cruising Association meets every second Wednesday in the parking lot of Rydell Chevorlet at 6001 Van Nuys Blvd. Parking: Street parking available. It would have been about the same in Australia too. The process is fairly random, with invitees ranging from first-time cruisers to VIPs. Green began cruising Van Nuys Boulevard in the 1960s after he snagged his drivers license and purchased his first car. Wednesday of the month. Remember- NO Light to Light Runs, NO Burn-Outs, NOOpen Headers, NO Drugs or Alcohol or WeaponsCruise Cool on Its the mothership of all cars, he said. Wednesday Night was girls night, or club night, Friday was Cruise Night, and Saturday Night was date night which was the night you cruised with your girl. border: 1px solid; had cruised south past Bobs Big Boy Drive-In Restaurant (built in 1953 Made even better by that woman staring out the window. Exact blocks on Van Nuys Blvd may vary each Cruise Night. Cragars and white line tires look awesome together. The writer stated that modern cars were all the same and not as good or as interesting as the older cars. especially young men, were once again able to enjoy the freedom and the Our club is going to try to go out in force next August 12th. Prices and availability subject to change. Good times doesnt even begin to say how much fun it was then =8-) . One those who has become a regular is Jairo Morales. Thats what I hear when I see these photos. in this youthful evening pastime. .table_d2e42 { For those familiar with the Valley lowriding scene, anytime Individuals throw an event, it packs a mean punch, and this one was no different. Seriously. No Cruise Night Due to LA Fair - Flyer: 5-6: Riverside - Show & Go Car Show - Downtown Riverside - Info: 5: Buena . This might also be great fun after all, I grew up cruising that boulevard. March 04, 2021. Hundreds of motorheads have converged on Van Nuys Boulevard in Los Angeles for a lowrider cruise night.. Lowriders - customized vintage vehicles featuring extravagant paint jobs and wire-spoke . Panel paint, slotted mags, and Wide Oval tires like what you see on this Nova pretty much epitomized the street machine scene of the era. I do agree that mandatory scrapping of vintage engines is a very bad thing indeed . Zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds, Former CHP officer charged with assaulting woman during traffic stop near Santa Clarita, Encino home of late Mannix star Mike Connors lists for $5.5 million, Jesus Revolution tells the true story of Christian hippies and an Orange County church, Encino woman extradited from Montenegro to serve sentence for COVID loan fraud, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot concedes defeat, Zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds, As many as 700,000 Illinois residents could lose Medicaid health coverage this year, Balloon ban made official in Laguna Beach, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. To be specific the second Wednesday of every month. Thats about $2.00 in todays money. } Today Im paying 94 cents a litre for regular. Times had really changed in L.A. by the early 1970s from just a few years earlier in the mid 1960s. You could be right, but I cant remember! would changeWhat a concept! Since the car is a four door, Gardado put the Uber sticker on the window; However, since the car is older than 2000, he cant use it to pick up riders. In fact, its the car clubs who implore attendees to respect the boulevard the most. were made on 35mm Kodak Tri-X black and white film, ASA 400, which I pushed Many families and young professionals live in Van Nuys and residents tend to be liberal. . Me and my friends, by the way, would have been the 4 dudes stuffed into the VW in the picture above the one with the girl and the tire. like comment and subscribe for more! at getting people to look directly at my camera, basically waiting for AdButler.ads.push({handler: function(opt){ AdButler.register(171804, 435071, [300,600], 'placement_435071_'+opt.place, opt); }, opt: { place: plc435071++, keywords: abkw, domain: 'servedbyadbutler.com', click:'CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER' }}); if (!window.AdButler){(function(){var s = document.createElement("script"); s.async = true; s.type = "text/javascript";s.src = 'https://servedbyadbutler.com/app.js';var n = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; n.parentNode.insertBefore(s, n);}());} -->, Click here to see the "Ghosts of Van Nuys Blvd " from the Wild Bunch Car Club, , , Support the Local Merchants and the LAPD. Same as it ever was! } Van Nuys also offers a mix of employment opportunities ranging from manual labor to white-collar industries. CRUISE NIGHT WITH AWESOME PEOPLE AND BEAUTIFUL RIDES . Living in Van Nuys offers residents an urban feel and most residents rent their homes. block, the entire length of the treed block along the boulevard directly These photos and fine memories are what are left. width: 100%; Gas was expensive out in California. Nobody is perfect but the two girls in the white shorts are very, very close. It looked like an old ladys shoe! Most products today are soulless. Its true that hardly anybody ever walks in Los Angeles. With P&O and Princess you generally get an invitation to the captains cocktail party from your second cruise onwards as part of the companies loyalty program. I deliberately worked at getting people to look directly at my camera before I took the shot. A selection of McCloskeys photos has been compiled in a wonderful hardbound book titled Van Nuys Boulevard 1972. Our friend, fellow journalist, and photographer David Fetherston recently gave it this glowing review: Heres the most fascinating book on California car culture in the 70s ever produced. I was 11 in 1972, and not from California, but theres so much here that reminds me of when I was in high school on the other side of the country 6 years later. That thing could shoot 50 feet or more! Zipping a left turn into and through the paved section of The odds are quite good that some of his music was playing over the car radios or on 8 track tape as these were taken. Amazingly, For a minute there I thought this was a typical evening in 72 and that was really depressing! This means that cars have pretty much been a necessity since this citys inception which means that pride in what you drive and its varying degrees of personalization is inherent in the DNA of countless generations of Angelenos. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Normally Im not a fan of Dyna style shocks on a chopper but this one works for some reason. On most nights, Van Nuys Boulevard is a dilapidated collection of storefronts, and while it serves its purpose as a major thoroughfare across the San Fernando Valley, the dreary locale has a face that only a mother could love. border: 1px solid; Ralphs No Longer Wishes to Welcome Cruisers,