In the 70's a 10 year old car was cool. Now it's like... I don't know what. Camaro's and Mustangs were the ultimate street machines in Albuquerque. (Sorry my MoPar brothers, but it's true and you know it.)
David Lewis had a Camaro -- still has it, actually, I beleive. Vance? Can we get a ruling on this one? Alan Schactner had a Mustang. I'm pretty sure they were the same year.
People who weren't here in those days might not realize that South Eubank (south of Central,) which is now an entrance for Sandia Labs, used to be 1.) The road to the dump, 2.) The road to Albuquerque Speedway dirt racing track, and most important culturally, where all the kids went for illegal street racing. It was called "South Eu" and it was a great place to be. Poorly lit. a hundred or so cars and trucks lined either side of the road along the quarter mile that was the track. "Barefoot girl's sitting on the hood of a car drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain," as Bruce Springsteen put it. You'd see plenty of kids racing Mom's station wagons.
And there were the gearheads who could barely string together two-syllables when talking to a girl, but could rebuild a carburetor blind-folded and tell you every spec on any car ever made. They'd be out there in the cars they'd worked on in auto shop all semester ready to show their stuff.
Or there were the "Sleeper" cars. The car that looked like it barely ran -- until the bets were laid, and the driver would open the hood, and with a little tweak, the engine that sounded like the lifters were sticking suddenly had that throaty rumble that made grown men pee their pant. Doors were blown off in those days.
One too many accidents, fatalities included, shut the place down for good. As a result, we've got kids cruising up an down Montgomery Blvd. Or riding wheelies on crotch-rockets down the freeway. Ahh, screw it. These pussies can't race anyway. Unless maybe they want to put up some money and prove it.
We'll meet you out on South Eu.
Mikey had a "sleeper" - a (mostly) orange Pinto station wagon. Hideous. But he won a lot of races with that thing! Did you guys cruise Eastdale or Los Altos, or was that just an 80s thing?
ReplyDeleteSure we cruised Eastdale! Who didn't? I also raced moms Buick 1969 stationwagon with the air filter lid inverted, it sounded cooler that way. I also asked "my Ginny" to marry me in Eastdale parking lot. We never got married but spent tons of time there chewing McDonalds straws into long slinky ropes. (Rick, post the picture from Moonpie of the Luv coming down to ground. You can see the straw mass hanging from my rearview mirror. Go to the newest post to see Daves camero.
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