The cruising experience

consisted of more than just

endlessly driving back and
A Brief
forth on Main Street. In
fact, that was just one part History
of Cruising
of the equation. Impromp-
tu social gatherings would
form at various spots on
the route, either in parking
Historians can’t seem to
lots, on sidewalks or at cer-
pinpoint when cruising start-
tain food joints. In 1969, a
ed to take shape. The general
Tucson, Arizona, journalist
belief is that the seeds were
surmised that “cruisers, like
planted after World War II,
moths and June bugs, even-
when Latino youths took
tually congregate around brightly lighted areas.”
to the Southern California
Former Parsonian Don Herold stated, “We
streets in their lowriders. The
had our socializing activities. The A&W was
local teens followed their
a popular spot on Friday and Saturday nights.
lead and the rest, as they say,
We’d hang out there after dragging Main for
is history.
hours and hours at a time. Gasoline was 20 cents
The popularity of dragging
a gallon, so you could definitely afford to go out
Main soared in the 1950s and
and socialize by dragging Main. My first car that
‘60s with the rise of car cul-
I had was my family car that we traded in to get
ture. The boys enjoyed show-
a new car, and I bought it back because I loved
ing off their cars and using
it so much. It was a white 1963 Pontiac Tempest
their wheels to meet girls, but
Le Mans. It spent a lot of miles going up and
it wasn’t long before the girls
down Main Street Parsons and to all the jobs
joined in on cruising, too. The
that I had.”
activity was so ubiquitous
Favorite hangout spots changed with the youth mingled at turnaround points, as well as
that it was reflected in pop
times. Locations that were favorites in one era in front of the Parsons Theater, in the Safeway
music, television programs
were inevitably replaced by new ones in the parking lot, at Sonic and at the assorted eateries
and films of the era.
next. Nothing stays the same, especially when it that were once clustered around 32nd and Main.
The following decade saw
comes to teen culture. At various times, Parsons While hanging out at these locations, teens
a slight decline in cruising,
would socialize and horse around,
largely due to the rise of fuel
all the while waving and yelling
prices as a result of the oil
at their friends as they passed in
crisis of 1973. To make mat-
their cars or chatting with them
ters worse, the community
when they stopped at nearby traffic
view on cruising began to
lights. One could always hear the
change, with merchants and
cacophony of car horns cruisers
shoppers complaining about
would use to greet one another or
being inconvenienced by it
the hangers-out at the usual spots.
and law enforcement claim-
It was socialization in its purest
ing that there was a rise in
form, a way for kids to blow off
violence among cruisers. De-
steam after a stressful week at high
spite all this, youth continued
school.
to drag Main.
Marilyn (Halpain) Schmidt and
Efforts to stop cruising per-
her friends simply gathered along
sisted throughout the 1980s
the roadside on Main Street in the
and by the end of the decade,
1950s. “One funny thing that took
the downturn in cruising had
started to take its toll. By the
mid- to late 1990s, it was
almost a thing of the past –
ABOVE: Charlene Minor brings a customer their food at A&W in 1959. This was a popular teen hangout as well as the most common something that people talk-
turnaround point on west Main. (Courtesy photo) ed nostalgically about having
TOP: Richard’s popularity waned among the teen set after management put a stop to crusiers using it as a turnaround point on east done when they were teens.
Main. The inset photo shows an ad from the Parsons Sun, celebrating the establishment’s grand opening in 1950.
OPPOSITE: This 1965 photo was taken at the intersection of 18th and Main, looking northwest. (Courtesy photo)

Labette County Community Guide • 2021 29