Back a gazillion years ago, when I was in high school, Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena was THE cruise place. This was amped up on New Year's Eve, when all the hot rodders would jam the parade route. The bitchin' thing was, back then, it was OK to run your GTO, Deuce, or Chevelle UNCORKED! As in no muffler! Seems the PPD had better things to do and since the traffic was so thick, nobody could really get out of line. Usually, this was done in the evening until about midnight when they finally shut the route down to traffic.
Not long after high school, I was driving for Embree Buses, the semi-official bus company for the Tournement of Roses. We drove ALL the bands from out of town all over LA, showing them the sights (Dizzyland, Hollywood, Movie Stars' Houses in Beverly Hills--"on your right is the home of Jimmy Stewart. He bought the property next door and demolished the house to have his own organic vegetable garden"). The best was taking kids from East Overshoe, Iowa to Santa Monica Beach. The look on their faces at the sight of the Pacific Ocean was amazing. Most would run out and plunge in. This was, mind you, December, and WE all know about how cold the Pacific is! They'd come out happy with blue lips.
This New Years' Eve, we got to relive those halcyon days and joined in the Parade Route Cruise. Everybody met at the soon to be defunct Sears on Foothill and about 10AM, left to cruise. Musta been 100 cars of all types. Muscle Cars, Hot Rods, VWs, a dozen old Honda 600s, Austin Healys and yes, The Yellow Submarine and a brace of Deux Cheveaux. What fun!
I left my camera at home like an eedjit, but I'd dragged Mike Andrews out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8:30AM and he took the photos. Enjoy them:
