Cruisin'
Posted Monday, October 19, 2009 at 12:59 PM 

 Yea, I get to be first. Let's get this party started. Who remembers cruising the Bluegrass, down to McDonalds, and then to the BBF. I had a 1950 Dodge DeSoto that looked a lot like Brian Powell's '49 Plymouth. It was a barge! I remember just driving endlessly(maybe because gas was about 35 cents a gallon)up and down Winchester. May have even made a trip or two to the Cue and Cushion or Jeno's. Ok, I'll admit I was at the Disco Inferno also. Here is a pic of the BBF.   

Not the Ashland one, just off the web. Now, everyone has a story to tell, let's hear them. If no one responds, I'll start naming names of those that may or may not have been with me. (Not to worry Bob or Jay or Thornton Heffner, I would never tell about y'all.)

Randy I remember your car, Brian's car and cruisin the BBF.  I hate to admit it but several of us played car tag between the BBF, McDonalds, Greenup Ave. & Carter Ave.  Bumpers touching bumpers while driving indicated who was "it".  If either of my boys would horseplay like I did I probably would ...well I don't know what I would do.

Who is that skinny guy on the left,  I do not recognize him?

I remember the 'circuit' that we all cruised!!!   The Bluegrass, and then up to McDonalds, and back again.  Bringing up Brian Powell's car brought back the memory of the way he and I often cruised...  we took my 57 Chevy (Remember Bluebell???), his car, his sister's Camaro, his dad's Eldorado, and my dad's Audi 100 LS... and made one or two circuits in each car.. we thought we were cool doing that!!!

Another cruisin spot was the Whataburger... God, I remember those chocolate shakes!  I used to love stopping by there after swim practice to drink a milkshake on the way home to eat dinner!!!!

Look forward to seeing everyone next fall!

John:

Where the heck was Whataburger?? I don't remember that.

I do remember cruisin' BBF, MacDonald's and the 'Grass.

ClaraJo Wheeler and I even had a trail that we cruised whenever we were out in either her VW Bug (Orange) or mine (Red). It went by all the boys we had crushes on. (Sometimes we would meet up with Rick Sang and switch cars...he had some kind of car that had a Levi interior)

Then, we would start again.

 Hey Sid, I think you might be thinking of the "Smashburger" Better known as "Dairy Cheer".  They did have the best shakes. Thanks to Ron Fultz-owner.

Randy, lets not forget Dave Korros's 1955 Buick special, black, automatic complete with frozen lime daiquiri in the trunk. Did I say that?  Sorry Richard (smith) it slipped. Or Peat Caine's rail buggy.  

 Many miles were logged up and down Winchester Ave. Not to mention an occasional reckon trip to the Outpost. Russell's nest of rivals.  McDonald's and Bluegrass were kind of neutral territory. "The F" was all cats. With the Bluegrass now only a fond memory, am I the only one that still craves a flying saucer and fries? How about a vanilla coke? Yet another Ashland icon gone. 

 Does the phrase " who's going across?" ring any bells?  How about a convoy from Blazers parking lot to some top secret location where kegs of beer were laying in wait for a RO Club party. My son treasures an old RO jersey of mine and wears it to school from time to time. Thank God that shirt can't talk.   Come on now! It wasn't just RO/Sigmet. You Key/ Theta people give it up. You guys have a story or two to tell.

In the day a copilot, a few dollars for gas and we were good to go for the weekend. Crusin' . A lot of good friends and good memories.  Thank you Jolinda and all who have worked to make this www. happen. 

Brian Powell  

I remember one summer night, standing around the parking lot at McDonald's, shooting the breeze with everyone.  All of a sudden, you can hear this roaring sound, and everyone stops talking, looking up to see what's coming.

From the alley, Jay Shippey ('76) comes FLYING into the parking lot in an old pickup truck, driving right over the big parking curb that separated McDonald's from the old AAA office.  He must have hit that curb doing about 45 MPH.

The body of the pickup didn't really jump up - but the wheels on the truck looked like they went right up into the fenders.  He bent all four rims, and sat there on four flat tires.  By a small miracle, no one was killed (or even hurt). 

Oddly, I got the strongest feeling that drugs might have been involved ...

Three minutes later, everyone's back to business as usual, and no one thought twice about it.

OK, I've got a confession about the "F". I remember hangin' there one nite and somebody (I honestly can't remember who now, maybe Guy Thompson) handed me a brown grocery sack full of, shall we say, adult beverages. Maybe somebody on here will remember and 'fess up.

Anyway, I had barely taken two steps toward my VW bug to stash the goods and one of Ashland's finest stopped me and wanted to know what I had in the bag. I literally just about s**t in my pants and knew I was going to jail. He never looked in the bag, I talked my way out of it with some BS about it being clothes to go spend the night with a buddy or something and we went right back to whatever we did down there!

Anyway, I know we had a lot of fun!!