My Train of Thought

Taking time off to report on horseless carriages!

Dream Cruise – The Journey Back to Our Youth

 

It is Monday – the first day of a week-long celebration of what gave Detroit the name Motor City.  Dream Cruise is a tribute to the automobile industry, and the visionaries whose creations took us from the days of horse and buggy to the staples of transportation we have cherished and thrived on.  It is an expression of gratitude to the men and women who built these beautiful vehicles that exemplify the marriage of design and functionality.

Many of the people who make the pilgrimage here are yearly participants.  They show their support for vehicles of the past enthusiastically, while enjoying the camaraderie of fellow car owners sharing their passion for American-made cars.  There is almost a reverence about the way in which they have restored their vehicles.  Even Henry Ford would have been proud to see a particular 1927 Ford in pristine condition – a navy convertible with yellow wheels (including the spokes).  Another gentleman owns numerous Oldsmobiles which have been used in movies. His 1956 black convertible with red interior is a real beauty.  And while many of the participants are local folks, people come from all across the country like the couple from Texas who were former residents of Berkley, Michigan.  There have even been people here from Australia!

Yes, Dream Cruise has sure come a long way since Nelson House conceived of a way in which to fund what would become the Martin Road Park soccer field.  Mr. House joined his love of classic cars made in Detroit with a fundraiser to benefit the kids of Ferndale, Michigan.  It was his vision that enabled a group of people headed by PR Manager, Randi Myles to bring this event to fruition.  That was back in 1995 and, since that time, this has become the largest one-day event in the history of any classic car shows.

The Dream Cruise doesn’t only give us cause to celebrate the cars.  Through the vintage vehicles, we are transported back in time to when we used to go “Woodwarding”, cruising Gratiot or Telegraph.  The guys in one car (usually borrowed from mom or dad) would pull up alongside a car with girls and try and get them to meet at such places as Ted’s, Little Ted’s, the Totem Pole, Maverick’s, or Susie-Q’s.  Both vehicles would be parked and have food delivered right to the car; this was long before the days of drive-up windows as we now have.  At other times, when guys wanted to impress a girl, they would wait until the traffic light turned green and then drag race along the strip to see who had the fastest and more powerful car.  And many a date frequented the old drive-in theaters like the Oak, Galaxy, Blue Sky and the Ford-Wyoming equipped with speakers for each car and heaters for the colder nights.  These were the gathering places, where many teens met and discussed what happened at school and afterwards before the movies would begin.

Radios and the local stations became the heartbeat and lifeline of the record industry on which the latest top 40 would be premiered and played to the delight of teens everywhere.   WXYZ, Keener 13 and CKLW kept the songs in our heads long after the record stopped playing.  Oh, those marvelous push buttons enabled us to “flip the dial” in search of either the same song or another favorite we wanted to hear.

For all of us, Dream Cruise brings us back to a simpler time in our lives.  It is the yearly culmination of revering our culture for cars and local hangouts that meant so much to us.  We cherish this rite of passage from our adolescence as it keeps us young at heart and provides us with a legacy that we can pass on to future generations.