Cruising and Drive-in Restaurants

For some reason I am feeling very nostalgic lately. The other day I reminisced about Saturday afternoon movies. Today I am thinking of cruising and drive- in restaurants. I hope this is not an indication that my days are numbered.

I got my driver's license in 1958. Sixteen years old and I was given the responsibility to get behind a four thousand pound vehicle and earn my spot on the streets and roads of Denver. My parents had an old 1947 four door Dodge painted an ugly lima bean green. Who cares what it looked like, it was a car and I was able to drive it and join the world of cruising and drive in restaurants.

In those days you could drive down 16^th Street. This was before the 16^th Street Mall and the downtown renovation. It was a one-way street and you would enter 16^th Street near Colfax and cruise down the street until Larimer St., make a left turn down Larimer St. and another left to 15^th Street. Drive up 15^th to Cleveland St. if I remember correctly and then go back to 16^th and start over.

Friday and Saturday traffic going down 16^th was slow and chaotic. Screaming and yelling at the cars full of girls was the norm. Horns honking and wild teenagers hanging out of the car windows would create an audience. 16^th street was a three lane street at the time and if you were stopped by a red light that put three cars lined up for a short drag race. The light would turn green and you could hear tires squeal and off the line three cars would go. Of course they couldn't go far because of the traffic jam beyond the intersection. Many drag race challenges resulted on that street and the parties would go out of town to the many drag racing spots around the city.

After a couple of hours of cruising you became thirsty and hungry. The next stop was one of the drive-in restaurants in the city. These were hot spots. I remember the big ones in those days. One was The Frosted Scotchman on Federal Blvd. and maybe W. 52^nd Ave. if I remember correctly this one had the best reputation. I am sure the neighbors hated this drive-in because we would cruise around the block east of Federal and then cruise through the drive-in.

Another big one was Berrys on W. Colfax maybe around Teller St. This was another hot spot. All of the hot rods of the day would go to Berrys. There were other ones. The A&W on W Alameda Ave near Knox Ct. and the White Spot on S. Broadway were big.

You did more cruising through these drive-ins than eating. If you did eat it was just a pop and maybe French fries. If you did park you stayed there for hours just hanging out looking for that willing and available girl. I don't know why the drive-ins put up with it. They surely didn't make much money off these loiterers. I can't be too critical since I was one of them.

After a period of time we all grew up and our priorities changed. High school days were over and we all moved on with our life. I don't remember what happened to The Frosted Scotchman or Berrys. They just kind of faded away. However, the memories I have of cruising and drive-in restaurants will never go away.