Van Nuys Blvd. on Wednesday Nights is Back!

This last June Cruise Night returned to Van Nuys Blvd. on Wednesday Nights. To be specific the second Wednesday of every month. The Van Nuys Cruising Association meets every second Wednesday in the parking lot of Rydell Chevorlet at 6001 Van Nuys Blvd.

Wednesday night cruising was shut down 28 years ago in 1981. Generations have grown up unaware of that special night in the middle of the San Fernando Valley. In those final days of the late 70's and early 80's I used to roll away from the curb of my apartment on Chandler Blvd. just around the curve and merge right into the traffic jam that was cruising night. As I mentioned in a previous post I remember driving down Van Nuys Blvd. when KHJ Boss Radio switched from Rock and Pop to Country music. Looking back on it now it seems as if the decline of Van Nuys Began then. Of course that isn't true but it is the sense I have these many years after.

September 9th at 6:00pm is the next event. Please check out the Van Nuys Cruising Associations website for more information and pictures from past events:

http://www.vannuyscruisingassociation.com/

Don't forget the Friday Night classic car event at Bob's Big Boy restaurant on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake. Celebrity sightings are not unheard of at Bob's. Anyone who has spent time there has seen Jay Leno there. When I worked on San Fernando Road in Burbank we used to see Jay Leno drive by on his way to the Tonight Show. Every day it was some new, old car.

Tina Delgado is alive, alive!

New Class Photos from Hazeltine in the 1960's

Our friend Bob has posted some new class photos he received from a Hazeltine Alumni. Follow this link:

http://s403.photobucket.com/albums/pp118/BobW_2000/Hazeltine%20Elementary/


The new class photos are:

April 1960 – Mrs. Flanagan

Nov. 1961 – Mrs. Williams

Oct. 1964 – Mrs. Chapnick

Oct. 1965 – Mrs. Fletcher

Oct. 1966 – Mrs. McGauley

Lido Pizza Afternoon in Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks?

Attention Members of Demolay, Jobs Daughters and Rainbow, word has just come down that an afternoon of Pizza and fun is planned for Sunday September 13th at 2:00pm at Lido Pizza. I am sure everyone remembers where it is, but just in case Lido's is at 15232 Victory Blvd. in Van Nuys or Sherman Oaks, wherever the hell it is now, blame Phone Rat for that confusion. It is on the south side of Victory just east of Sepulveda. Renee is planning this so please e-mail her if you know it. For those who see it here please e-mail me at this blog account: vannuysboomers@gmail.com and I will forward you to her.

The Drive-In

Follow this link to a wonderful website with pictures, information and recollections of old theaters including our own valley hangouts:

http://cinematreasures.org/

August 1969

I just saw online that today, August 8th is the 40th anniversary of the Beatles photo shoot for cover of their Abbey Road Album. Surely some of you remember albums. The record was released in September 1969 about the same time I started Birmingham High School. I have distinct memories of hearing Come Together and other songs being played at the schools cafeteria.

Last night I was watching part of a Fox news special about the Manson family and their murder rampage. Curiously the murders at the Sharon Tate house took place on August 9, 1969, only a relative few hours after the Beatles photo shoot. Another curious connection between Manson and the Beatles.

My family was in Las Vegas at the time of the crime but after we got back I remember the fear that hung over the city until the murderers were found. I read later that the Manson family drove on the 405 to get to Benedict Canyon. Our apartment on Haskell was just across the street from the freeway.

Memory is a funny thing sometimes. Those memories Of Birmingham and the Beatle songs seem like only yesterday, but the Manson family, the murders and the things surrounding them actually feel like 40 year ago.