Photos: Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
Tucson Citizen photographer P.K. Weis and writer Thom Walker spent a March night in 1979 documenting the experience of cruising Speedway Boulevard in Tucson.
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
"You sit out here for a while and you get to where you know all the cars," said Jay Hawn, sitting on the hood of a Dodge pick-up on Speedway Blvd. in Tucson on March 19, 1979. "I think cruising is a lost art," said Scott Bowles of Palo Verde High School. "It wastes gas, but it keeps us out of trouble."
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
The Jack in the Box on East Speedway in Tucson, shown on March 19, 1979, was where "the jocks gather" wrote the Tucson Citizen.
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in Tucson on March 19, 1979. The Tucson Citizen wrote that Speedway and Swan, in the parking lot of the Bob's Big Boy, was "cowboy country" for cruisers. "A little kingdom of pick-up trucks and cowboy hats. The 4-wheel-drivers hang out nearby."
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
"What you got here is cowboys," explained Mike Karrol, high school graduate from Colorado in March, 1979. "You got the freaks down the street, the jocks down that way. This is our hole – this is where we go cruising from."
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
"With 23 miles of neon and traffic lights and screeching tires and wrapped-out engines, Speedway is Tucson's longest-running social event, a weekend remedy for high-priced entertainment and age limits in bars," wrote the Tucson Citizen in 1979.
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
"It's the socializing that's great," said a cruiser on Speedway Blvd. in Tucson on March 19, 1979
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
A Tucson Police officer stops at pick-up truck cruising Speedway Blvd. in Tucson on March 19, 1979
Cruising Speedway Blvd. in 1979
A Tucson Police officer talks to cruisers at the Bob's Big Boy on East Speedway Blvd. in Tucson on March 19, 1979. "On a good night the parking lot is filled with pickups, until the Bob's people next door get fed up watching would-be customers vanish on down the street and the cops come in and chase everyone off," wrote the Tucson Citizen.
Rick Wiley
Photo editor