Cruising Memories

[robert campbell]

All,
In the early 70's they put in a new road near Silverdale in my area that had a one mile "dead flat straightaway", wide shoulders, and no driveways or cross streets! Brand new pavement obviously! It was off a road called "Newberry Hill" and we called the new race track "Newberry Hill International Raceway".

So we needed an accurate 1/4 obviously. So we used a 50 foot tape measure. 26 times an 20 feet more!!! A late night trek and some white paint and all was ready!!!

This event cements the length of 1,329 feet firmly in my "haid". Aw the crap we used to do!!! We even had t-shirts that had "NHIR" on the front and the name on the back. I won every race I had out there with my 67 Fastback with a hotted up 351 Cleveland, 4 speed, 4:56 locker combination on slicks.

Those were the old days of cruising every Friday and Saturday night in Bremerton!!! Bremerton was the cruising hotspot for the west sound. Cars would come over from Seattle and Tacoma to join in. And many a late night race was arranged on Pacific Ave in Bremerton.

I met Val cruising town in 1975. She was driving a 1972 Camaro that her dad bought her for graduation (straight A student) with only 18k on the odometer. White with a Black Vinyl top. During our dating I got her out of that and into her current 1967 black fastback!!

And here we are today!!!! Never let a "hot rod" woman go!! She loves her 4 speed and bangs gears with the best of them.

Rob

 

[Midnight Special]

...Somewhere around here, I have a big stack of photos doing as you did, Rob. Our quarter-mile was a long levy road in the valley known as "Powder House"... I didn't race there, but I sure enjoyed kickin'butt on the way down & back with my "top-end" cars as the 4:11 guys peaked at around 90 ;-) The quickest of them all was my friend, Perry and his '70 Mach 351C with nitrous...and a console mounted tail & brake light kill switch that came in handy more than once for U-turning highway cops... !977 - 80. Fun times!

 

[robert campbell]

Tim,
I need to "upload" some of my old paper pics. They will be a hoot! How long have you lived at that house?? Those are old pics at the same house!!

Rob

 

[robert campbell]

And oh my God once again!!! I wondered who cornered the market on side pipes!!!

Rob

 

[robert campbell]

Tim,
Did you notice your 3rd photo? It took me a minute to figure out the lettering on the trunk stripe. "I hcaM"! Then I noticed the license plate...... duh, Mach I!!! It is easy to confuse old people....

Rob

 

[Midnight Special]

Tim,
Did you notice your 3rd photo? It took me a minute to figure out the lettering on the trunk stripe. "I hcaM"! Then I noticed the license plate...... duh, Mach I!!! It is easy to confuse old people....

Rob

...Ah yes, busted on my' "scan it backwards & keep em guessing" routine... I was hoping for someone to speculate on a Martian DSO. ;-) I first figured the green GT/CS paint job and all the sidepipes would be a dead giveaway!

 

[rvrtrash]

This brought back memories. Warm summer nights, cruising "the Ave." with the windows down, listening to Foghat, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, chatting up the girls and taking on all comers for a street race. Good times!

Then there was the time I went to see the original "Gone in 60 seconds" at a drive in, in my light pewter '72 Mach 1. I was all fired up by the time the movie was over. I almost scared myself that night.

Steve

 

[robert campbell]

That would be BTO, Elton John, The Who, and J Giles for me. The 3rd time I saw Val was January 25th 1975. She had just got her 72 Camaro and waved at me as we passed on the "Ave". Little did I know that she was waving at everyone in town, but I felt special!! I found her and her girl friend we (my friend Jan) took them out to the Pancake House for late night breakfast that same night.

Next day we went to our local theater and watched Grizzly Adams. Boy I knew how to show a girl a good time. Stole a kiss over the counter of Baskin and Robbins where she worked that night!!

The rest is history!!!

Rob

 

[somethingspecial]

The first time I saw Robinette I was a Senior in High School and she was a Freshman. She got on the school bus the first day of school and I thought an angle just entered my life. Over the next three years, I came to believe she was a stuck up B*$#$, and she thought I was an AH. We never dated because of this. I even shunned her when she asked me for a ride to school in my 57’ Chevy Cameo pickup. Then one day when she was a Senior, We had a chance encounter and decided to go on a date. We confirmed our suspicions and have been together ever since. That was November 3rd, 1984.

Since then, We have had fun cruising in our GT/CS (the first car I ever purchased myself) and she even drove that forbidden 57’ Chevy Cameo. Something only she can claim. LOL. Man I miss that truck, but Robinette is a keeper.

Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, The Who, J Giles, Scorpions, Aerosmith, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, just to name a few.