The Republic from Columbus, Indiana • Page 6

CO Cruising -Never DiedIt Went To Seymour 51 car CP popular pastime for 90 years or more but Bottorff said the problem intensified recently because "we have people from other counties who come over and join the parade." Cars driven by youths cruising Chestnut on Saturday night bore license plates from Jackson and 11 other counties. Several came from Bartholomew and Jennings counties and a couple from as far away as Marion County. "ITS NOT A BAD crowd, the whole," said Trooper Robert Garni of the Indiana State Police post in Seymour. Gann parked on a side street Saturday night to observe the traffic. Gann's major concern is traffic blocking Tipton, a frequent route for emergency vehicles.

Seymour Police also monitor the situation but do not have the manpower to station officers there full time, Chief James E. Bullard said. Seymour Mayor William Bailey said the city plans to increase police patrols in the area this fall, possibly using officers in cars and on foot "I THINK ITS a significant problem," Bailey said. "We literally have a second generation of kids looking forward to getting driver's licenses and driving around town." Bailey does not subscribe to the theory that young people cruise because they have nothing better to do. "I dont think that washes," he said, citing options of movies and school activities in Seymour and other opportunities in Columbus.

Bailey, who owns an office supply store downtown, also differs with some merchants about the severity of the situation. "IF THEY HAVE TO depend ta those two to four hours Friday and By KEVIN P. ULBANE SEYMOUR The cars are smaller, the dress different. But on Friday and Saturday nights, "American Graffiti" unfolds on the streets of downtown Seymour. The cruising depicted in the early 1970s movie really never died in Seymour and many other smaller American towns.

In fact, the popularity of "Scooping the Loop" here has grown to the point that the increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic concerns city officials and some downtown merchants. "ITS A HOPELESS case," said Judy Farris, who with her husband operates The Station tavern on Chestnut Street, the heart of the "loop." From about dusk until midnight or later, traffic on two-way Chestnut crawls in both directions from Tipton to Fourth streets, sometimes taking 10 to 20 minutes to travel the route. While some drivers make endless circuits around the loop, other youths park along Chestnut or in the Seymour Public Library parking lot one block to the west. Most "cruisers" are in their teens but some reach well into their 20s. Farris said the concentration of young people brings verbal abuse, loud music, vandalism, alcohol and, drugs.

"IT'S ABOUT RUINED this business on Friday and Saturday nights," she said. She plans to present a petition seeking a curb on cruising at a meeting Aug. 7 of city officials and the Downtown Council. But the Hook's Drug Store located about one block farther north on Chestnut reports no real problems with cruising, though it closes at 9 pjn. Friday and Saturday nights.

A few patrons have complained they cannot find a parking space or, if they do stop, passing cars do not let them back out into traffic, manager Susan Kloss said. OTHER MERCHANTS also believe they have been hurt by the traffic congestion, though most close before the peak' trafficvolume, said John Bottorff, executive vice president of the Greater Seymour Chamber of Commerce. Cruising Chestnut has been a later, concerns city officials and some downtown merchants. Traffic on two-way -Chestnut crawls in both directions from Tipton to Fourth streets, sometimes taking 10 to 20 minutes to travel the route. THE STREET SCENE In a scene similar to that in the movie "American Graffiti," an endless parade of cars lines Seymour's Chestnut Street during a night of cruising.

Increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic, which often occurs from dusk to midnight or Cruising on Chestnut Cars and Girls Draw the Teens 9 Saturday nights, men tne dusukss probably has other weaknesses," he, said. City officials have asked a consulting, firm hired to develop a downtown growth plan to make recommendations on traffic problems on Chestnut Bailey said he also attended a meeting on the situation with merchants and Jackson County criminal justice officials. Discussion indicated cruising is a social phenomenon rather than a criminal activity. "There are no easy answers because it's not a simple situation," Bailey said. It's not your ordinary family-style sedan mat captures the imagination of the mostly teenage contingent of cruisers.

When they say "cars," they are talking about grossly oversized tires, loud engines and exotic paint jobs localized versions of the funny cars and hot rods found at car shows. "YOU USUALLY SEE some really good ones down here. I've seen cars here that could blow away anything at the Nationals," Jones added. Down the street, three teens stand along the curb between parked cars, waving at friends and strangers alike. One of the youths compared activity on the strip in Seymour to the image of 19508-style cruising created by the popular movie, "American Graffiti." "It's just like another 'American Graffiti' town.

Something is always going on here," said Joel Jordan, 17, Seymour. "You see everybody you know and meet a lot of new people, too." Jordan, who walked downtown, said you don't even need a car to enjoy the weekend nightlife on Chestnut Street. "PEOPLE LET YOU in and' yon cruise awhile, then you get in a different car and cruise some more," he "I've met people from a lot of different towns down here." But even the kids admit the Chestnut Street crowd has a seamier .1 II 1 UUl I I cui uuuuiccmu, luiiCv cars and cute girls. They say there are troublemakers, drugs and booze just like most other places they might go. "There's a better side and a scummy side all kinds," Jones said.

"You can usually tell what (kind of person) they are like by where they hang out." i CAR CHATS Traffic on Chestnut Street in Seymour often becomes so backed up from the number of cars cruising the streets that pedestrians often have time to carry on conversations with the drivers and occupants. While some drivers make endless circuits around the downtown loop, other youths park along Chestnut or in the Seymour Public Library parking lot one block to the west and just watch. Most "cruisers" are in their teens but some reach well info their 20s. WATCHING THE CARS Watching the cruising cars on Seymour's Chestnut Street is as much a part of the nightly activity as cruising itself. Here, from left.

Rusty Robbins, Mark Weslie, Twana Waggoner, Judy Otte, Kim Clason, Tony Beatty and Danny Helt, all of Seymour, watch the parade of passing cars. Bystanders are not limited to Seymour residents with a number of teens from other counties joining in. By TDM EVANS Regional Editor SEYMOUR Cars and girls not necessarily in that order are the big drawing cards on Chestnut Street, according to teens who flock from several nearby counties to cruise the popular downtown strip on Friday and Saturday nights. "It's something to do. We just come to look at the girls and see the cars," explained Johnny Jones, 16, of Columbus, during a recent Satur- dav nifrhf vieifr Jones was one of six high school juniors from Columbus who had traveled to Seymour in a three-car caravan.

He said the group which splits its time between cruising and watching from the curb tries to go to Seymour a couple times a month if they can scrape together gas money. JONES SAID THEY found oat about action on the Seymour strip by word of mouth from other kids. "Columbus is dead! People here are a lot friendlier. We have a few girls say hi it's not too bad," Jones explained. As he discussed the strip's varied attractions, a teenage girl leaned out the window of a car that had stopped to wait for a traffic light to turn green.

Having spotted the black concert T-shirts worn by Jones and two friends, she squealed: "Van Halen, all right! Did you go to the concert? So did I. Where did you sit?" JONES AND HIS buddies looked toward the car full of girls and smiled, but the one-sided tion came to an abrupt end as the car lurched away from the stoplight on its way to another lap around the four-block strip. "The cars aren't too good tonight, but the girls are all right," Jones conceded with a grin. with a smile. When teens stopped, it often would be a carload of girls in one stall and a carload of boys in the next stall, he said.

On wedding days, "the biggest thing was to come through here honking the horn the whole wedding party," he said. Groups of teens also parked across from Frisch's in the 25th Street Shopping Center and soon were dubbed the or Kroger Parking Lot Gang, Clerkin said of the days before Kroger moved to its present location at National Road and Central Avenue. KPLG members usually had the "hot" cars of the day, he said. IN ITS cruising provided booming business at Frisch's, Ritter said. But toward the late 1980s, young people began parking at the restaurant and not ordering anything or only small items.

Ritter said Frisch's also suffered from competition with McDonald's Restaurants. The competitor offered only walk-in service but its 15-cent hamburger proved more affordable than the Frisch's doubleburger Bigboy priced at 55 cents. Like Frisch's, cruising also died out. Teens still stop by A and on occasion, but now "they might be in looking for somebody or be supposed to meet somebody here," Becker said. The days of riding round and round the drive-in seem gone.

But for many adults, they never will be forgotten and Round They Went at Frisch's Big Boy -Jr. jft Round By KEVIN P. KILBANE Staff Writer The weathered Frisch's Big Boy sign on 25th Street means more than hamburgers to many Columbus adults. It speaks of saddle shoes, white socks, burr haircuts and warm summer nights when riding around the Frisch's parking lot was the thing to do. "Wespent our last SO cents for a gallon of gas to cruise around Frisch's," said Susan Kloss, a former Hope resident.

Kloss now resides in Seymour and manages the Hook's Drug Store on Chestnut Street, the spot for cruising there. "DONT ASK ME why we did it I don't know, but we did," Kloss said. The Frisch's sign reappeared recently after the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant at 1711 25th moved to a new location on National Road east of the Northern Village Shopping Center. The property is owned by Carl Ricketts of 2339 Lafayette and managed by his son, Gordon Ricketts of Road 1150E in Hope. The younger Ricketts said they hope to interest another restaurant in the location but as yet have4 no prospects.

Frisch's used to be the hub of the cruising circuit in Columbus. Early on, teenage motorists circled the Frisch's parking lot. Later the circuit expanded to include Becker's A and Root Beer on 25th and Jerry's Restaurant on National Road. "YOU JUST ABOUT could count on seeing about everyone you knew at one of those places," said Tom Clerkin, manager of personnel services for Anrin Industries Inc. Clerkin said he caught the tail end of the cruising era while in high school.

In the 1960s, "the drive-ins were the hangouts," said Julius "Bud" Ritter of Madison, one of three partners who operated'the Columbus Frisch's during that time. By 9 p.m., drivers couldn't get into the Frisch's parking lot, said Ritter, former Madison High School basketball coach. The restaurant eventually hired an off-duty police officer to direct traffic and keep cars moving. PEOPLE cruised every night, but Friday and Saturday nights were "terrible," Ritter said. "Everybody went there," said Linda Kern, who now works for-the Records Division of the Columbus Police Department Kern remembers backing her father's car into a tray holder one night at Frisch's when she was supposed to have been at the library.

"We had to go straight home and tell my she said of herself and a girlfriend. If teens stopped at A and they had to order something and could not leave their car said William Becker; president of the family corporation that has operated the drive-in for 35 years. "WHEN THEY WERE broke, they'd order a bag of popcorn and divide it between them, and popcorn was onlyp dime then," Becker said REMEMBER WHEN A Frisch's Big Boy sign on 25th Street, uncovered recently when a Kentucky Fried Chicken sign was removed, revived memories of 1960s cruising for many Columbus adults. Frisch's; was once the center of the cruising circuit in Columbus where teenage motorists made a loop through drive-in restaurant's curb service parking area. Although cruising went on every night, Friday and Saturday nights were the busiest, said Julius "Bud" Ritter of Madison, one of three partners who operated the Columbus Frisch's during that time.

Off-duty policemen hod to be hired to keep traffic moving..