I was raised in a town of about 10,000. It had a Dog & Suds at one end and an A&W, a Dairy Queen, and a mom & pop root beer stand at the other. All but the DQ had car hops (not on roller skates though
). Cruising those places was "the strip". You also could take a turn through the city park that had rides, an arcade, and a Sno-Cone/cotton candy stand. This was back when a teenager with a good part-time job could still find a decent old car and afford to buy it and build it into a hot rod. Just outside town was a little-used, long, straight, two-lane blacktop that saw plenty of street races. Unfortunately, I didn't have "the fastest car in the valley". Yeah, I lived "American Graffiti", just on a smaller scale. The DQ is still there but sadly, all the rest is gone.
