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BORN TO RUN

6K views 130 replies 26 participants last post by  armyadarkness 
#1 ·
As I've often mentioned, one of the few benefits to living in New Jersey, is easy access to some of the worlds most famous "cruise circuits/ strips".

The state is only 45 minutes wide, and our entire East Coast, is one long "cruise strip", of boardwalk amusements and beaches, made famous by Bruce Springsteen and Asbury Park, in the song Born to Run.

I grew up there, and I still spend as much time as possible there with my GTO... One Sunday morning, I pulled into town at the perfect moment, which was caught by local hot rod photographer, Bill Scannell, and used for the opening shot in his Born to Run video.

He was nice enough to put the video up so that I could share it here. If you're a hot rod fan, please check out Bill's work on his youtube channel!

 
#16 ·
AP, Seaside, Long Branch, and many other seashore areas will never be the same, sadly just shells of their "Glory Days"
After the fire, we waited and waited for the planned "revitalization" of the Long Branch Pier/beach front hoping it would make a comeback.
Couldn't wait any longer and migrated to VA Beach in '96.

Lots of good times but just memories now (y)


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#18 ·
AP, Seaside, Long Branch, and many other seashore areas will never be the same, sadly just shells of their "Glory Days"
After the fire, we waited and waited for the planned "revitalization" of the Long Branch Pier/beach front hoping it would make a comeback.
Couldn't wait any longer and migrated to VA Beach in '96.

Lots of good times but just memories now (y)
I have lived up and down the gulf coast. Not a one of them I really recognize when I go back or look on satellite images. I know the huricanes but we always had that. the urban sprawl is just ridiculous.
 
#17 ·
Never made it to Englishtown many years ago. I lived on Long Island and went often to National Speedway. Took my wife (17 year old girlfriend then) to Islip Speedway on our first date. Islip was so small, when you sat in the stands you felt like you were on the track inhaling the exhaust and burnt rubber fumes. Look behind you from the bleachers, you could throw a rock and hit a house. The track was shoehorned into a bedroom community, but I think the track was there first. It was originally a figure 8 oval track, crashes were commonplace.
I remember guys drag racing on the straight away, which was insane considering how short the length of the track. Some claimed it was an 1/8th of a mile straightaway, not sure. It could have been less. Wikipedia only talks about the figure 8 races. I know I’m not losing my mind, because my wife (wayyyy past 17 now) remember the drag races there too. Good times, good times.
 
#25 ·
I was born in Patterson, NJ.
There are very few people who would admit that!

lol.

Patterson was glorious, back in the day... My great uncle was the housing commissioner, and all of my tshirts, up till I was 12, said Patterson on them.

Then, it turned to SHIT! My godkids live in Elmwood Park, whcih was an area of Paterson, so bad, that they changed the name to fool people.
 
#29 ·
So jealous of this history. In the Seattle area we had Lake City Way which was a great cruising spot - plenty of lights to line up just right. Alas, i missed that as a driver being a right young 54yo now and it all ended in late 70s. Golden Gardens was certainly a great spot with impromptu drag racing all the time and actual organized racing right into the early 80s. that s**t was fun. Totally great hang out and crusing spot for sure. We had high school drags that were fully sanctioned at SIR (Seattle International Raceway) in Kent WA just south of Seattle. Raced my GTOs in early 80s, friend's mom's Volare, 67 Ford truck....whatever we had we raced. lol. all of this is long gone sad to say. Good Times but nothing like what you have out there Army. Maybe someday a trailer my GTO out there - ain't driving across the country in 4sp conv with 3.90 gears. :LOL:
 
#32 ·
I have a few friends in Seattle and if you ever came out this way, you sure wouldn't want to leave. I don't give New Jersey much credit for being a great state, but when it comes to cars and a rich history of Hot Rodding, it's pretty high up there. It's such a small state so it's easy to get from event to event and you can spend a day just driving down the whole Coast hitting every amusement park and seaside boardwalk along the way. And everywhere you go you'll find more hot rods!
 
#30 ·
We used to come to AP as kids every Easter to walk the boards. HOJO's was still operating and we would go in for ice cream.
Then as young teens, we went skateboarding inside the Hall. The indoor skate park was a short-lived use of the old building.
It was in poor shape even back then. It went through many attempts to remain with even the concert hall opening back up for a few seasons.
Those were good times and the best time I've ever had in Old Convention Hall was in 1982 the day before my 22nd birthday🤘
Tinnitus sucks!

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It's a shame to see a once glorious building remain in such poor condition. Never understood why AP or even NJ as a whole never felt it worthy of full historical preservation.
The copper work on that building has always amazed me.
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I see Maxes has once again been reborn, The Bar & Grill looks good. I hope the Dogs are still worth the price.
DOG & A BEER👍😛


Last visit in 2018, took my daughter around my old haunts
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#33 ·
We used to come to AP as kids every Easter to walk the boards. HOJO's was still operating and we would go in for ice cream.
Then as young teens, we went skateboarding inside the Hall. The indoor skate park was a short-lived use of the old building.
It was in poor shape even back then. It went through many attempts to remain with even the concert hall opening back up for a few seasons.
Those were good times and the best time I've ever had in Old Convention Hall was in 1982 the day before my 22nd birthday🤘
Tinnitus sucks!

View attachment 163521


It's a shame to see a once glorious building remain in such poor condition. Never understood why AP or even NJ as a whole never felt it worthy of full historical preservation.
The copper work on that building has always amazed me.
View attachment 163523
View attachment 163524
View attachment 163525
View attachment 163526

I see Maxes has once again been reborn, The Bar & Grill looks good. I hope the Dogs are still worth the price.
DOG & A BEER👍😛


Last visit in 2018, took my daughter around my old haunts
View attachment 163528
I can't believe krokus was on the bill with nugent! LOL yeah Max's doesn't have the Allure that it used to, but it's still worth an hour drive for me to go have one of their hot dogs and a couple of beers, especially now that they have live entertainment. Yeah I used to go for the food not the atmosphere and now it's kind of changing. It's just such a great setup a half an hour north and a half an hour south you can't go wrong. There's so many sites to see. As one of the guys was saying, Asbury Park's cruise night is one of the best there is. Every Thursday night all spring and summer and every Sunday all winter and fall brings at least 200 cars from all around. I've never been there where there isn't at least four or five GTOs
 
#37 ·
When they sold off the Carousel in 2014 it became blatantly obvious AP had no desire to save its history. 😔

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This is another structure with amazing details of metal craftsmanship.
 
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