1972 served as an encore for a then-uniquely American youth culture movement. The military was reducing numbers in Vietnam, so the threat of the draft that had hung over young men since the mid-Sixties was easing. Teen spirits began to lift. Soon the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 would lead to the rationing of gas, a four-fold price increase at the pump and a halt to all this, but for one fleeting summer, cruise culture made a resurgence.

While Los Angeles had its fair share of cruising thoroughfares, few had become more famous in the decade before the Vietnam War than Van Nuys. On Wednesday nights and over weekends, the Boulevard was home to one of California’s largest congregations of teenagers. Stop-light drag racer, custom car builder, or furtive borrower of a parent’s four-door sedan… if you were young, lived in The Valley and had access to a car, this was the place to gather. Even those without rides lined the sidewalks to absorb the atmosphere.

The Road Rat Issue 9 - Autumn 2021

Photos: Rick McClosky