So far so good on the weather forecast for this Friday. After an awesome opening night, we have suffered four rainouts in a row. Hope everyone can make it out this Friday if the weather cooperates.
I know that not many on here are into the 1960’s Muscle Cars, but for anyone who is we will be awarding a trophy and $300 to the best ‘60s Muscle Car.
Every week we try to do a different theme and one week this summer we will have a Sport/Compact night for a lot of you that post on here. I’ll be sure to post a notice about that night as well. I don’t normally post much about our cruise on here but since the rain has knocked us off so long I figured it couldn’t hurt to send out a reminder.
Friday nights 6-10 PM at North Way Christian Community, 12121 Perry Highway Wexford.
Any plans for some sort of truck night? I feel out of place with all the muscle cars around and my having to park way in the back. I’m sure I could get a dozen or so lowrider trucks to roll in. Probably a few skyjackers too. Just curious.
Just double checked ouor list of potential themes; Trucks is on there. Not sure when though. I’ll try to remember to post. Problem is now, we are down four weeks to the weather and won’t be able to fit all the themes in that we wanted to, but trucks was pretty popular last year; it should be back.
I have to be honest here. I have been going to area cruises for almost 20 years. I remember a local paper taking a picture of my 2 sons and my niece playing in the trunk of my '61 Galaxie Victoria. My son is getting married next week, and the other son and my niece are both in college, so i have been doing this for a while. My wife and i have been to these cruises twice. Both times were not a good experience for us. Both times we found the people working there to be exceedingly rude. Both times we arrived about the midpoint of cruise night. We were shuttled to a far away area of the facility, even though there were open spots towards the front. When we pointed these out to the people working there, politely, we were told to just be quiet and go where we were told.
Now , considering the turnout these cruises get, they certainly do not need our measly 2 cars to show up. Which is fine, since i don’t see us returning after those 2 experiences that we had. There are plenty of other cruises going on that we will attend. I just wonder how long it will be before enough others get turned off?
Just a little constructive critisism…please take it in the spirit i intended…
It is gladly taken in the intended spirit. Without honest and fair criticism we would have no way of knowing how to improve.
I am sorry your experiences were less than enjoyable. Very often with the large crowds we get things can get a little tense for out team of volunteers. That is no excuse for rudeness though.
Thanks again for your constructive criticism and I can only hope your next experience is somewhat better.
Blackbelt. I understand completely where you are coming from. Allow me to add to your post…
I too have been in the classic car hobby for over 20 years, 23 years to be exact. I’ve been to thousands of car cruises.
Wexford Starlight started out wonderful. It had all the things I liked in a weekly local cruise. Family oriented, nice friendly people, great atmosphere (trees, grass, nice blacktop, clean, church), and so on. If you had asked me 2 years ago what is my favorite weekly car cruise was I would have said Wexford.
I hate to be one of those guys that say “I told you so” but last year I talked to a lot of people up there, I know a lots of people up there, and most agreed with my observation… It was heading in the wrong direction.
What went wrong? Let me try to explain.
When you have a local weekly car cruise you don’t have to advertise. In the Greater Pittsburgh Area there are weekly car cruises everywhere. During the summer months there are roughly 3 to 12 local car crusies everyday. Each and every one of those cruises are for locals to go somewhere local, share in the hobby, meet other car people, and enjoy themselves. Many of those only have 20 to 80 cars.
I’m not talking about big cruises that are only once a year like Beaver, Moon, Butler, and so on. I’m talking about local weekly events for “locals”
People near South Park go to the Village on Sunday nights, people in Homestead go to the Waterfront on Wed nights, Irwin, Norwin, Babcock, and the list goes on and on.
Wexford was no different. It was a weekly cruise in the north hills. All you need is word of mouth. We were getting roughly 500 cars. That was big for a local weekly cruise. It was just enough to fill the parking lot. Nice cars, nice people, nice event.
Where the mistake was made in my opinion, was the constant pushing of advertising. At the time it was going on I couldn’t understand why they would continue to push and premote the event. You already have a good thing, you already have a full lot, you made a very successful weekly event, it was counter productive to continue to jam it down the throats of the 2.5 million population in the Greater Pittsburgh Area.
What ended up happening? Now it’s over 1000 cars, now it’s over capacity, now you wait in line for food for 45 minutes, now cars are double parked blocking others in, volunteers are stressed over the event bulging at the seams so they frustrated and comes out as being rude, now you have people doing burnouts and almost running people over. It’s ruined.
Don’t get be wrong, I love big car crusies like Beaver and Moon. But Wexford isn’t a one year big blowout, it was a weekly cruise in the far north hills. It is my opinion there was no reason to advertise it to be something it wasn’t. Wexford had the nicest local weekly cruise going.
I won’t be spending my Fridays there anymore and I’m not alone. A lot of the people who were there the first 2 years when it was really nice, community members, locals, are also fed up with the direction is has taken and are no longer attending. On top of all that, the local business in the store-front mall next to the church are getting very upset. It’s getting to big and their customers have nowhere to park.
I have no idea what they were thinking. Why would anyone want to ruin such a good thing.
Thanks GS350, for articulating exactly the sentiments i had. I guess i do prefer the local “smaller” cruises. There was just one on Main street in Saxonburg Weds night that had around 70-80 cars, and it was a really enjoyable laid back and fun evening. Having gone to the Wexford Starlight drive in many times as a child, and having had family on the area (some of my relatives, who are named Swinderman, had a farm on Swinderman Rd, where a private club and a housing plan now sit), i liked the area and was looking forward to attending cruises there. I wish i had seen it a few years ago when it was like you described.
Do you go to George Welsh’s SIDS benefit cruises in Richland?
It’s funny you say that. Believe it or not, the first 2 years when things were calm, the place had an amazing vibe. Being a spiritual person, I thought to myself, being built on the old drive-in grounds, it was almost as if the drive-in spirit was still there. I can’t really explain it. I never felt that at a cruise before. That “energy” is washed out now, it’s no longer there.
Do you go to George Welsh’s SIDS benefit cruises in Richland?
The only one I ever went to in that area was at Home Depot or Busy Beaver on Route 8 North, not sure if it’s the same one your talking about.
Quick funny story about that place…
There is a narrow row of grass islands inbetween where the cars park. That is where everyone backs their car into, opens their trunk, and sets up their chairs.
I was standing in the parking lot in front of my car talking to a guy when I hear what sounds like a soda can open that somebody shook up, but the sound didn’t go away. Next thing I hear is people screaming. I turn around and people are running everywhere.
Well… the place has a sprinkler system that is time activated. Somebody forgot to turn it off for the cruise. There were sprinklers going off all along that island of grass, where everyone was sitting, under their chairs. Was the funniest thing I ever seen.
