The Police Cars of the Cruise

The Police Cars of the Cruise. Historic Graffiti Cruise Route. The Modesto Police will forever be linked to American Graffiti through the most famous scene in the movie. Curt, the film’s protagonist, as a punishment from the notorious car club “The Pharaohs” (The Faros in real life) for scratching the candy apple red paint of a club member’s car, was tasked with chaining the axle of a squad car to a light post. The rest is history and the squad car ended up stranded, axle-less in the middle of the street, maybe 10th or 11th Street, near where you are standing., (Picture 3) , Leroy Applequist, Modesto Motorcycle Policeman from 1955-1959 who wrote citations to nearly every kid that cruised in the late ‘50s, remembers the cruising years fondly. “There was never any really bad crime, just a lot of harmless pranks that would normally end up in a car chase out of town, along the canal banks and into the orchards.” Norman Sturm was the other officer most often remembered during the Graffiti years. (Picture 5), George Lucas received a lot of tickets during his cruising days. So have many others. Legendary quantities of tickets were issued for every single possible infraction, from the cars being chopped and lowered too close to the ground, over tinted windows, items hanging from the mirror, and the list goes on and on. But overall, it was all pretty harmless and most of the infractions were not serious. The police knew most of the regular cruisers by name and there was a semi-friendly relationship with the cruisers. Officer Applequist would hide between the parked cars in the car lots along 11th Street to quickly capture violators., The most common ticket issued on the Cruise Route was an “illegal left turn” where there was a temporary sign placed during the evenings to prevent cruisers from making the left turn at Burge’s to start the round trip again. The other most common tickets were issued for the excessive lowering of cars. Common items like a beer can or pack of cigarettes were the gauge for the appropriate height off the ground. Other gauges were that if your tires were deflated and anything touched the ground, your car was too low. Tickets did not have the traffic points that are common today, so there were many cruisers that had 30-40 tickets outstanding at any time. Most Graffiti Era tickets issued were $2 or $5. This was showcased in American Graffiti when John Milner stuffed his newly issued ticket into a glove compartment already overflowing with tickets., Many people have stories about the night of “the axle and the police car”, or their version of it. There were frequent pranks played on the Historic Cruise Route, many of them in front of Burge’s at 10th and O Streets. Some of the most common involved spilling oil from cars on the street, old crank case oil poured inside a Model A muffler with the tops cut open to make a lot of smoke on the street, and even a drum of oil to create a big oil slick at corners and intersections. Cruise Legend Dwight Trammel tells the story of his prank and subsequent penalty on a video at modestocruiseroute.com., In the spirit of the history of American Graffiti, the Modesto Police Department has beautifully restored a ’57 Chevy Bel Air cruiser that is on display occasionally at the Police Department and makes regular appearances at the car shows and parades here in Modesto., Were You There? Tell us your story at: [email protected] , Researched by: Chris Murphy . www.ModestoCruiseRoute.com