Dragging Main

From Vickie Keck Nowlin, Class of '70:

The memory about dragging Main Street (actually Commercial) brought to mind many memories of riding around town in Temple. In my driving years there (1966-1970), night life for the young people "WAS" riding around. We rode around before school, at noon, after school, after Pep Rallies on Thurdays night, after games on Friday nights, Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.

My dad, Dewey Keck, was always upset that the tires on the car I drove around in wore so strangely on one side. He would always be rotating them around and after I spent hours making U-Turns all over town, the tires would be uneven again. The wild thing to do while cruising was to play "chicken" with another car or to spin around in donuts on the gravel parking lot at the Salebarn.

I was a true chicken when it came to these two activities--I just flat out didn't have the nerve to do either one. The zaniest riding around we did one year was on Sadie Hawkins Day. In the Spring, we all dressed up "Lil' Abner" style that day at school and didn't drive our cars on campus. Instead, we all rode our old bicycles to school. At noon, a huge group of us drove our bikes out onto the curve out by the high school into the mainstream traffic and rode all together downtown, made a huge U-Turn at the end of the street and rode back down Commercial St. back to school. It was so much fun!!!

While riding around town, we played KOMA and WKY music for the latest hits, honked at one another, flashed our lights at anyone we wanted to stop and talk to and even had hand signals we gave to one another if a Highway Patrolman was seen driving through town. Those of us driving without licenses, took to the side roads and/or went home for awhile. Yes, cruising in the 1960's was really "cool"!