Dallas' Youth Culture in the '60s: Crusing

See also: Dallas' Youth Culture in the '60s: A Chronology, 1964-1970

Near the beginning of the decade, young Dallasites (and their neighboring suburban counterparts), seemed determined to turn the area into a landlocked version of Southern California. And why not? The metroplex (as it was not yet being called) already had its own version of Disneyland, namely Six Flags Over Texas. On Friday and Saturday nights there were innumerable places around the city and its suburbs that closely resembled a scene from "The Hollywood Knights" or "American Graffiti," with carloads of kids cruising up and down some the street, pulling into and out of the local drive-in hamburger stand, looking for a good time.

The most notorious of these "strips" was Forest Lane in Far North Dallas, from Webb's Chapel on the west to Midway Road on the east (or perhaps as far as Inwood), with the intersection of Forest and Marsh being more or less the center of action. On the northwest corner of Forest and Marsh stood "Jolly John's" (formerly the "Dog 'n' Suds," later to become the Northside Drive-In). This was the liveliest place of all, where the odds of getting into a fight on a Friday or Saturday night was a near certainty. In fact, things got so out of hand there that in March 1965 the Dallas City Council passed what became known as the "Jolly John's Law," which made it unlawful to gather in groups of more than two outside a car at a drive-in parking lot (among many other things). In response to a rise in street racing between teens in souped-up cars, the council also raised the fine for racing from $25 to $100.

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