Cinco de Mayo Weekend: My adventures in Saginaw, for the Cinco de Mayo Festivities. Cruising on Woodward Avenue Saturday night. The Bearing Burners spring car show. The south west Detroit Cinco de Mayo festival and parade. And last but not least the lowriders gathered for the Good Time C.C. Picnic.

I just could not get up early enough to drive the 4 or 5 hours to Saginaw for the parade. When I got there, I quickly noticed it probably would have been worth it. From the amount of carnage there must have been some serious clownin’. Let’s hope anyway. Several nice cars had mildly serious suspension problems, I witnessed of the aftermath. I say mildly serious, as it is all relative to your level, right? Kudos’s to Josh with Low 4 Life (rt) C.C. for tearing it up, and the next day being at the picnic a hundred or so miles down the road. And to my other friends out there, I will leave the other intriguing ball joint breaking car anonymous for the time being. Overall for just catching the tail end, It looked like a fine festival with plenty of people. I was disappointed I was too late to get an xl shirt and had to settle for a 2xl, but I rolled through. I was invited back to wherever to apparently hang out or help fix Josh’s ride, and even though I wanted nothing else, I declined, and with good reason as you may see. I have a tendency to over think things, and I just didn’t feel like I spent enough time with the L4L crew that day to warrant a treat, or is it, I’m just not cool enough? Yeah right.

I rode on down 75 and got off not at my usual exit, but at Square Lake Road, and right over to Woodward Avenue. It was a nice evening, and much warmer than here. I hoped I could get a chance to see some cars, and If I did, these should be some true Woodward fanatics eh? Well, the cruising gods will again provide. I saw the first car up at Hunter House and saw a few more as I cruised on. There were even a dozen cars at the Shell station. I know your thinking, oh boy, a whole dozen! But I swear it’s been a long, cold, deep snow, winter, and I had been dying to see some car action. I stopped in at the Shell and took some pictures. I tried to start some conversations with some people, and as usual they were less than inviting, how sad. Of course I was just some yahoo taking pictures so why bother. There were a couple nice souls, and generally everyone seemed in a good mood. I was particularly thrilled to see the blues mobile roll through, I am a fan from way back, and that’s probably in part what inspired me to try a few cop cars out myself. I got my first close up look at a new Camaro, pretty cool. The gentlemen with the orange Road Runner, and the black mustang were decent enough. I like to check out all the cars, I personally don’t "vehicular discriminate". ("Double A" coined phrase) even though my neighbor friend might argue that I give him a lot of crap about him killing the auto industry in America by buying two Toyotas. I was most impressed for the moment with the red delivery coupe? With the SVO motor. I told the guy "That’s pretty trick, nice." He must not have agreed with me, because he just grumbled at me. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and just speak up a little more next time, you know these old hot rodders, with their hearing aids, Viagra, and secret off shore bank accounts. Take that and put on your am radio. I was just as happy as a kid in a candy store to be back home on Woodward, and nothing was going to bring me down.

After a decent nights rest, I was up early for the Bearing Burners spring car show and swap meet I was there before 10am and trust me that’s early. For me anyway, oldies. Right off the bat I was a little taken aback that the sign says parking $10. Did it say that anywhere, that I would have known, so it can just be a matter of my lack of research? I thought about turning around, I really did. Since the cost of my trip was being partially subsidized, I decided to throw caution to the wind and spend $10 of what could have gone into my "I haven’t been able to afford cheap china made wheels in 2 years" fund. If gas was the price of last year, I would not have had the luxury of blowing two fins on seeing a bunch of stuff I can just wait to see on Woodward. Plus this was just a side trip, and I could have just as easily hooked up with my boys, and cruised on down to the Good Times picnic, uh, for free. I will continue to keep the heat on since I’m at it. For the swap meet, spending money to get into anywhere where you are going to spend money always just rubs me the wrong way. Funny thing is the people selling the stuff are paying a bunch of money just to have a chance at maybe somebody willing to spend money to spend money. Let’s see if we can’t change this, know what I’m sayin’? And boycott any internet fees too. I know I’m dreaming, and damn it, isn’t it just un-Amerikan to think you don’t have the right to rape everyone’s wallets, right? More than just the nickel and dime issues, I am continually disappointed in people’s attitudes. Maybe it’s just me, If you knew me, you’d be happy to know me as just a hippie, junkie, criminal, "good peoples," but just because I have long hair and wear a fedora like its in style, doesn’t mean you’re not an anal retentive yuppie douche bag, or whatever. (Yuppie is possibly replaceable with retired auto exec.) It’s like I paid to come see your cars, and take pictures to share, and you look at me like I might scratch your car by taking a picture, or looking at me with disdain, like you even have a clue. I mean I even gave some compliments that were met with a snarl or a negative reply, for Pete’s sake, you can’t even compliment people anymore. I will discuss why later in my book. That’s just the way it is. This is not negativity, I was very positive that whole weekend, I might even have been giddy! What I’m saying should be positivity in action. That all being said, I will get on to better encounters.

I did get to see a couple people I knew, and met a few more. It’s always a pleasure to run into a.k.a. Milner. He is so full of it! The terrible thing is I could put up with it for entirely too long. What exactly "it" is, is usually of the utmost importance and argue-ability, of course. You have to respect his position, and anyone could learn way more than they want to, if they have the patience and sensibility to listen for more than 30 seconds, or past the what can’t you do for me part. Find him. Talk to him. Most importantly, listen to him. Tell him what’s on your mind, he will tell you what time it is. The Great Lakes, center of the car cruising world, would never have been the same with out him, and his infinite numbers of imitators advancing the car show hobby to the blown out, cruise night every night, way that it is. You don’t know, but I figure losing him will be terribly sad loss for the real true cruisers out there. We need people like a.k.a. Milner to stand up for the people involved with this as a lifestyle. I am starting to make my own self heard, and draw my line in the sand, to stand up for what I believe in, in the cruising, and car show world. My hope is that I can accomplish just a portion of what these old guys have done for us in the past, and continue to take that into the future.

I will stand up for all the "good old guys" and their hot rods, classics, muscle cars, antiques, and especially their low rods. Treat these old guys with respect, you never know who they are. They are probably your grandparents, fathers, uncles, baby daddies, or lost brothers of the faith. Also what it seems is my generation is lacking in a respect for the older generations that served our country, these old guys are the ones that made it possible for us to cruise with impunity and with out the permission of the Gestapo, SS, or the commissars, be friggin thankful, friends, and be grateful its not comrades. I say my generation, not young people. Young people now have gone through Iraq, and Afghanistan so they might have a clue. I learned my respect by listening and appreciating. And for you old guys on the flip side, read Milner’s articles more. Try for once, again, to be personable. You are going to die soon, and us kids will be letting our inheritance rot out in the back forty, or sold to another one of us young punks so we can cut it all up into a lowrider, or worse.

I saw an old guy cruiser friend and his buddy. Uh, not so bad being the old guy cruisers like them. I see them doin’ tha thang! They got the spirit, and I’m very happy to hang with them for a while when I get the chance. Oh and guess what, he’s down with the low lows. It just goes to show that the lowrider is one of the most common forms of automotive customization. Now just because he doesn’t have his arms covered with tattoo’s, or have his pitbull on a huge chain with him, doesn’t mean he has no clue about who or what a lowrider is, and further more I will decree that he is a true OG rider. Thanks to his associates that helped me out with some MapQuest directions the next day. That sure beat the library, thanks!

I saw a bunch of cars I recognized, and more that I conspicuously didn’t. I saw the orange Road Runner from out on Woodward. I saw a few fellow USMA peoples. I was sad I didn’t run into some of the internet cruisers there, I was looking. Don’t be shy saying hi to me, you should be able to recognize me easily enough. I talked to the guy with the silver flake Benz limo, seems he knows a thing about lowrider paint jobs too, the proof is in my vintage pics. The younger guy sitting by a nice truck had a good story about him and his father, building the old Chevy. Nice job guys.

Over all, It was a nice show. The cars were certainly nice, and it was shaping up into a very nice warm spring day. I didn’t spend much time looking close at much. I just did the rounds and snapped some off the cuff pictures at whatever caught my eye. Unfortunately most of the paint jobs didn’t come out in the photos as good as in person, of course. I did get a couple nice backgrounds with the General Motors Technical Center, I only wished the cars were facing the opposite direction for the pics. I just made it up and down the perimeter of the swap meet, and didn’t pay it much attention either. You see, I was up early and preoccupied with getting down to the Cinco De Mayo Parade in south west Detroit, and to the Good Times C. C. Picnic.

Cinco De Mayo in south west Detroit’s so called Mexican town, what an adventure. I showed up in plenty of time, but they had Vernor Ave. blocked off already, and I was at the wrong end. I was trying to meet up with some friends for the parade, and I decided to wait for them to come by in the parade. In retrospect I could have easily walked down to the parade line up, as it started so late. I found a fair backdrop that didn’t look all ghetto, and waited to take some pictures of the cars in the parade. I think my friends hyped this up a bit. I remember back in the day the Cinco De Mayo parade was definitely the place to be. Now it was a good showing of the local cars and the home town Good Times C.C. Those Cadillacs are very impressive rollin’ down on three, lookin’ good! Of course the Good Times C.C. was the highlight of the parade. Other honorable mentions included the group with the weird masks and costumes, the luchidores, wrestlers, and the losing mayoral candidate, he did look shady, then I saw ads against him on TV that looked about right on.

I waited for my friend to go by, and he never did! I talked to them as they were starting the parade, but the parade was over already. What happened I wondered. Seems they ran into a little lowrider hydraulic trouble right near the start. Damn, they were so looking forward to it. I tried to make my way over to where they stopped, but what a nightmare. The streets were just jammed with traffic. I did catch up with some other pals on my way around the traffic. The boys from Flint got their car covered in rubber from a foolish burnout-ateer in front of them. I was impressed to see Josh’s Cadillac roaming the streets, after breaking the day before up state, as I mentioned. I finally made it to my friend’s car, looking all limping. Tough break. Apparently a cylinder seal gave way and was leaking badly. Now I do not know who he called, but who ever was responsible for helping him out is setting the example for us in the lowrider community. My friend called a friend who loaned him a new cylinder, and even went so far as to have his girlfriend bring it down to us at the car, in a bad part of town no less. A bad part of town for most little white girls anyway! I was very happy to witness some comradery. Thanks to you unknown soldier. He preceded to swap the seals out, that seemed easiest at the moment, and my friend made it look simple and made quick work of it. I did help, I held some greasy stuff and got dirty. I did have everyone ask me if I was workin’ on something, so that made a nice conversation starter. They got the car moving again and we tried to make out way over to the spot. Friggin traffic! Jammed up all the way. I could not take it any more and I jetted down a side street. I eventually made it over to the gathering parking lot, but my friends I was with, and was supposed to have dinner with, called it a day. I don’t blame them, they had a long day already. But we better be on for a rain check. Armando’s is open till 1:30am, so anytime is good bro’s.

Finally, I made it to the gathering. I don’t know if picnic is exactly appropriate. Gathering would seem to be a better term, but I ain’t picky. There was plenty of good food close, but I didn’t really see many of the car guys doin’ a cook-up, save for the hosting club. Not that it matters, I know I wasn’t the only one going out for dinner there. I had a very pleasant surprise walking into the show. It’s been a long time since anyone was happy enough to see me to shout my name across the parking lot. I don’t think we would be lowriders if we didn’t like the attention, and I have felt the hatred and jealousy of others when attention is diverted away from them many times in the past. This was a nice feeling, thanks. I am so happy to see my lowrider friends, especially when I see they are just as happy to see me. I got to see lots of friends there. Even a few guys I am not so friends with, Angelo! This was probably the first who’s who lowrider gathering of the year. I don’t think I need to bore you with the list of cool peoples but suffusive to say if you weren’t there you must have better things to do? I guess the highlights were just hanging with the peeps. I did enjoy meeting the "engineer" (locomotive) with his classic Chevy truck, and talking with old friend Alex, and getting their trucks together in pics. I just can’t mention everyone I guess, I mean who’s as cool as Cash and his candy pedal car eh?

I had a great afternoon just hanging out there. I was one of the last to leave, and I didn’t really want to. Thanks to Good Times C.C. for hosting. Thanks for the several nice comments I received from, you know who you are. I cant say there where any major highlights, overall it was great all day catching up with everyone. It was all a highlight. On second thought the highlight for me was meeting that girl taking pictures, Caitlin. (She didn’t spell it) Oh, thank heaven for those sexy nerdy women, please <e-mail me> I want to buy you dinner, you sly fox.

The season is off to a fine start. I had some fun and a great adventure. My excursion was sponsored in part by taking a job picking up some parts far into Ohio. On Monday, after a great cruisin weekend I journeyed into unfamiliar territory. After a nice helping hand with some directions from some fellow car guys, I was on my way. This part of my trip was the most adventurous, but mainly un-eventful. I did get to see some interesting sights along the way, like the old chevy truck bone yard. There must have been 2 or 3 dozen 40's, 50's, and 60's Chevy trucks all lined up in the front yard, and a sea of rust into the back forty. I gained another insight into the wonderful world of internet wheeling and dealing, when I arrived to pick up the gentlemen’s parts. All I can say is it’s a good thing you don’t know exactly who you are dealing with. Not that the guy with the parts was in any way specifically evil that I could tell, but shady might fit, or as I like to say, suspect. I knew already the gentleman farmer who purchased these parts was in a bad deal, but that’s how we learn. Every one please use more than just common sense when dealing over the net, and never assume anything. Go look at the unit, and make a deal face to face, never trust pictures. On the other hand maybe these parts were worth the freight, I got my gas money paid for, and that’s something to me. From Saturday morning till Wednesday afternoon I logged in about 1500 miles, no sweat. The sacrifice to not drive my Cadillac, was the opportunity to take the truck and make my gas money back for the weekend. We all have to do what ever it is we do to enjoy our interests.

Please understand I really mean no harm, and this is tongue in cheek. I’m attempting to say my piece in an humorous fashion, while trying to bring some light of truth on what I see and experience. I hope you find some enjoyment and enlightenment throughout my travels.

If you enjoy reading my propaganda, let me know. Any little boost of confidence is going to help me continue to work on these articles, and the site. Please, a little gesture of approval or support will go a long way. On the other hand, my resolve is strong to support the lowrider community, negativity, and mudslinging will only strengthen my proven stead fast resolve to stand up for what I see and believe in. Y’all know by now it’s not that easy to get rid of me.

Again, Gracias to Good Times Car Club and the great lowrider community we are all a part of. Keep on cruisin’ into the future.