Up and back around the Belmont Circle

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Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by JanetG » Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:18 pm

Same age as u... sophomore in '78... Hoover... me and my bf cruised Belmont ... God I feel so old!

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by Guest » Mon Jun 26, 2017 2:58 am

In 78 I was a sophomore at Fresno High and the cool thing to do was to cruise down Belmont on a Friday or Saturday night. It was like the TV show Happy Days or American Graffiti but Belmont had a drive - in called Mars. Mostly a lot of innocent fun, boy meets girl, show off your new car or hot rod, where's the party?

People have been cruising up and down Belmont from Abby to the Roedding park Circle since the 1950s. Back then there where no islands in the middle of the street and you could get close to one another. Some nights we would just kick back on a bench at a bus stop and check out the girls. Cops started showing up on their motorcycles, it was easier for them to get in-between the cars and see what you were doing. Lots of fond memories, but by 1980 the violence got worse. A lot worse.

The cops really started cracking down.I remember on foggy nights you could hear gunshots and people were getting stabbed. The cholos and the Cholas weren't afraid of anyone or anything. In fact it seemed like the cops were afraid to pull them over. So people stop going. Some tried cruising on Blackstone but that didn't last long. The low riders cruised Kings Canyon, but none of it was like Belmont. And like the drive - in theaters it was gone forever. What a shame.

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by sjvalleydave » Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:56 pm

Yes I do, it was catty corner from Tinkers, red brick building to the west and a gas station across Belmont..It was a wooden looking one story with the parking lot of front...

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by Kyle@2010 » Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:47 am

Does anybody remember a nightclub on the corner of Belmont/Broadway, kitty corner from Tinkler Funeral Chapel back in the day? Now it's an office complex. There's a red brick building to the west of the intersection.

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by SlamIam » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:48 am

What I remember most about dragging Belmont (1965-69) was few cars had A/C, so all car windows were open. Lots of conversation between cars, cruising and sitting at stoplights. One of my fondest memories was sitting in my black GTO at the light at Palm one summer night when the light seemed to stay red an awful long time. I could hear KYNO coming from every one of dozens of cars sitting at the light and thought it was cool everybody was listening to the same thing.

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by sjvalleydave » Mon Mar 12, 2012 3:21 pm

We never, ever went north on Blackstone. We just went west on Belmont to the circle and then back east to Blackstone, went through Bob's Big Boy parking lot and went out on Abby and made left on Belmont and headed west again. That whole Blackstone north deal came after us in the mid 70's...

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by dhousejones » Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:41 pm

Cruisn' Belmont in the early 70's hearing Bob Higuera in his big black car playing Black Magic Woman!!
Attachments
belmont main.jpg
Fresno Bee - Nov. 4, 1973 / Click To Enlarge

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by RAR » Thu Feb 24, 2011 10:29 pm

The way you turned around at the north end was to go up Blackstone to Shaw, turn right and then go into the Bob's Big Boy drive through. In the late 1960s, in order to cut down on cruising, Bob's started to charge a quarter for each car that went into the carhop area. You got a token and could use it to pay for your food. The station of choice at Bob's was XTRB, home of Wolfman Jack, just like on American Graffiti. You could hear it echoing through the parking area.

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by loved belmont » Thu Oct 21, 2010 8:29 am

On one special night I met a girl named Gloria Cherry and she was dressed in her cheerleader uniform. She hopped in my vette - she did! I loved cruzin the main but of the thousands of up and backs down Belmont, that was the only night I met a girl. Sad to say.

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

by fresno103 » Tue Aug 17, 2010 12:24 pm

I see that you used the phrase "up and back around the Belmont Circle". I think this is key to why Belmont was better than Fulton Street. It was a natural and easy way to get headed the other direction. That was always my favorite part of dragging the Belmont main, not to mention roaring throgh the railroad tressel tunnel as you headed to the circle! Of course the other end near Blackstone was much more of a pain to get turned around.

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