Up and back around the Belmont Circle

~
Come back with us now to those hot summer nights when half of Fresno's teens were driving up and down Belmont. Or remember what it was like on Fulton St. before Belmont took the title of "Fresno's Main Drag" Remember the Rainbow Ballroom? Post you night life memories here.
~
Fresburg Guy
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:55 pm
Contact:

Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post by Fresburg Guy » Tue Aug 10, 2010 12:13 pm

I must of cruised the "main" for a 1,000 nights. Well, all the way through high shool and for a bit after that as well. What was I looking for? Burger and girls I guess and the occasional drag when the light turned green.

fresno103
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2010 6:53 am
Contact:

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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.

loved belmont

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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.

RAR
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2011 9:54 pm
Contact:

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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.

dhousejones
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:26 pm
Contact:

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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

sjvalleydave
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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...

SlamIam

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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.

Kyle@2010
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:37 am
Contact:

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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.

sjvalleydave
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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...

Guest

Re: Up and back around the Belmont Circle

Post 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.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest