Date:Posted By:Comments:2 CommentsCategory:CultureTag:, ,

If you grew up in South Dakota there is a very good chance you know what this is about. It’s a Friday night. Maybe something was going on. But up and down main street in most towns are lines of cars . It’s not that there is something specific going on. And it’s not that there is a destination. It’s just that we have a car and time. And we want to see what everyone else is doing. Taking a main. Driving the loop. Whatever you called it. It was what was going on and how we figured out what was going on. But what made it so appealing? Lets go back in time a little bit.

Going to meet up with your friend who has just put new speakers in his car. You grab the new albums by those new bands you were meaning to show off. After all, you know it’s the best album that came out this year. Suddenly you hear a honk come from outside. So you grab your stuff and whatever cash or change you have and head for the door.

As you jump in the car it’s just a given what you’re doing. You’re looking to see what the rest of your friends and the school are doing. And hopefully find someone or somewhere to hang out. As you pull onto the main road you see cars as far as the eye can see. Friends you have seen all week letting loose for the week. You put the songs on you brought with you. After all you have to test out those speakers. As you pass by other cars you can hear the music from their cars as well. Sometimes wondering who that amazing tune was?

The real fun is the talking. Seeing people you know. Kicking back and enjoying the time. Most of the times the tunes would get turned down long enough to discuss a cute girl or guy. The latest gossip. And even hopes and dreams we have.

As the night would wear on, we would usually find somewhere to congregate. This is where we would hang out and discuss where the party was. Where we were going. Or sometimes, just to hang out and laugh a bit.

My son is 18. I asked him if this is something they do. He said yes. It was just usually just them hanging out until they find something better to do. I knew all to well what he was talking about. But maybe it wasn’t to have a destination. Maybe it was about the friends. The people we met. And the good times we had.

I have seen during the coronavirus, some people tried to bring back this tradition. I’m all for it. Just remember the spirit of it. And what it was about. Sometime it’s not the adventure, it’s the ride.

Until next time

2 Comments

  1. Elaine Soukup

    The small towns on SE South Dakota where my my husband, Pat, and I grew up, Saturday noght was the night to drive up and down Main Street not Friday.

    The farmers with their whole families came to town on Saturday night to do their trading. They brought their eggs, cream, etc to sell to the creamery, poultry place, etc. The farmers bought supplies they needed from the hardware stores ~ Gambles, Ace Hardware, Coast to Coast ~ lumber yard, feed from the elevator, etc are some of the stores during those years the farmers needed to survivor.

    The farmers’ wives bought the groceries for the coming week that they didn’t grow themselves or bakery items they didn’t bake themselves. The farmers congregated in the bars with their friends for cold beers and catch up on their crops, their livestock, the local gossip, even got a little tipsy.

    The farmers and their family got a real treat of eating supper at the local cafes or had ice cream at the drug store or at the local soft served ice cream shop for a special treat..

    After buying the groceries, the wives either sat on benches provided by the stores or sat in their cars catching up on the latest gossip with their farm lady friends.

    The town people never came up town to intermingle with the farmers’ and their families unless the town people owned or worked in the stores like the local grocery store, the clothing store, hardware store, cafes, saloons, drug store, shoe shop, meat locker, etc. The farmers and the town people were very segregated back in those days I was growing up.

    Main Street would have a block long of the teenagers driving the Main Street circuit. At both ends of Main Street, u-turns were allowed so it was easy to keep the loop going. This was the place for the guy ? to show off his girlfriend ?. She sat so close to him, it looked like it took both of them to drive the car. This ritual would go on from around 7:00 pm until around 10:00 pm.

    What a fun ritual this was. Many of the cars were filled up with the drivers’ friends shopping for the opposite sex. This was a ritual going to the other towns nearby looking for the opposite sex. Many times we drove to Avon, Delmont, Scotland to look for new guys.

    Reminiscing back to the 1950’s, 1960’s, etc when life was so much simpler and so innocent. I have lots of happy memories thinking back to those days with my family, my parents’ friends, my friends, the guys I dated, and then with my soulmate I have been happily married to for 53 years 3 months. Our two sons never got to experience those beautiful, innocent, simpler times of growing up in the years my Pat & I grew up in ~ long before the internet, social media and the drugs.

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