"It's Cruising Time" is the headline on the front page of our local newspaper today.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/cruising-36290-time-.html

If you were a teenager in central North Carolina in the 80's (or the 60's and 70's from what I hear), you spent A LOT of your free time "cruising" or "dragging" Main Street in Burlington. It was our way of showing off our cars, playing our music, hanging out with our friends, and meeting new friends. By the late 80's, on most weekends there was a continuous loop (for about 5 miles) of traffic between Main Street, and a McDonalds and a car wash that were both on Graham Hopedale Road. McDonalds had at least one police officer who's duty it was to make sure you were a paying customer. The car wash had police officers making sure that if you were stopped, you were really washing your car, and it was an endless game of dodging the police officers who's cars blocked all the side streets to break up our party. At the time, Graham Hopedale Road was the site of our only county hospital; and by the time we had spilled over onto and started clogging up that road, the city of Burlington had had enough. There were "No Cruising" signs posted everywhere; and if you passed by a spot more than twice in a night, you were ticketed. Slowly, the cruisers left; and sadly the east side of our town has decayed and changed from "the place to be", to the place you don't want to be.

Jump ahead 20+ years to today. A few of my high school friends were nostalgically looking back on the favorite pastime of our teenage years, and got the crazy idea to do it again. So, this Saturday night (8/28/10); with the blessing of the Burlington police department; there will be cruising in Burlington once again.

So, this is my question of the evening.....Is it just wishful thinking to think you can go back and relive a great time in your past; or is it better off as a great memory? I guess time will tell.......