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| April 16, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Page A-26 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, April 16,2020
Cruisin’: Nobody could beat legendary Pie Wagon
continued from pageA~1
member of the Shelton School
District Board of Directors, said she
and her husband-to-be, cruised The
Gut nightly during the summer of
1968.
“He had a yellow ’65 Impala 33,
with the baddest eight-track and re- .
verb system,” she wrote. “That was
the year of Otis Reddings ‘Sittin’ on
the Dock of the Bay,’ Steppenwolf’s
‘Born to Be Wild,’ The Boxtop’s ‘The
course ‘The Graduate’ introduced us
to Dustin Hoffman and ‘Mrs. Robin-
son.’ ”
“Rusty had a ’65 Tempest and
worked out of town,” wrote Donna
Kinnaird. “I’d drive that car and
cruise. Heck, I’d have three or four
friends in the car and we would take
up a collection and cruise all night»
— well, most of the night, my curfew
was at 11 — on two, three dollars
worth of gas. And yeah, we’d cruise,
pull into Evergreen Square, bum a
beer and talk, then cruise again. Of
course, I only watched the guys run
the Gopher Strip. And of course there
were nights RuSty was there to drive
his own car.”
THE ROUTES
Sue Freeman Hickman remem-
bers her cruising route: down Rail-
roadAvenue, up First Street to the
Hillcrest district, a turn through
the Red Apple parking lot, and back
down to Railroad to check out The
Square, “to see if anyone new pulled
in.” Then it was up West Alder Street
to the Mountainview district to Ma
& Pa’s Steakhouse “to maybe grab
breakfast if anyone had money.”
Then it was back down to Railroad
and parts beyond.
Irene Goldsby recalled a tighter
route on Friday nights: up and down
Railroad, onto West Cota Street,
down to the railroad tracks, and then
back onto Railroad.
THE BEERS
Toni Fonzo cruised The Gut from
1974 to 1976. One evening, “the Shel-
ton police decided they wanted to
search the cars,” he recalled. “They
proceeded to block all four entrances
to The Square. They began search-
ing our cars, making us pour. out
all our beer. Afterwards, they just
went on their way. Disappointing our
beer was gone, but I had a stash in
the air vents of my parents’ Duster
they didn’t find. I believe four bottles
would fit in each vent.”
' “For hours on end that was
the thing to do,” wrote Randy C.
Churchill. “Gas was under a dol-
lar back then, so for two dollars you
r 'm'ghy‘Cruise and
' goo
Steve Robertson. “The beer lasted
a bit because word got out and like
there were one hundred cars there
in no time! (It was a) winding road'
through the woods to get there. They
usually lasted a while, with another
keg or two that would show up. Mu-
sic from whoever had the best sound
system with their eight-track system.
Loved those days and nights.”
“Remember when Gordy Shank
had a kegger on the roof of Ever-
green Drug?” asked Kelli Vander Wal
Dahlman. “If you could climb up, you
could have some beer!”
THE COPS
A year after he graduated from
Shelton High School. in 1982, Dean
Jewett bought a big block 1967 Cor-
vette convertible. He remembers
showing off by revving his engine in
front of police officer.
“Thinking back, those poor cops,
' they were all pretty good about let-
ting us hang out!” he wrote.
Terry LaBissoniere, who graduat-
ed from high school in 1965, said he
remembers being followed around by
an officer named Scotty —‘— he doesn’t
a
recall his last name.
“When we finally landed in The
Square to laugh and joke, he’d ap—
proach the group and tell us how he
counted'57 violations, but wasn’t go-
ing to write any of us tonight. Ah, the
,d old, days.”
{[111
proceeded down the street and he,
turned left and didn’t signal. So we
drove over to the police station and
reported him. While we were there,
he came in. We had the on-duty of-
ficer write him a warning. Oh, fun
times. Geez, don’t 'tell my kids I did
that.” .
Mason County Sheriff Casey
Salisbury cruised The. Gut in his
bright red 1968 Mustang Fastback,
a car he still owns and is about to
pass on to his son. In an interview
with the Journal, Salisbury recalls
a day in 1981 when he and his girl- ‘
friend were parked in The Square.
When Salisbury popped out of the
car to talk to friends, sheriff’s deputy
Dave Petersen —— a school resource
officer jumped into the Mustang
and drove up to Shelton High School
to check in on a school dance, with
Salisbury’s girlfriend still in the pas-
senger seat. Salisbury said many of
his fellow cruisers became police of-
ficers and sheriff deputies. '
THE CARS
“I remember cruising The Gut in
my mint condition ’61 Chevy Impa-
la,” said Scott Barnard. “Everyone’s
Car was pristine. Later, we would all
park in Evergreen Square. Some-
times there would be a case or two of
Lucky Lager. Sometimes there would
be a keg under a blanket in the back
of a truck. Officer Cecil McLain would
and now my dear wife enjoyed driv-
ing it as much as I did.” .
Don Welander cruised The Gut
through his high school years.
“I had a 1967 Chevelle and made
many trips up and down Railroad
Avenue,” he wrote, “And many trips
to the local illegal drag strip, i.e.,
Dayton International,‘as we called it.
Many good times! So many fast cars
back in the mid-to-late ‘70s and early
‘80s.”
“I used to wax my ’57 in The
Square,” wrote Bill Julian. “It was
jacked” up, and with all the wax on
it, you couldn’t sit on the hood. That
puppy was waxed seven days a week,
sometimes twice in one day.”
And then there was the legendary
Pie Wagon.
“There were a lot of cool cars (not
mine) that would show up, some-
times race, sometimes bum ‘em off,
always fun,” said Mark A. Johnson.
“But the one car I always invariably
see in my mind’s eye is Sillie’s Pie
Wagon! Does anyone remember that
car? I thought it was the coolest hot .
rod I ever saw cruise The Gut from,
like 1970 to 1973 or so.”
“Sillie’s pie wagon went a lot far-
ther back than that,” Collin Morris
recalled. “He used to race it at the
airport in the mid-‘60s. -I remember
when Lonnie Cole brought his brand
new ’66 GTO to race the Pie Wagon.
Not even a close race. Embarrass-