Cruisin' VanBuren Followup

June 6, 2010
Former EHS students invited to relive old days of cruising Van Buren

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

ENID — Today teens have a number of outlets they can access without even leaving the house. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites will keep them in touch with the friends and even introduce them to new people. But in “the old days,” their parents and grandparents met each other face-to-face by driving their cars up and down the main street. Darla Dalton Robbins, a 1989 graduate of Enid High School, started a Facebook page about the days when kids “cruised” up and down Van Buren. As a result, a “cruising” reunion has been set for June 18-19. The Facebook page had 1,438 members as of Sunday. People who went to Enid area schools in the 1960s through the 1990s reminisced about what they did while cruising, the businesses that were here and who they met along the way. Several commented they met their future spouse while cruising. One woman wrote Robbins she met a cute guy at a stop sign one night and eventually married him. They will celebrate more than 20 years of marriage this year. Another woman who met her husband while cruising will be married 32 years. More than 100 pictures of the cars people cruised in are posted on the Facebook page. “I told my kids about it and they thought it was boring. But we had a way to actually meet people face-to-face,” Robbins said. She set the reunion on Father’s Day weekend because many people will be returning to Enid to see their fathers and they can set aside time that Friday and Saturday night to cruise. Cruising officially will be held 7 p.m. to midnight both nights. “We’re keeping it simple,” Robbins said. A women who now lives in Enid, a 1971 graduate of Enid High School, wrote she plans to attend her class reunion next year and urged Robbins to hold another reunion then because she is anxious to cruise Van Buren again. As they did in the old days, participants can park behind McDonald’s. Robbins will have a sign up sheet there for those who are returning. If all goes well, next year she may have vendors and schedule events earlier in the day. The website has 107 confirmed guests who may bring their families, 372 who may attend and 546 who have not yet replied. “It’s hard to know what the numbers will be,” Robbins said. “It is a family event and they may bring several other people with them.” Those who write on the Facebook page talk about many things that happened while they were cruising. Robbins remembers having water guns and shooting each other as she cruised along in her LeBaron convertible with a sign on the front that said “Darla’s Attitude.” She listened to Def Leppard, Poison, Guns N’ Roses and other popular ’80s groups. Her father Alvin Dalton is more excited than she is, Robbins said. “He is a ’60s grad and he bought a shirt. My kids don’t think it’s their thing,” she said. At the time Robbins was cruising Enid, gasoline sold for about 97 cents per gallon. She said they could not afford to cruise with gasoline over $2 per gallon. She said they tried to stop in some places and talk, but the police ran them off. She has called Enid Police Department and reported the reunion so that will not happen this time. If cruising got boring in those days, the teens went to Overland Trail Arcade to play pool. The kids made the rounds from that side of town to the other. Sometimes they went to the movies or to the mall, which was new back then. Each generation established a slightly different route, according to Robbins, but all mainly drove Van Buren. Businesses along the route like Pizza Planet, Van’s Plaza Drive In, Lennox Drive In and others are remembered fondly by those who have written to Robbins. Robbins, who lives in Sapulpa, is married and the mother of four.
For more information, go to the “VanBuren Cruisers Reunion” page on Facebook.