Help Save the Cross Roads Drive-In in Santa Cruz, Calif.
WHERE TO WRITE
If you would like to join the growing number of 1950s' high school students who are trying to Save the Cross Roads from extinction, please write to the Santa Cruz City Council and to the Santa Cruz Sentinel Editor at:
[email protected]
[email protected]
And please send a copy to me at:
[email protected]
Please include your name, current city and state of residence, name of your school and year of your class, and any special memories you have about the '50s and, in particular, any special recollections and/or anecdotes about your local drive-in experiences.
Click on photo to learn more about efforts to Save the Cross Roads Click on this photo to go to a history of the Cross Roads.
The Cross Roads Drive-In opened in this building in 1952. For the previous couple of years, it had been located catty-cornered across the street in the VFW Post 888 Clubhouse.
This photo was taken about 1954 of the Cross Roads Drive-In in Santa Cruz, Calif. The Cross Roads was a popular hangout for 1950s' teens.
Click on the photo to read a Page 1 newspaper article about efforts to Save the Cross Roads
Click on photo to read some of the many letters written to City Hall.
In 1960 the Cross Roads was sold but it stayed in business another three years as Danny's Drive-In before being killed off by fast-food chains and expanding TV, which kept teens home at night. This picture was taken in July 1963, and the drive-in went out of business that year.
My parents, Leonard and Louise Klempnauer, started the Cross Roads Drive-In in 1947 in an old wooden building at this site. My dad died in 1974 at age 64. My mother died in 1997 shortly before her 83rd birthday.
Click on photo to read more letters asking city hall to spare the Cross Roads
Click on photo to read why the word "carhop" is disappearing.
This is a 1953-54 Cross Roads menu cover which belongs to Santa Cruzan Lorraine "Lefty" (Folk) Voight, a member of the SCHS Class of 1954.
Marcia (Klempnauer) Ross, daughter of the Cross Roads owners,  worked as a carhop at the Cross Roads. She is a 1956 graduate of Santa Cruz High and lives in Bend, Ore.
Click on photo for the latest letters and info about the Cross Roads
Click on photo to get a running list of events concerning the Cross Roads
One culture's history is another culture's rubble or City Hall razes historical buildings to new levels -- Anyway you want to cut it, once a historical structure is destroyed, it's gone forever. This political cartoon was created by Charlie Fritz, a retired banker and former Navy pilot. He was a member of the SCHS Class of 1954 and lives in Alamo, Calif.
The original Cross Roads opened in 1947. The property and adjacent SP Railroad parking lot were often used as the starting or ending points of local parades. This photo is circa 1949.
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