It took more than a year of wrangling, but the first Scoop the Loop car show in six years will return to downtown Waukegan next summer.
The local hot rod club, North Shore Rods, finally got the go-ahead from the City of Waukegan to hold the longtime show in its traditional downtown Waukegan venue.
Efforts to hold the show in 1997 were stymied by poor communication between the club and the Waukegan City Council, whose approval is required for requests to hold parties on public streets. Security, concessions and money sources were at the heart of the matter.
North Shore Rods had gotten as far as printing informational fliers hailing June 27 and 28 as the big days for the ’97 fest. Disc jockey Dick Biondi was on the agenda for a street dance the first night. Scooping, or cruising, was planned for 6 to 9 both nights.
Competing concerns, however, put the kibosh on the club’s plans to revive the event for 1997. But that’s all in the past. On July 10 and 11, the downtown area of Lake County’s largest city will once again play host to an impressive assemblage of heavy iron.
“We all got mad at the City Council when they turned us down last year, but I think it was all a big misunderstanding,” said Lou Moore, a member of North Shore Rods who planned the event. “I guess they’re just being cautious. I can’t blame them, really.”
In 1992, the last time the event was held, so many street rod owners showed up to the Scoop the Loop car show that scooping the loop–circumnavigating the downtown area–took 45 minutes. About 40,000 people, including spectators, made the trek into downtown during two days in June, had a lot of fun and left a lot of money behind.
Scoop the Loop began in the late 1940s as a strictly informal affair. Young folks from around Lake County gathered in downtown Waukegan on Friday and Saturday nights to cruise, to see and be seen, to meet and greet.
Cruising was hardly unique to Waukegan. Most small cities and many big-city neighborhoods have had a cruising circuit at some point. In some cities, such as Chicago, well-known cruising areas have been legislated out of existence through ordinances that prohibit passing the same point on the street more than so many times per hour. In other cities, mostly smaller ones, cruising survives as a primary outlet of social activity.
In Waukegan, cruising was formalized in 1986 with the Scoop the Loop car show. More like a street party really, Scoop the Loop combined live entertainment, dancing and beer and food tents with scooping, as cruising came to be known in Waukegan. It was sponsored by the Lake County Family YMCA, then a fixture in Waukegan.
Although successful, Scoop the Loop was also time-consuming and conflicted with some of the YMCA’s other projects, especially after the organization moved out of its downtown base and into new quarters on Western Avenue.
“We just didn’t have the time anymore, although I think it’s a good event and I’d like to see it come back to Waukegan,” said Phil Baaske, president of the YMCA. “It’s good to showcase downtown Waukegan.”
That is exactly what the members of North Shore Rods would like to do. Under the deal passed by the council toward the end of 1997, downtown restaurants and merchants will be given first shot at providing concessions. Food will not be provided by an outside vendor, as originally planned.
“We really wanted them to involve the downtown community more, so we’re glad that they’re doing this,” said Ald. Ray Vukovich, whose 4th Ward includes the downtown area. “They worked hard to come to us with a proposal we could accept. We always wanted it to happen because it’s good for downtown.”
In addition to involving downtown businesses, North Shore Rods has agreed to attach an anti-drunken-driving theme to its promotional literature. Concerns about mixing a non-stop parade of cars with a beer tent were part of the problem with the club’s first application to the city.
Club members, however, have said that nobody takes his hand-built, $50,000 baby for a spin if he has had too much to drink.
Moore, who is a sergeant in the Waukegan Police Department, persuaded a few of his colleagues to donate their time to provide extra security for the event. Usually, event organizers are required to pay police at the rate of about $30 per hour. Two patrol cars now will be assigned to the parade route around and through the downtown area.
“Anybody who doesn’t follow the rules of the road will be ticketed, just like anywhere else,” Moore said. “That includes squealing tires or driving too fast.”
The event also will feature games and activities for children, putting a family spin on the event, Moore said. When the club was denied permission to hold the event last year, some members asked the management at Gurnee Mills about holding a Scoop the Loop there. Members regularly congregate at the McDonald’s restaurant on the mall’s outer circle drive to show off their cars.
“That never went anywhere, and it’s just as well,” Moore said. “The history of this event is in downtown Waukegan. That’s where it belongs, so we decided to stick with that and try it again. The City Council gave us their blessing, and that’s important.”
Proper scooping requires a street rod, a modified car with a paint job as loud as the gargantuan engine that throbs beneath it. It’s the kind of car nobody drives to work, the kind of car Detroit gave up on decades ago (with the exception of the limited-production Plymouth Prowler), the kind of car that makes tree-huggers wince and everybody else grin. The kind of car that creates a parade wherever it goes, even if it’s the only float.
“This has been a long time in coming,” Moore said proudly.
