During the mid-1970s, on any given weekend night, Don Riegsecker could be found on the streets of downtown Goshen.

Whether it was in his parents’ two-door convertible Mercury, on his Kawasaki 175, or, eventually, in his brother’s 1974 Grand Am, he was one of many who found joy and entertainment during the heyday of cruising. Now, 23 years after the demise of Goshen’s downtown cruising scene, Riegsecker is turning back the clock for a special event.

Today, in conjunction with First Fridays, he is holding the “Cruisin’ Goshen Reunion.” It has been estimated that as many as 300 or more classic cars and other vehicles will participate. It all started, however, with a conversation and a social networking Web site.

After talking with a friend back in April about cruising, Riegsecker thought it would be fun to have another cruise-in. To test the waters if anyone would be interested, he launched a Facebook page, although he was unfamiliar with the site at the time. Riegsecker started looking at a date and realized it also coincided with First Fridays, then began to move forward.

“Basically, Facebook was the way to get it rolling,” he said. “I got 150 to 200 yeses, and decided I’d better go talk to the police, city council, the mayor and the First Fridays people.”

Through the page, nearly 2,000 people were invited to the event, resulting in 217 positive responses and 432 maybes.

“Everybody’s just got lots of great memories from cruising,” Riegsecker said.

During his own time cruising, two of the big hangouts were the B&K; Drive-In and the Burger Chef. He said most of their time was spent driving in loops and parking, talking to people and meeting people, along with the occasional trip to someone’s house out of town. Gas was less of a concern then, he noted.

“I think I remember the cheapest price of gas was 35 cents or something,” Riegsecker said, “and that seemed like a lot back then.”

Thinking about his own memories, Riegsecker came up with another idea for the “reunion.”

“I thought, ‘why don’t we put together some sort of booklet?’” he said. “So, I asked people on Facebook for stories about cruising. I didn’t get that many stories in the beginning. I put out another message and people started coming back and I had 40 or 50 different things.”

Along with the help of Lolita Yoder from Monteith Tire, a 20-page booklet was put together including the stories he gathered. Each story told of hijinks, love or trouble, all with a heavy dose of nostalgia.

“We always went in my friend’s red Camaro, and sometimes I would bring my poodle,” Lise Elin wrote. “Then about five years later my friend was in Plymouth meeting some new people; conversation turned to Goshen cruising somehow, and a fellow said, ‘I never see any of those folks anymore, but what I do remember is these chicks with a red Camaro and a dog!’”

Several of the stories explained how cruising led to marriage. One story, from Doris Keim, spoke of when she met her husband. He saw her while cruising, and eventually got up the courage to wave to her. The next day, she waved back. He then did some research and found out who her friends were.

“Then after finding out my father’s name, and where I lived, he passed my house with a spotlight shining on the mailbox as he was passing by,” Keim wrote. “I saw him do it, and when he called me to go out, I did not appear at all surprised and the romance grew from there. We are still celebrating after 52 years of marriage.”

Riegsecker hopes they can use the event to further the success of the First Fridays program as well.

“Most of these people aren’t going to know what First Fridays are,” Riegsecker said. “We’re going to hand out First Fridays brochures and try to help promote that and grow that.”

At the Goshen Police Department, Assistant Chief Mike McCloughen was supportive of the event.

“I think it’s going to be a good time for everyone, and hopefully, if everyone just doesn’t violate traffic laws, everything will be fine and everyone will have fun,” he said. “We don’t expect any problems.”

He explained briefly why cruising was stopped in 1986.

“What ended cruising was not the people from Elkhart County, it was the people from out of town,” McCloughen said. “They were the kids that were coming into town that basically no one knew.”

That is what caused the drug problems and fights during cruising, he said.

“We didn’t have any problems with the local kids,” he said. “(The out-of-towners) spoiled it for everyone.”

For Riegsecker, the event is the result of a lot of hard work.

“Mostly it’s just kind of a one-man, trying-to-make-it-all-work kind of thing,” he said. “I wanted to keep it simple. If it works well and everything’s calm and the city likes it, we may make it bigger, get a band.”

He hopes to have it around the same time every year or every five years, unless Freedom Fest starts back up. At that point he would find a different date for the cruise-in.

Riegsecker is, however, sure of one thing.

“I think,” he said, “you’re going to see some nice cars out there.”

Schedule

* 4 to 6 p.m. — Meet and greet at former Los Galanes property, 720 Lincolnway East

* 6 to 9 p.m. — Cruising at leisure, see route

* 9 to 11 p.m. or later — Refreshments and stories at 720 Lincolnway East

Rules of conduct

* Keep intersections clear

* Obey all traffic laws

* No littering of any kind

* Signal lane changes

* Respect all property

* Keep parking lots for parking, no turnarounds

* Always give pedestrians right of way