CRUISING JACKSON - HOW IT STARTED.

A. D. Sanford

 

    I feel with our growth the last year, I should share the story of CRUISING JACKSON for those who may not know. For many years, I had always wanted to get together with my Cruising Friends from High School. I served in the Navy for almost 10 years out of high school, but always came home to see my cruising friends and cruise the strip. As time passed the cruising scene pretty much dried up and everyone became parents or involved with other things and it seems like everyone drifted apart. 

    I, too, eventually moved to Cookeville and married my best friend from high school Pam Sanford. After a couple years, I shared my DREAM of getting our cruising friends together with my wife Pam and she always encouraged me to try. Well, in the fall of 2018, I just couldn't get it off my mind, so in December of 2018, I contacted 14 friends and explained my Dream to them. Each one of them felt exactly like I did. So, I said I will start a Facebook page so we can plan a little get together. On December 16, 2018, CRUISING JACKSON was born. On December 21, we had over 300 hundred members and the memories and pictures were being posted so fast you couldn't keep up. Four Days later, on Christmas Day over 500 members and many said it was the best Christmas present ever. In January of 2019, we surpassed a 1000 members and it was obvious we had to plan a reunion.

    So in April 2019, we held our first Reunion and the 2 day event brought over 1000 friends together. It was truly an unreal  experience for myself and Pam, and truth be known it was the same for everyone who attended. We decided if we were going to do a Reunion it would be nice to raise some money for some local charities, and so we decided to support Companion Pet Rescue and the Southwest Human Resources Agency Kitchen.  We made donations to both charities close to $3000 dollars each and donated $1000 to the VFW for allowing us to host our event there. I think everyone would agree that Jeff Mount & Gary Zamparelli put on a great grudge race that seemed to be the icing on the cake. Covid shelved our plans for 2020 but we were able to gather in 2021. 

In 2021 we supported  Reinbow Riding Academy and Breast Cancer Awareness and raised over $10K for them.

For 2024, we chose to support Reinbow Riding Academy, Companion Pet Rescue and VFW Post 1848 in North Jackson. We donated right at $5,000 to each one of them.

     It’s only fitting to support charities, while we enjoy a special time of reflecting on our past. So, if you are new to Cruising Jackson, it’s much more than race cars, it’s a reflection of a lifestyle we all had in our past. I love reading the stories of high school Funland adventures, 4 wheeling on MCO road, Car shows, burnouts in the high school parking lot, street racing at Fiberglass Rd. and Windy City. Sitting by Sunflower in the Wal-Mart parking lot, racing behind Wal-Mart, jacking with Barney Fife the security guard, Officer Urig and others. The list goes on and on, and I pray we never lose that part as we move forward. I ask you all, to share those stories of our youthful adventures, it brings back things this ole boy completely forgot about. Pam & I are so grateful to reconnect with many of you and also the new friends we have met along the way. That’s it in a condensed version, WE look so forward to seeing you in 2025!