AMERICAN GRAFFITI

STORY BY ELIZABETH BARBEE PHOTOS BY RASY RAN

Forest Lane may be tame now, but it was once a haven for rowdy teenagers. Every weekend for nearly three decades, thousands of high school students cruised up and down the street, mingled in nearby parking lots and occasionally dragraced for money. By all accounts, their fun was mostly harmless until the early 1990s when D Magazine says, “A gang called Fly Boys International had adopted Forest as their turf, and they were known to terrorize cruisers by smashing their cars with baseball bats.” But we’re here to remember the golden years, with three neighbors who share what Forest Lane was like in its prime — exciting, liberating, distinctly Americana.