Rubin: Will there still be a Dream Cruise in 20 years? And if so, who'll take the wheel?

The future of the Woodward Dream Cruise glided away a few nights ago before I could catch his name, or even snap his picture.

He was on a skateboard — but come 2044, I can see him piloting something with more get-up-and-go.

Someone of his vintage will need to be, if the Dream Cruise is going to keep rolling a few decades from now. A lot of someones, because let's face it: For a lot of the devotees with cruise-worthy cars, youth is in the rearview mirror.

Steve Baker, for instance, has white hair, a white beard and a red, black and orange 1941 Willys . Closing fast on age 70, he trailered his hot rod 550 miles from Mount Vernon, Indiana, to a Troy hotel, then drove it to a parking lot north of 13 Mile in Royal Oak.

"I've been out here since 10:30 this morning," he said at 6 p.m. "That's just who I am."

He had the hood of the Willys gaping wide to show off an 850-horsepower 502 big-block Chevrolet crate engine — "scary fast," he said, and shiny bait for a stream of other Medicare-eligible motorheads.

Kids, he'd been saying, just don't want to look up from their phones. And then two minutes later, or maybe three, a slender, dark-haired young man with a skateboard in one hand walked up from the opposite side of the car, pushed a camera into the engine's airspace, snapped a photo, lowered the board to the pavement, and made tracks southward to the next vehicle that caught his advanced fancy.

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Will there still be a Dream Cruise 20 years from now? It's hard to picture something so massive and so beloved fading away — but it's probably time to wonder who will be in the driver's seat.

Back to the starting line

I don't mean to rain on Saturday's annual parade of classic cars, which remains unique and astonishing and blissfully loud, but let's consider its roots.

It began in 1995 as a humble fundraiser for a soccer field in Ferndale, and it was called the Remember Woodward Dream Cruise: Remember those nights when you and your friends would make the circuit from Ted's to the Totem Pole and maybe pop by Suzie Q's and Big Boy?

Now, another question: Do you remember what you had for lunch yesterday? 'Cause the Totem Pole closed in the early 1970s, and if you had your driver's license by then, you're at least 67 years old.

Dave Reiff, of Westland, is nearly 80, in an age bracket he called "my middle earlies." He has a foot-long white beard that waves in the wind, and a chopped and channeled, primer gray 1940 Dodge pickup.

He served in the Navy in Vietnam, came to Detroit, interviewed for a job at Ford Motor in the morning and started that day on the afternoon shift. Eventually, he spent 28 years building powertrains for GM.

"I'm looking for people who are going to replace my generation," he said, as lovers and protectors of vintage vehicles.

He's willing to accept that he won't be cruising in 20 years, but can't abide the notion that someone less passionate than himself will drive the Dodge.

"In order to sleep at night," he said, "I have to know it went to a good home."

Sharing the road to the future

At a merchandise tent on 12 Mile Road at Woodward, near the entrance to Roseland Park Cemetery, Joe Herzberg spent $70 on T-shirts and pins for a cruise he won't attend.

Herzberg, 70, of Royal Oak, has a valid excuse for skipping the event for only the second time. He'll be parking his camper in the infield at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday's NASCAR race, the Firekeepers Casino 400 .

"I cruised Woodward as a kid," he said, and his parents did the same thing when they were young.

He and his wife, Carol, own a 1967 Chrysler 300 and a 1951 Chrysler Crown Imperial limo, and they'll still make the circuit on Woodward even without Dream Cruise crowds.

They have 12 grandkids, and cruising is as foreign to that pack as a Yugo.

"We tell them, 'We're just going to drive around,' " he said. "They don't get it."

He's confident, though, that cruising will endure — more confident than Carol is.

"When I look ahead," she said, "the biggest thing is gasoline. Will you even be able to find it?"

Embracing the Dream Cruise, and perhaps marketing to its participants, Roseland Park had a banner hanging from the wrought iron fence near the entrance.

"If classic cars ever died," it said, "they'd want to come here."

Linda Grudnicki, of Westland, doesn't see them fading away, but she can envision them sharing the road.

Grudnicki, 62, bought a pair of $5 Dream Cruise magnets for her husband, while thinking about her son.

Eric, 30, works in the racing division for an automotive supplier and attends the Daytona 500 every year. His vehicle of choice is a swift, customizable Subaru WRX.

Maybe, she said, the merchandise tent should sell two magnets — one sporting a classic American car, and the other a zippy Asian tuner. The path to the future at her house would start on the front of the refrigerator.

Nominating a brother

Brad Ekonen, of Birmingham, said he's mostly a truck guy. But since he's only 25, it seemed appropriate to ask whether he was the future of the Dream Cruise.

He and Lauren Biglin, 24, a nurse from Bloomfield Hills, were sitting on a low wall near Saroki's Pizza, sharing chicken tenders and a few slices. At the gas pumps outside the carryout spot north of 13 Mile, a yellow Lamborghini and a blue Camaro iRoc were filling their tanks.

"I like seeing older cars," Ekonen said, but it's Biglin's younger brother, Peter, who's the expert. They'd gone out for ice cream earlier in the week, he said, and Peter was taking deep dives into the differences between various Corvettes.

"We've seen a lot of cars drive by with a younger person in the passenger seat," Biglin said, so maybe that's the answer to the 20-year question.

Or maybe it's Peter, 19, whether he knows it or not.

"He drives a Chrysler 300, and he thinks it's the coolest thing going," she said.

By 2044, it'll technically be a classic. She still won't be impressed — but it's a start.

In five years, Neal Rubin's 2005 red woody PT Cruiser convertible will be eligible for the Dream Cruise ... if it's still running. Reach him at NARubin@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Rubin: Will there still be a Dream Cruise in 20 years? And if so, who'll take the wheel?