Downtown diner

<p>Petaluma's Salute to American Graffiti, celebrating the 35th anniversary of George Lucas’ classic 1973 movie, was a big success this year and organizers are planning to make next year's event even better.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>One of the highlights of the May event was the re-creation of the scene from the movie in which a teenager attaches a cable to the rear axle of a parking police car, then gets in a car and goes tearing down the street in front of the cop car, which begins a pursuit only to have its axle and rear tires ripped off by the cable.</p><p>The scene was re-created in the parking lot next to McNear’s restaurant, the same location that was used in the movie. Next year, organizers plan to build a replica of Mel’s Diner in the same parking lot. The three-day event will be held May 14-16, 2009.</p><p>In other “Salute to American Graffiti” news, committee member Susan Villa reports that the October edition of Custom Classic Truck magazine has a four-page spread on this year’s event, which featured a downtown car show and cruise. Villa also said a DVD of the 2008 event will soon be available. Check the www.americangraffiti.net Web site for details.</p>