An insider’s (semi-fictionalized) look at Cruising Albany’s Slappey Boulevard

ALBANY — When Graylon Brunson picked up the Aug. 29 edition of The Albany Herald and saw the front-page story about “Cruisin’ Slappey,” he was pleasantly surprised and immediately transported.

“Man, cruising Slappey, that’s what we did,” Brunson, the owner/proprietor/instructor of Brunson Martian Arts at 2610 Dawson Road in Albany, said. “When I saw that story I had to reach out.”

Brunson’s connection with cruising on Slappey Boulevard on Friday and Saturday nights in the ‘80s goes well beyond just reminiscing. He actually wrote and published a pair of books about the experience: 2024’s “Meet You on Slappey” and 2025’s “Sentimental Street.” The books are the first two of a trilogy Brunson is calling “The Best of Times.”

He’s currently working on Book 3 of the series, titled “Forever Young.”.

“I love to tell stories,” Brunson, who is a certified instructor of Ishin-Ryu, Shito-Ryu and Goju-Ryu martial arts, said. “I love to listen to other people’s stories. When I hear them, I want to write them down so I can remember them.

“I always wanted to write a screenplay, all the way back to high school, but I decided I’d write about a very significant time in my life. When I looked back at that time and my high school friends, I thought it would be cool to tell some of those stories. The books are fiction, but as it says in the introduction to ‘Meet You on Slappey,’ they are ‘loosely inspired by true events.’”

And the stories are compelling. From the lead character’s initial meeting with the person who would become his best friend (“He challenged me to a fight on the first day we met for no reason at all,”) to the tales of racing, chasing girls and listening to the latest music while cruising streets that were a large part of the lives of Albany teenagers, Brunson has a way of subtly transporting the reader – especially those who shared the experience – back to days that were relived over and over by generations of southwest Georgia teens.

Brunson was a fan of martial arts entertainment (the “Karate Kid” movies and TV series “Kung Fu” and the cartoon “Hong Kong Fueyxx”) growing up, and after he was the recipient of a bully’s attention in middle school, he decided to study martial arts. When he’d worked long enough to retire from the Albany Procter & Gamble plant (“They got my youth; I got the opportunity to do what I wanted to do afterward.”), Brunson became an instructor.

When he walked away from the day-to-day P&G grind, Brunson delved deeply into his first love: teaching martial arts.

In telling the semifictitious story of growing up in Albany, Brunson’s characters – as did Brunson the teenager – formed a band and played the favorite music blasting out of car speakers of cruisers. Brunson is reliving that part of his childhood with the ‘80s – of course! – party band The Cassettes.

And he has added the title “published author” to his multi-hyphenate resume.

“Meet You on Slappey” ends with the main character/Brunson and his friends experiencing their high school-ending senior trip, and “Sentimental Street” picks back up where its predecessor ended.

“The third book is going to take (main characters) Garry and Tony back to the summer of ‘81, when they were 12 years old,” Brunson said. “There will also be the story of my martial arts journey. Trust me, there’s plenty of material.”

Brunson has “a few copies” of his first two books on hand, and each is available on Amazon.