YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM DETROIT IF
You used a pillowcase to go 'begging' on
Halloween, and you yelled, 'Help the Poor!' at every door. ('Help the
poor, my pants are tore, I need some money to buy some more.').
******
You remember what Devil's Night used to
be..
******
You remember the huge elm trees forming lush green tunnels over many
Detroit streets in the summertime. Or when they'd come around to spray
and tell you to stay in the house. And, the autumn smell of burning
leaves, after you'd rake huge piles to the curb for burning.
******
You remember honking your horn as you went through the tunnel to Belle
Isle at the end of East Grand Blvd. Where it went under Jefferson
Avenue, even though the sign at the entrance read 'Don't Sound Horn.'
You remember the larger-than-life Ambassador Bridge. And you remember
the submarine that was tied up at the Brodhead Naval Armory alongside
the Belle Isle Bridge.
******
You took a class trip or a moonlight cruise on the Bob-Lo boat with
Captain Bob-Lo.
******
You remember running home from school so you could have lunch with Soupy
Sales. Or eat some meal with Howdy-Doody in the early days of TV.
*******
You rode a bus to Edgewater Amusement Park to ride the huge wooden
roller coaster (again and again) or the Salt & Pepper Shaker.
*******
You remember 'A fantabulous day for the
family, at fantabulous Edgewater Park.' P.O.P. meant pay one price.
*******
Mom packed the car with kids, swimsuits, towels, and peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches to spend the day at Metropolitan Beach or Walled
Lake.
*******
You played in the 'Big Ditch' as I-94 was being built.
*******
You played tennis on Belle Isle's courts, or golfed at their par 3
course, both lit after dark. Or went ice-skating, or for a
horseback or canoe ride, rode in a pony-drawn carriage, hand-fed the
animals at the zoo, visited the aquarium (remember the teepee), or
attended an
event at the Casino.
*******
You took a day trip and drove way out to Walled Lake Amusement Park
where they had lots of rides, a roller coaster, or swimming - and to the
Walled Lake Casino for dancing.
*******
When ice-skating was outdoors and Palmer Park or Belle Isle was the
place to do it. You also remember its tennis courts, wading pool,
golf, ice-skating, and horse and buggy rides.
*******
Or how about the Detroit Firefighters working the crowds at the
fireworks, selling tickets to their Field Day, and giving out
firecrackers to the kids.
*******
You rode a streetcar that ran on tracks down the center of Gratiot,
Woodward, Jefferson or Michigan Avenue. Or the electric buses on
Warren and Grand
River.
*******
You remember how all of the lights from the auto dealerships lit up
Gratiot and Livernois,
*******
You remember when Eastland, Wonderland and Northland Malls were
open, not enclosed. And when Wonderland had animals in circular
cages. (Heck, I remember when Northland was first built and there was
no Eastland, etc.)
********
You know how to pronounce Gratiot, Schoenherr and Cadieux.
*******
If someone told you it's on Outer Drive, you knew to consult a map
first.
********
You thought driving to Southfield was going 'out to the country.'
********
You checked out books for two weeks from the Bookmobile that came to
your elementary school once a week.
*******
You vividly recall the mineral bath smell
(rotten eggs) when you drove through Mt. Clemens.
*********
You bought candy and nuts from window-lined, walk-around counters and
squeaky wooden floors at S. S. Kresge or Woolworth's ('dime' stores).
*********
You went to Sock Hops at Notre Dame high school on a Friday night where
you heard Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and the
Last Herd, or the Rationals.
*********
You drank Faygo, Towne Club, Vernor's, Grilli's, Oso, or Atlas pop (we
never heard it called 'soda')..
*******
Your mom saved Top Value, Holden Red, S&H Green or the yellow Gold Bell
stamps.
********
Cunningham Drug Stores soda fountain and their raspberry phosphate. (I
always got the Cherry Cokes)
********
Your school took a bus trip to the cider mill (with donuts and cider
after the tour), or to Kellogg's in Battle Creek
********
You had a subscription to the three Detroit
newspapers, including The Detroit Times.
*********
You remember news anchor Jac LeGoff who eventually worked at every TV
station around Detroit.
**********
You visited the Wonder Bread Bakery and got to take home a mini-loaf of
bread (but you weren't cool unless you ate Silvercup bread).
**********
You had a Shaffer's or Awrey's breadman
and a Brickley's milkman. Or a Twin Pines milkman, a Sealtest milkman, a
Jewel Coffee man, and a Fuller Brush man (and they were always men).
***********
You remember Pure, Penzoil, Speedway 79, Monkey, Dance, Purple Martin,
Sinclair, Danny's Dino, Kayo and Gulf gas stations, and when 'gas wars'
meant 17 cents a gallon.
*********
You remember Primo's Pizza, Carbone's
Pizza, Red Barn, Powers, Henry's, Herc's Beef Buffet, Cupid's, Tom's
Tavern, Ted's 5x5, Totem Pole, Red Devil, Marcus or Richard's Drive-In
(car-feteria).
*********
You attended a wedding reception or a banquet at Roma Hall.
*********
You attended 'Wendy Ward's Charm School' at Montgomery Ward's. OMG
FOR SURE
*********
You might remember when Ben's Hi-Chaperelle and Watt's Club Mozambique
were the places to go to catch Motown acts.
*********
Every year when the Blue Angels came to Willow Run Airport
**********
You had friends or relatives who could get you into Camp Dearborn for
the canteen dances in the summer and to go swimming.
Or the pond at Belle Isle near the Conservatory where the sign warned
you not to touch the water.
***********
You had a reverb unit installed in your car at Mickey Shorr's or Crazy
Jack's (aka Michigan Mobile Radio or MMR) on Livernois.
*********
You remember the Detroit riots of 1967.
**********
When the bleacher seats at Briggs Stadium were only $2 to watch the
Detroit Lions play.
And when they won the National Football Championship (before there were
Super Bowls) in 1957 against the Cleveland Browns, 59-14.
**********
And when the Red Wings won all those
Stanley Cups in the 1950s, and balcony seats at Olympia Stadium were
only $1.25!
**********
You remember Detroit wrestlers Dick the
Bruiser, Bobo Brazil, Leaping Larry Chene, Wild Bull Curry, Ernie 'The
Cat' Ladd, Lord Athol Layton, Edward 'The Sheik' Farhat, Fritz Von
Erich, George 'The Animal' Steele and Johnny Valentine.
**********
You worked at Detroit Bank & Trust, Manufacturers National Bank, Bank
of the Commonwealth, City National Bank or National Bank of Detroit .
**********
You 'parked' at Belle Isle, either to watch the color-changing waterfall
or the submarine races -- depending on how old you were and who you were
with! You were in awe of the Big Stove on East Jefferson at the
entrance to Belle Isle (before it was moved to the State Fairgrounds
entrance).
**********
You remember your Mom taking your burned-out lightbulbs to Detroit
Edison to exchange for new ones.
**********
You remember the J. L. Hudson Co. (known to us as just 'Hudson 's')
building on Woodward Ave that occupied an entire city block.
**********
And you remember the white-gloved elevator attendants operating the
expandable gate and lever-locked door, and just before letting you out,
she would call out the names of the various departments on that floor.
***********
You ate a Maurice Salad at a J. L. Hudson's cafeteria.
***********
You went shoppng during Downtown Detroit Days.
***********
You remember Women's Hospital before it became Hutzel Hospital.
**********
You remember that Hudson's hung a HUGE American flag on the front of
their building every 4th of July. (It was the biggest one in the
country at that time.)
*********
You would ride the bus downtown at Christmas and stand in line at
Hudson's amid a fabulous winding animated Toyland, just to see Santa.
**********
Or you remember going to see Santa Claus at the Northland Mall igloos
because it was televised and you hoped your friends would see you.
**********
Thanksgiving was not complete unless first you went to the Hudson's
Parade, then to watch the Detroit Lions play the Green Bay Packers
(always the Packers back then) at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium.
***********
You know guys who put up big antennas so they could pull in the Lions
home games on channel 6 out of Lansing.
***********
You watched the 'old guys' play bocce ball at Buddy's Rendezvous Pizza
or sang the Schnitzelbank song at the Dakota Inn.
************
You remember when Mayor Cavanaugh would give Santa and Christmas Carole
(who always looked like she should be freezing in her short red velvet
outfit trimmed with white fur) the keys to the city at the end of every
parade.
***********
You remember the Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych.
***********
You remember the Detroit Pistons and the WHA Michigan Stags hockey games
at Cobo Arena.
***********
How about Al Ackerman ringing Big Al's
bell for the Sports Hero of the Day.
******
And watching Cadillacs being made on Clark Street
***********
Or the giant, three-dimensional 'Elsie' the Borden Cow (head) located on
the side of the Ira Wilson Dairy off the I-94 service drive. (Now it
only says 'ILSON' -- much of the stack has been taken down or fell
down.).
*********
Going to the Better Made potato chip factory and getting small bags of
brown chips or shoe strings before going to the Jewel Movie Theater.
*********
You remember hearing the air raid sirens on Saturday at 1 p.m.
**********
You remember the RAF bomber flying from England in 1962 that exploded
over the Detroit River near Grosse Pointe Park
********
Or the guy who came through your neighborhood on a bike to sharpen your
scissors, etc
*****
You remember the ice man delivering ice to be placed in your ice box (we
didn't have refrigerators then) after you placed a card in your front
window indicating whether you wanted 25-, 50-, 75-, or
100-pound blocks.
******
You remember the milkman delivering milk and cream in glass bottles!
from a horse-drawn vehicle.
******
You remember going to the drive-in and getting blasted by mosquito spray
from the back of a pickup truck that drove up and down the lanes.
******
You ordered Cold Duck at the Ponchartrain Wine Cellars (the
restaurant/ba where it was invented) and enjoyed a frog leg dinner.
You remember going to White Castle and getting 12 for $1 and they stayed
with you for 3 days.
Going sledding at Warsaw Park, Balduc Park, or Derby Hll.
The chocolate malts at Cunningham's. They always tasted better there.
******
How about Sander's Hot Fudge or Krunchee potato chips and Velvet peanut butter,
or Big Chief burgers at the Totem Pole.
******
Who didn't stop at Fredson's Delicatessen on Wyoming?
Willow Run was the location of Ford's manufacturing the B-24 Liberator bomber. For many years there was a full size plane om display in the terminal area and I can remmember seing the overhead cranes used for producing the plane still being there in the 50's.
Do you remember when "Detroit Wayne Major Airport" became "Detroit Metropolitan Airport"? and all air traffic was transferred there from Willow Run?
******
The world's best birthdays cakes were Sanders' butter cream layer cakes with ground walnuts around the sides.....Mmmmmmmm!!!
******
LIFE SEEMED SIMPLER THEN - THOSE WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS!!
If you have other unique Detroit memories that you would like added , just send them to me by e=mail I will add them.
Richard
