Bearinabox. I was making light of the fact that pheasants have all but disappeared.
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Bearinabox. I was making light of the fact that pheasants have all but disappeared.
Brighton was home of the Detroit Boy Scout Council's camp, the Charles Howell Scout Reservation and we thought it was really way out in the woods. My brother and I did a two week summer camp there in 1952. The middle weekend was 4th of July and the scouts had a contingent in the Brighton 4th of July parade.
In 1961, my cousin was being married in East lansing and i drove out to the wedding. When i drove through Brighton, I remember a little diner called the "Squat & Gobble" and i wonder if it still exists.
I love this thread. Thank You!
The loss of our core city center pails in comparison to the loss of the countless small towns across Michigan. What really bothers me the most though is that we really did pave over paradise here. Suburbia has taken our countryside. While many get depressed over seeing their childhoods homes and places in Detroit fall to blight, crime and demolition, many of us got to see the fields, woods, and streams get paved over for parking lots, McDonalds, and McSubdivisions.
Suburbia was supposed to be a an urban life in a country setting. What we have ended up with in Southwest Michigan is neither country nor city, just suburban blight, and few if any affordable places to raise our young.
I love that house and wish it could be saved. My great-grand-uncle's place was further north, on the other side of 8 Mile. An amusement park was built nearby in the 1920s - Eastwood Park [[which was opened by the folks who once ran the recently-evicted Electric Park near Belle Isle - just out of the reach of Detroit and Wayne County law enforcement) . My dad and his school friends used to take the streetcar out to the end of the line to go there.
My great-grandfather worked on the interurban cars, and used to stay out there when he needed to pick up his shift up in Macomb County. He was, ironically, killed by an interurban car when his automobile was smashed near 9 Mile Rd. by one he was trying to beat because he was running late for his shift.
When I still resided in Lapeer County years ago and the engine blew on my car on Van Dyke, guy in a pickup swooped me up just as I pulled onto a side road..he didnt think twice about stopping, and I didn't think twice about hopping in the truck...folks were more trusting...didnt have to stand on the porch when you visisted, or went to pick someone up...after the bar, wasnt unheard of to party at or crash at strangers or mild aquaintainces...all thats changing with self centered inpersonal rude city slick-suburbanites moving to Lapeer County...I remember driving down Ryder Rd. In Imlay to check out a farm house my family stayed in, I was dissapointed to see all the development....stopped to talk to this guy that turned out to be a developer...could tell right away he was from the suburbs...very cold and impersonal.looked at me like he was surprised a stranger would have the nerve to talk to him..:mad:
I still think everyone's favorite "small town" in SE Michigan is still Romeo. It hasn't lost that charm....yet.
Also it kind of irks me when visitors community leaders and residents of Ferndale describe the city as "friendly like a small town" having for the most part grown up in rural and semi-rural communities I could offer many examples of why Ferndale is no where near small town friendly open and trusting, although the city, to me, seems to be overall more hospitable,friendly and open compared to surrounding cities..
Station stops on the Michigan Central [[1910)
Detroit MP 0.0
Woodward Ave MP 5.7
Milwaukee Jn MP 6.7
North Detroit MP 10.3 [[between 7 and 8 mile)
Warren MP 17.0
Utica MP 23.8
Rochester MP 30.9
Orion MP 40.3
Oxford MP 43.6
Thomas MP 47.5
Metamora MP 52.00
Hunter's Creek MP 55.3
Lapeer MP 60.0
and then more stops all the way to Mackinaw City
This line still had passenger service as afar north as Saginaw up into the mid-60s.
I certainly don't remember this, but my HS girlfriend's mother grew up in Van Dyke, a seperate city. My step-mom grew up there too. I'm not sure where it was, but it must have been further out than 8 Mile but certainly below 10 Mile.
I grew up on Eastburn just 4 blocks south of 8 Mile and Gratiot and we moved there in 1940 and I have never heard of Halfway. It was East Detroit when we lived there. We went to the Eastwood Theatre & Eastwood Park, Sometimes, we went to the East Detroit Theater. There were still lots of fields. We watched the fire works from Eastwood Park every Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day from my second-floor bedroom window. At the time, I thought every kid in the world watched fire works from their bedroom window. When we were a little older, we rode bicycles to a bicycle store between 8 & 9 Mile and Gratiot and rented a two-seater bike which we enjoyed riding around the neighborhood.
Remember when people used to go 'up north' to places like Union Lake, Harsens Island, Pinkney? They actually had summer cottages in many of those places that are now outer-ring suburbs of the city.
Salem is in western Wayne County but feels much more distant. Out there, Six Mile Road turns briefly into a rutted and corduroyed dirt road.
From "Michigan Place Names" by Walter Romig:
Attachment 6022
From a Google map, this looks like the area:
Attachment 6023
Salem is actually in Washtenaw County. You can still get a feel for the farming roots of Wayne County in Sumpter and Huron Townships.
http://www.waynecounty.com/mygovt/do...ps/basemap.pdf
Andersonville, Auburn Heights, Austin Corners, Big Beaver, Brandon Gardens, Bunny Run, Campbells Corner, Charing Cross, Clarenceville, Clintonville, Clyde, Drayton Plains, East Highland, Farmington Acres, Five Points, Four Towns, Glengary, Groveland Corners, Hickory Ridge, Jossman Acres, Lake Orion Heights, Newark, North Farmington, Oak Grove, Oakley Park, Oakwood, Oxbow, Perry Lake Heights, Quakertown, Rose Corners, Rudds Mill, Seven Harbors, Stony Creek, Thomas, Troy Corners,Walters, West Highland, Westacres, Wood Creek Farms, Yates . . . those places are gone . . . absorbed into the surrounding cities and townships. BUT GINGELLVILLE IS STILL HERE!
From Michigan Place Names by Romig:
Attachment 6024
What's the deal with Base Line?
Attachment 6038