Federals, Wards, Hughs Hatcher Suffrin

[daddeeo]

Chubby Checker showed up at Federals with Poopdeck Paul for a limbo contest in the early 60's. I always got my albums there.

[SMRJim]

Chubby Checker showed up at Federals with Poopdeck Paul for a limbo contest in the early 60's. I always got my albums there.

I was a Wards guy, probably because that's where my parents always shopped [[all of our appliances, etc. were Airline or Signature), so I ended up going there too. I loved going up to the record dept on the 3rd floor and checking out all the records. Bought all my 45s there, along with my first few albums, then I started branching out. I think my first non-Wards album purchase was Humble Pie's 'Smokin' album, probably in late 72 or so - bought it at Grinnells over on Grand River near Southfield. I can still remember in Wards how the popcorn machines were right near the escalators on the first floor and you could always smell that caramel corn when you went to use the escalators.

[SMRJim]

I saw Lions Quarterback Earl Morrell [[later in two Super Bowls) at Sufferins. My dad took me there and no one else was around.
Guess he wasn't too popular. I think I got a football out of it.

Earl had a sporting goods store for a while, pretty sure it was in the old Grinnells store on Grand River that I mentioned in my reply about buying records. Mid-late 70s or so, don't think it was around all that long.

[lizaanne]

My grandpa always called it MonkeyWards

hehehe

[Hermod]

My grandpa always called it MonkeyWards

hehehe

Monkey Wards, Rears and Sawbuck, Stinko [[Sunoco) gas.

[reddog289]

My family too called Wards, MonkeyWards. My father said he bought his first shotgun at the "Old Wards" on Grand River/Greenfield. He liked Wards. Oldest Wards I was ever in was Mich/Schaffer.

[daddeeo]

It was neat how the Kresges was next door and you could just flow into it without going outside. That cafeteria was pretty neat there. You could eat and sit by the window and see people walking down Grand River.

[GPCharles]

I remember that at the end, Steven West renamed Federals into Derals and just took down the F and the E from the beginning of the name. What a crook!

[Danny]

Food Giant used to be the old Farmer Jack Supermarket back in the late 1930s until it was closed in 1959. The white owners brought the building and run it until the somewhate in the late 1970s. Then a Chaldean owner brought the market and kept the name. As the supermarket went through series of remodelings, the building caught on fire in mid 1990s. After 3 years, the owners get the insurance money they needed to rebuilt the store from the ground up. Food Giant is up and running.

There was a independent bank called West Bloomfield Bank on Greenfield Rd near Grand River. It was open in the early 1970s. The bank lasted until 1992 until it closed down. Now the building is gone and a small strip mall was built. Over the years the small strip mall was vacant, looted until the new owners came in, re-built it and new various black, Asian and Chaldean owners leased the strip mall.

[daddeeo]

Has anybody shopped in the strip malls around that area?

[lpg]

I remember when the Southgate Shopping Center opened in 1958, I went for my first ride in a helicopter in front of the Federal's store there. It later became a Service Merchandise. The building was later torn down. I worked for a few months at the Montgomery Ward in the same center in the mid 70's.

[jiminnm]

I remember seeing Minnesota Fats put on an incredible display at the Montgomery Ward at 7 Mile & Gratiot, to promote a line of pool tables bearing his name.

I was, however, a Sears guy, because I worked at the Mack & 7 Mile for over 2 years while in college.

[daddeeo]

Ever see any other photos from that era?
Thanks

[highjinx2]

I hope you don't mind, but I cleaned up your photos a bit to make them a bit clearer to those who are viewing them with poor eye sight like me; great pictures, recall these places like I was there yesterday...it's been well over 42 years since I beat feet in this area....


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The old pics of area. Anyone have others to share???

[daddeeo]

Nice clean up of photos that my sister took for a school project. Bet she never imagined they would be historical in nature. Hard to find any photos of that intersection from the 50's, 60's or 70's. These are the best ones I've seen. Can't believe no one else didn't take pics of the area.

I hope you don't mind, but I cleaned up your photos a bit to make them a bit clearer to those who are viewing them with poor eye sight like me; great pictures, recall these places like I was there yesterday...it's been well over 42 years since I beat feet in this area....


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