Growing up in Detroit

[EMG]

Thanks EMG. I was starting to think he made it up or I imagined the story. It being on Conner and Warren makes sense too, all I could remember is we used to end up by the airport. That's at/near Conner & Gratiot, right? Was there a school called Wilbur Wright around there? That was also on the driving tour, I was pretty young so I can't really remember where it was. There was also a big scary church, maybe St John Berchman?

Yes, the airport was/is along Conner near Gratiot. I just looked it up on Google Earth to make sure, and interestingly enough it's apparently been renamed from City Airport to Coleman Young Municipal Airport [[as if he needed yet another city landmark named after him ). Anyway the airport runs between Gratiot and McNichols on Conner - then north of McNichols, Conner becomes Outer Drive.

As I said, the Parkside area was my mom's childhood neighborhood, not mine, so I'm not that familiar with it. My mom's elementary school was Hamilton at the corner of Southampton and Newport. As far as "Wilbur Wright elementary," the name sounds familiar but other than that I knew nothing about it, but even through some Googling and Google Earth searching I was unable to find it. Link to the Detroit Public schools is here so maybe you will find another similar name, or address, that might help find a school that you might be thinking of: http://www.detroit.k12.mi.us/

As for the "big scary church," I guess all churches are scary if you're young enough or small enough at the time. I did a Google search [[see this link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...it&btnG=Search ) and from what I can see apparently there was a St. John Berchman's that is apparently now closed - and what's more on that page you'll find at least one link to an old thread about it on the "old" version of these forums; alas, that link apparently is no longer valid.

[Maof]

St. John Berchmans was on Lakeview and E. Warren. It is still there but under a different denomination. Could the church on Connor be St. Ignatious?

[aprilgirl33]

Warrendale

[WKL]

Wouldn't Conner and Gratiot be St. Davids - Outer Drive and Gratiot

[Maxine1958]

Wouldn't Conner and Gratiot be St. Davids - Outer Drive and Gratiot

Not sure what your asking or referring to, WKL.

St. David's Church and school is/was on Outer Drive just east of Gratiot. Conner is just south of that.

My parents owned the store right on the corner of Gratiot and Conner. That's where I grew up. Went to St. David's for 8 years too.

[DetroitPlanner]

I grew up in the shadows of Cody High School. I went to Everett [[which was a wing in Cody High) for Kindegarten and took a summer school class and Driver's Ed at Cody. I was born at Mt Carmel. I only live about 1.5 miles from the houses I grew up in, I have only lived in three zip codes in my life, all contiguous.

[grumpyoldlady]

Sounds like there's more eastsiders than westsiders so far.

Gbran...I'd love to talk Carleton with you..is there some way we can message privately? Haven't figured that out yet.

[SMRJim]

I grew up in the shadows of Cody High School. I went to Everett [[which was a wing in Cody High) for Kindegarten and took a summer school class and Driver's Ed at Cody. I was born at Mt Carmel. I only live about 1.5 miles from the houses I grew up in, I have only lived in three zip codes in my life, all contiguous.

I have known many Cody grads over the years. 2 ex-girlfriends, one of my current band-mates and his brother and many of their friends, a good college friend and some of his friends as well. From the classes of 73 thru 80 or so [[I was Saint Marys of Redford 78). I took drivers ed at Cody in the summer of 76 with Mr. Morger. Used to hitchhike there and back quite a bit with my buddy who was also in the class. I still remember standing over near the fire station and gas station [[if I remember right) by Southfield and Joy with the thumb out [[now that I think of it the fire station was probably on the other side of the street). And I remember listening to the AM radio in the Dodge Dart I was driving on that crappy little track, hearing 'Fooled Around and Fell In Love' and 'Go Now' all the time. We were standing outside one day, on the 'island' in the middle of the street across from the 'trailer' we had the class in and my buddy tossed a match onto the dried up grass. There was a lot of cottonwood crap on the grass and the lawn went up in flames. We were frantically running around stomping out the flames. Another day we were sitting in class and this kid came running in, stumbling up the steps, frantically yelling 'they're trying to steal my flute!' over and over - a group of kids had chased him and were just outside the classroom. The kid stayed in our room until the would-be thiefs took off.

[sheryl]

I graduated from cody in '76. Actually I was walking distance to mckenzie, but my neighborhood was pretty rough for a white girl! So I transferred to Cody for high school. I lived on Ohio between Grand River and Plymouth, just a couple blocks from Oakman.