Where were you during the 1967 Detroit Riot?

[lpg]

I was in my senior year in Lincoln Park High School. I lived close to Fort Street, so I sat on my parents front porch and watched the army convoys headed north. As they were passing, I would see jeeps with machine guns mounted driving through both alleys east and west of Fort providing security in case of snipers.
I was in the gas station on the corner by my house when LP police came in and said "By order of the Govenor of the State of Michigan, I order this establishment closed immediately." The guy who was the manager said he couldn't. The cop glared at him and said "You can shut this place and go home, or I will shut it down and you go with me to the station." The manager closed up quickly. You could not buy gasoline in any container.
When the curfew was imposed a high school of mine was on his way to see his girlfriend who lived down the street from me. I told him it was 8pm and he would not make it to her house. He just laughed and said he would talk to me later and left. He only made it 1 house down from me when the cops arrested him for curfew violation.

[reddog289]

Speaking of gleams in the eyes of fathers,mine cut short his and my moms honeymoon as he was an auxiliary police officer in Garden City at the time.From a young age I was told stories of the riots.To this day I am still amazed that any city could do so much harm to oneself.

[oladub]

I had a job unloading busses at the Greyhound terminal. I came to work in the afternoon on the Ford and Chrysler. I had the road to myself. Streams of smoke were rising from all over. Along the Chrysler, a grocery was burning and some girls were running toward the store overhead on a pedestrian walkway to do some last minute shopping.

Not many people were coming in on the busses,. Some of the employees couldn't make it to work. At night some of us employees would sit on carts outside the bus entrance and watch the police cars and army troop carriers rushing around. That was the only traffic except for a legless guy who scooted along with his hands on some sort of skateboard device a block away. Very wierd.

After the riots, not so many people wanted to visit Detroit. Greyhound passenger volume was way down. Over 40 of us, mostly students, were laid off. I got another job the next week on the SS South America and went to Montreal.