Eat 'Em Up Tigers guy and Dreadlock Mike [[he was in wheelchair) were killed in a hit and run early this morning. Anybody who went to a few Tigers games would probably recognize both of these guys from hanging outside Comerica Park before and after games [[usually near the entrance closest to Ford Field). Sad.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/two-to...j/-/index.html
Oh, at least Michael was known well beyond the Tiger games...I got news of this a few hours ago and continue to realize that downtown will not be the same without his sparkling eyes always ready to share some wisdom he'd gleaned along the way.
My girlfriend knew him from Woodward and Jefferson during the weekdays...one Saturday I made an aggressive move across a few lanes of traffic on Gratiot to stop and visit with him, and when she realized who I was stopping for...she started telling her stories about her time around him. We marvelled at how much this one homeless dude in a wheelchair meant to both of us.
I believe that anyone who ever had direct contact with Michael could never leave that meeting unchanged.
I am in Ypsi right now for the BeerFest, but would like to be part of any gathering remembering these two gentleman when we get back to town. I cannot stand by and not let them be remembered by everyone who was affected by them.
Sincerely,
John
Audra Kubat just began a memorial around a light pole near Gratiot and Russell...she told me about it over the phone, on the northwest corner. Across Russell from HoneyBee Hardware.
She is taking this quite hard, she wrote a song about him years ago.
I'm still trying to imagine not seeing him again. That sucks.
Wow, every time I came to Detroit to see the White Sox and Tigers play at Comerica I always looked forward to seeing this man and I always smiled at him when I walked past him, I would throw him a few dollars as well and then as I was walking away would say GO WHITE SOX. He was harmless and didn't harrass anyone, he didn't really beg for money either people would just put some money in his cup as he shook it and belted out EAT EM UP TIGERS EAT EM UP. I found nothing wrong with him doing this as he was a Detroiter and supporting his hometown team. I send prayers out to his family and last but not least RIP James VanHorn.
Its been a rough week for Detroit. Anne Kennedy, Burt Bachers girlfriend Gayle, and now these two icons.
It always threw me how genuine and kind Michael was when you met him. He had a look that seemed otherwise but he was so wells spoken and polite.
I share the sadness of the death of these two.
Seeing "Eat em up Tigers" was apart of going to a Tigers game.
and, of course, how they died makes it doubly sad.
Whenever one sees folks like those two my first reaction always is: I hope they have a better life in the next life then they did in this [[one)...
I do remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
I didn't know the Eat'em Up man, not that I know of. Don't remember him.
Funny, I had no idea about these two guys and the Tiger games. Shows you how isolated I am from that part of Detroit life.
But I would always see Dreadlock Mike on the streets downtown; near CAYMC and lately, I'd see him when I was on the way to church in the morning. I drive through that long stretch of St. Aubin north to Mack and almost every Sunday I'd see him coming towards me, in his wheelchair.
He'd become something of a talisman to me; the proof that even one so challenged could still survive; in my His Eyes Are On The Sparrow line of thinking. When I'd be afraid of things sometimes, I'd think of Mike, at night, on the deep dark streets, in his wheelchair.
I had always been afraid of him, always afraid to look him in the face. He seemed to wild, so feral, seemed he looked like that on purpose to strike terror in the hearts of passersby, enough to shake loose some money to get him out of the way. And then, no feet, on top of it all.
Ironically, it wasn't until the photographer Bruce Giffen took photos of him a few years ago - and in several exhibitions showed his face close up in massive portraits - that I could finally see him as a man, not just a wild man.
And then, I realized that he wasn't wild at all.
Those hazel eyes, clear and mournful all at once; no telling how much Detroit that guy had seen in his life. The handsome lines of his face, from some other life. His hair, matted into not so much locs, as structures made of hair.
I saw him once and I said, "I saw your picture in a gallery! He hollered back, and laughed, "Yeah, Bruce made me a celebrity"!
I'll confess to a bit of mischief. A couple of weeks ago, I had just left a new gallery on Gratiot and Russell [[in fact, right where Mike was to die) where there was, IMO, a particularly macabre exhibit filled with ......well, drawings of cartoon women cut up into butcher parts; that's how I'm going to describe it. There was a crowd of - shall I say - Detroit newcomers and their suburban friends, having a great time therein, and standing outside.
After I had got the heck outta there, I walked down to Trinosophe where more sanity was to be found, and as I stood in the doorway trying to get my mind right after the tenderloined women, Mike came tooling down the street and stopped in front of me.
Before he could raise his panhandling jar, I pointed back down the street and said "hey Mike, why don't you go down THERE". He looked down the street, and he looked back at me and winked, and I winked back; he put on his best scary looking frown, and away he went.
May he rest in Peace. He was also known - probably by folks who, like me, knew nothing about his life around the Tiger Games - as Black Jesus.
I never gave Him a dime in all of the years I'd seen him. I never wanted to be the have, to his have not. After the beginning, when he used to scared me so, I always looked at him and talked to him like any other man, and I think he appreciated that.
A pic I took this past spring, on Madison, in front of the Opera House.
Attachment 20976
This is horrible. I'd seen the man with the locks, as I went up and down Woodward over the years. I think I know Anne Kennedy... what happened to her? PM info please... or here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Django
What amazed me about these two men was the sure chance that we would see them at each and every sporting event that we went to. I attend mostly Wings games when I venture to the D, and every time I would see Mike and James. James had a red glove for Wings games, and he'd either be across from Cobo Joes or in the sky walk to the JLA parking garage. My young son had a very hard time seeing Mike for the first time, sitting in the rain on a very cold night outside the circular ramp leading to the Joe. I never forgot him or how he made me feel, and I always tried to go out of my way to say something nice to him and give him a little money to help him keep warm. May they both rest in peace
We stopped by the Cantrell Funeral Home on the way home from downtown tonight, to pay respects to Michael. They have a nice array of pictures, and some sent flowers...but it was very tough to see him in that casket.
I realized earlier this afternoon that I'd never seen his eyes closed.
He was such a gentle and loving soul, and the city is much poorer now without him in it. May memories of him keep his spirit with us all.
Sincerely,
John
I did a double take today when driving by the island at Mack X I-75 when I saw an empty wheelchair tied to a light post. It had flowers and cards left on it.
Zacha, Anne was what some would call the Queen of the Corridor. She had been sick for a short while. She donated her garage to the Dally as well as to me for the Martini Couch. Huge art lover and gardener. She was a kickass old broad.