Detroit in the 30's-40's & 50's

[MotorCityTrikes]

Does anyone remember Paradise Valley? The Olympia? Charlie Maxwell or Ozzie Virgil and Jake Wood? What is your fondest memory? I grew up in Brightmoor ....... Fenkell and Braile. Being a born and bred Detroiter was and is a blessing does anyone agree?

[sumas]

Does anyone remember Paradise Valley? The Olympia? Charlie Maxwell or Ozzie Virgil and Jake Wood? What is your fondest memory? I grew up in Brightmoor ....... Fenkell and Braile. Being a born and bred Detroiter was and is a blessing does anyone agree?

You might enjoy the sharing of info/memories in a "game " played at seniors groups.

I am so Detroit that.... the memories shared are so precious. At a senior event one lady got up who was 102. Her abbreviated memories bowled us all out. This sharing of memories word game should probably be recorded.

Sorry my personal memories would be late 50's on but I do remember Olympia, some acts I remember, Dizzie Gillespie, Duke Ellington, The Stones, Arlo Gutherie, the Wings etc.

I am so Detroit... that I remember the predominantly Belgium community on Alter scrubbed by hand their porch steps, sidewalks, curbs and streets one day a year

I am so Detroit... that I remember buses ran every 8 minutes

Not all is nostalgia though:

I am so Detroit... that I live in Detroit by choice

Truly interesting, especially with seniors to hear those little forgotten details of our history

[Hermod]

Olympia, yes. Ted Lindsay, Gordie Howe, Sid Abel, and Terry Sawchuk.

George Kell, Hal Newhauser, Hoot Evers, and Vic Wertz plus Harry Heilman announcing the games from Briggs Stadium.

Doak Walker, Leon Hart, and Bobby Lane.

[Detroitnerd]

There are some pretty good books written about life in Detroit in the 1930s. One of my favorite bits of writing was the WPA nonfiction description of life in Detroit. It was surprisingly frank, a view of Detroit from people who'd been around a bit.

[hastings paradise]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYNWE_Zc9Qo My game project is doing well. Based off of the 30-50's

I remember my uncle said him and his sisters use to listen to smokey robinson and the sumpremes sing out side of brewsters projects.

[dguy4evr]

The greatest memories I have are of my Mother and I riding the streetcar down Jefferson to Belle Isle and being from the Parkside Projects, this was the closest thing to the Garden of Eden I knew of! We would go to the conservatory, children's zoo, get an ice cream at the casino, go to the aquarium, and watch the canoes drift down the canals. This was in the fifties and all this was free or at very little cost. The J.L. Hudson parade was great too. Great Memories.

[DetroitPlanner]

I am so Detroit......

I am so Detroit I swam in Swimmobiles as a youngster.
I remember when every neighborhood had a Sander's and a Kresge.
I rode buses everywhere with my parents. To Doctors appointments at old Children's Hospital and the David Whitney Building. Also rode them to the Olympia.
I can remember watching the fireworks from where the RenCen now stands.
I remember mini-stations that would check your halloween candy and pony rides in Rouge Park. [[That is back now!)
I remember walking to what is now Cody High for kindergarten with Jimmy every day, no parents.
I remember wooden escalators at Crowley's.
I remember when a good chunk of my wardrobe came from places like Serman's, Ciao, City Slicker, Todd's, Jerry's Style Shop, Stones, Hot Sam's and the Broadway before they went exclusively after the dealers. I even got a few things from the Brooks Brothers in the Penobscot Building.
But I barely remember the 1960's. Can recall going to Plum Street and Trappers Alley when it was a lot more earthy.
I remember taking the DDOT and sometimes SEMTA to the Boblo Dock on summer days when work was light in High School.
I played video games at Emily's, even met Pooh!
Several classmates from High School remember me dancing on 'The Scene' in High School, though I sure as hell don't. Its not like I would not, I don't ever recall having the means to get there, had the threads and moves though. It is a Bishop Borgess urban legend!

Don't need to go back to the 50's to remember a vibrant Detroit. It was vibrant through the 1970's.

[9606 Prest]

I remember Charlie [[Paw Paw) Maxwell very well, he was the Sunday punch, hitting home runs mainly on Sunday for the Tigers in the late 50s and early 60s. He played left field field and wore number 4. Ozzie Virgil was the first black player for the Tigers and he was a 3rd. baseman. He came in many years after Jackie Robinson joined the league with Brooklyn. Jake wood was a second baseman with speed and he had many stolen bases for the Tigers.

I saw many Red Wing games at the Olympia in the 60s. Standing room cost $2 in the balcony and $3 in the lower arena. The NHL consisted of 6 teams in those days - Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York, Chicago & Detroit. It was great to watch Gordie Howe nearly every Sunday at the Olympia during hockey season! I also saw some great concerts at the Olympia in the 70s- Eagles, Elton John, Paul McCartney & Wings, etc.

[Stinger4me]

• Old City Hall
• Briggs Stadium
• Silver skate races at Farwell Field
• Silverstine's
• Marcus Burgers
• Streetcars
• Electic buses on Crosstown lines.
• Michigan Central Depot
• Brush Street Depot for the Grand Trunk Western RR
• Robin Hood Flour Mills
• the North American and South American cruise ships
• The Aquarama
• The Plymouth Train[[Orange & Black) on Belle Isle
• The elephant display on Belle Isle
• Missile tracking station on 7 Mile Rd. between St. Jude School and Hayes

Things I remember about growing up in Detroit.

[Hermod]

Milroy's Fish and Chips
Union Station on Fort Street
Horse and buggies [[sleighs in winter) for rent on Belle Isle
The JT Wing on Belle Isle
The yearly tugboat race on the river.
Ice skating at Belle Isle

[EastsideAl]

My father grew up in Detroit during this period. He was born in a house on Eastlawn in the 1920s.

Some of his earliest memories are:
Prohibition and his relatives' boats running back and forth to Canada
Seeing silent movies at the Cinderella on Jefferson
His father and he being chased down by goons during the Burroughs Adding Machine strike and his dad throwing him into the backseat of a stranger's car to avoid them
Taking the interurban cars to visit relatives near Mt. Clemens
Taking a boat to Cleveland to visit relatives
Watching Gar Wood race Kaye Don in the epic 1931 Harmsworth Trophy race from his uncle's boat
Wearing scratchy knickers leaving his lower legs bare even in the winter
Being quarantined by the Health Dept. for his sister's scarlet fever, which shut his father [[who was at work at the time) out of the house for several days
The huge cloud of smoke when Mack Park burned down
Finally getting old enough to take the Charlevoix streetcar downtown by himself and feeling like a big man with two whole dollars in his pocket.
Spending all of his money to ride the roller coaster at Jefferson Beach
The depression causing 14 of his relatives to move in with them
Helping his uncle with his Detroit Times delivery route
Going grocery shopping with his mother at the CF Smith store
Swimming in Fox Creek
His dad's used Terraplane with its rusted-through floor covered with planks
Listening to Ty Tyson's voice come out of every window during the epic 1934 and 1935 Tigers seasons

He's lived all of his 89 years on the east side of Detroit, except when the U.S. Army invited him elsewhere.

[Hermod]

Our house was quarantined in 1945 when I had Scarlet Fever. My father was overseas in the Pacific so that was not an issue on him coming home. My grandparents did our grocery shopping and left the bags on the front porch for my mother to retrieve. They would then walk around and tap on the bedroom window for me to wave at them.

[Ray1936]

The above posts certainly jog a lot of grey cells in my noggin......I just need to add that the one thing I remember so well and so fondly were the majestic American Elms that made a magnificent tunnel out of every street in Detroit. Damn that beetle.

[sumas]

I am very gladdened at some of those old memories surfacing regarding our parents. My dad was born on Eastlawn at home in 1918. Boy I remember cool things but most I like that our parents shared their memories too. My Dad too was called away [[volunteered) for World War II, he felt he lived a part of history.

I am so Detroit that... street lights on, your ass better be home
I am so Detroit that... I remember when St Clair Shores was swamp [[we caught poliwogs)

[MotorCityTrikes]

What great memories huh? I remember riding my bike to the Southfield freeway and watching them construct it. Scotty's Fish & Chips on Fenkell which is still there btw. One set of grandparents lived in an apt building on Broad St. in the 50's then moved to one in Nardin Park next to the church.

[mikefmich]

Dad was frugal and very fond of being at Briggs Stadium. Too many Sunday doubleheaders against the Yankees with Paw Paw trying to pound on Whitey Ford, while Frank Lary tried to pound them down, to count.

My first Olympia visit was a rodeo circa 1954. I got an earache, we left after dad called Dr. Anderson to come into his office after hours at the David Whitney Bldg. Got ear drop script from the all night Kinsel's downtown. Also saw the Pistons play at Olympia long before I went to my first Wings game in March of 1963.

Going to the top of the Gas Tower at Lynch Rd. service station.

Watched a zillion fast pitch games at MichCon fields around town, and at Robinson Field off Grand River at I-94. Schwitzer's for ice cream on E. Warren after the games at Chandler Park.

The Bob-Lo boat at the foot of Woodward.

Milroy's on Kelly after church on Sunday.

Those elms Ray1936 mentioned were in two pretty straight lines in the islands on Moross. They were the sideline for a zillion games of football until the street lights came on.

My ma was born & raised on Medbury in the shadow of Packard's, and my folks got married in the church that still stands at the Blvd & Frontenac. Ma used to talk about Tommy's Sweet Shop which was on Frontenac 75-90 yrs ago.

Watching Queen Elizabeth on her ship pass by Belle Isle.

Getting my picture taken standing on Jack Schaeffer's Such Crust in the pits during the Gold Cup races about 1957?

Ma dragging me downtown shopping on the last days of the streetcars.

My ma's sister moved to Duchess just a few doors off Houston-Whittier in 1939. My grandma asked her whey they moved SO FAR out.

I should write a bunch of this stuff down. Every year things seem to pass from my memory.

[MotorCityTrikes]

Who remembers Paul Foytack or Harmon Killebrew? He was the first batter to clear the left field roof of Tiger [[Briggs) Stadium. Remember you could get to Kresge's thru a door from Montgomery Ward at Greenfield and Grand River?

[sumas]

Replies made me remember things I forgot:

I am so Detroit that:

Streets were cleaned with sweepers every year
Elms were trimmed into gorgeous arches every other year
Suck trucks cleaned storm drains every other year of debris
The air raid drills conducted at schools
Air raid drills every first Saturday at 1:00 pm
Winter picnics on Belle Isle
5 cent candy bars.
Pennies taped on machine bought cigarettes
Trash burning in alleys and we would collect those pennies in the ashes and buy candy

[Ray1936]

Remember you could get to Kresge's thru a door from Montgomery Ward at Greenfield and Grand River?

Jeez, I remember that. Mom would take me shopping at Monkey Wards and the smell of the popcorn from Kresge's had me dragging her through that doorway many a time. Sigh.

[Hermod]

Four bells for a fire drill and ten bells for an air raid [[atomic bomb) drill. Our air raid shelters were the boiler rooms under the schools at Anthony Wayne Elementary and Andrew Jackson Intermediate [[the Native Americans wouldn't have liked those names). I can't remember what we did for air raid drills at Edwin Denby High.

During World War II, we would have air raid drills in our neighborhood. We didn't have to do anything, but the block air raid wardens would set up on the corner at Yorkshire and Nottingham with their fire extinguishers and everybody had to have a pail of sand and a shovel in their attic. They would then come down the street checking off the names of the occupants.

[MotorCityTrikes]

Hoped on the bus on Grand River near Burt Rd. one night 11/30/1968 actually rode on down to Cobo and saw Jimi Hendrix live. Afterwards walked over to Lafayette Coney Island ..... good times. And how come if we had electric buses then we can't now?

How about Rocky Colavito?

[DetroitPlanner]

Hoped on the bus on Grand River near Burt Rd. one night 11/30/1968 actually rode on down to Cobo and saw Jimi Hendrix live. Afterwards walked over to Lafayette Coney Island ..... good times. And how come if we had electric buses then we can't now?

How about Rocky Colavito?

Was that the time he opened for the Monkees? [[what an insult!)

[wilderness]

"Taking the interurban cars to visit relatives near Mt. Clemens"

My Great-Grandfather was an employee of the Detroit U.R. in 1920 [[at least per the census).

People use to ride those cars from the Detroit area to Toledo in 1928 to pick up booze.
Most people believe that Prohibition began on Jan 1st 1929, however some states [[Mich is one of those) actually implemented the law in 1928. [[The date was in March of 1928).

Thus Mich folks use to ride the train daily and get their booze in Toledo. It was perfectly legal as there was not yet any law on the books preventing same.

BTW, Burton Society and a train website has some decent quality pics of the old cars.

[archfan]

Michigan's prohibition began in 1917; national prohibition in 1920.

[sumas]

Four bells for a fire drill and ten bells for an air raid [[atomic bomb) drill. Our air raid shelters were the boiler rooms under the schools at Anthony Wayne Elementary and Andrew Jackson Intermediate [[the Native Americans wouldn't have liked those names). I can't remember what we did for air raid drills at Edwin Denby High.

During World War II, we would have air raid drills in our neighborhood. We didn't have to do anything, but the block air raid wardens would set up on the corner at Yorkshire and Nottingham with their fire extinguishers and everybody had to have a pail of sand and a shovel in their attic. They would then come down the street checking off the names of the occupants.

You might remember when Jared Finney High would try to steal your anchor. They almost succeeded once. Cops always caught them but treated it as the prank it was meant to be. Now they would probably get jail time.

From 79 to 89 we owned a home just south of Denby. We were actually given a guide to a civil defense emergency where we to march to various street corners and wait to be evacuated. Sorry didn't buy into that plan.