Weird Side Effects From Growing Up In Detroit

[Lowell]

I'm not a fan of click bait list-icles but I bit on this one, found it entertaining and one with which, I dare bet, the over 50 crowd will pretty much be in lock step. Here is the quick list:

1. Craving Vernors during an illness.
2. A perpetual desire to defend the Lions.
3. A strong urge to be near the river.
4. Total tolerance for potholes.
5. The uncanny ability to select a perfect layered [winter] outfit.
6. An insatiable appetite for coney dogs.
7. An unshakeable preference for square pizza.
8. The urge to dance to every Motown song ever written.
9. A sense of pride for being "almost Canadian."
10. The thickest skin imaginable.



IMO 4 & 5 could have been dropped for being too generically Michigan rather than purely Detroit.

Pictures and explanations here:
http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/michi...fects-detroit/

[313WX]

#4 is so true. Dodging potholes is an art form here.

For me:

1. Strong loyalty to Ford / GM cars and the tendency to side eye anyone who owns / drives a foreign car.

2. Thinking that mass transit is only for poor people who would like to drive but can't.

3. Referring to carbonated soft drinks as "pop."

4.

[SammyS]

11. Only walking on treadmills

[archfan]

Thanks, Lowell, for braving the many ads for each list entry. I never get past #3 before I give up.

[Lowell]

Thanks, Lowell, for braving the many ads for each list entry. I never get past #3 before I give up.

For some reason the display I got was all on one page. They must of messed up otherwise I would not have bit further.

[waz]

- Going to a party store with the intent to buy alcohol, not balloons and streamers.

[jcole]

-Owning a house rather than renting apartments or a house.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

-Owning a house rather than renting apartments or a house.

How is this weird?

[Bham1982]

How is this weird?

Detroit historically has had one of the highest homeownership rates in the country. It's also the only place I've lived where people think you "have to" own a home, or you aren't a success.

Even people who aren't settled, don't have kids, don't have much money and the like, are very likely to be homeowners in MI. In places like CA and NY, homeownership is usually just for people who are settled for the long-term, financially strong, have kids, and no one thinks less of you if you're a renter.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Detroit historically has had one of the highest homeownership rates in the country. It's also the only place I've lived where people think you "have to" own a home, or you aren't a success.

Even people who aren't settled, don't have kids, don't have much money and the like, are very likely to be homeowners in MI. In places like CA and NY, homeownership is usually just for people who are settled for the long-term, financially strong, have kids, and no one thinks less of you if you're a renter.

Well, I'm sure that perception has changed considering all the abandoned houses in Detroit.

[jcole]

Well, I'm sure that perception has changed considering all the abandoned houses in Detroit.

No, because there still aren't many apartments/brownstones/condos in the city. It's still widely home ownership/rentals.

[kathy2trips]

Home ownership was, and maybe still is, a sacred rite in these parts. Mortgage burning parties were joyous occasions. Don't forget that Frank J. Hecker more or less made it possible for working and middle-class people to buy homes....unheard of at the time. It was here in Detroit that he organized The Union Trust, one of the first major banks to offer the average worker the opportunity to purchase a home. They offered conventional mortgages or newly developed [[1890s) land contracts. Before that, you had to save the entire amount and then buy the house....can you imagine that? Now you know why so many Detroit-area people just aren't the "loft" kind of folk. It's something New York-based developers just can't understand. Make sure you give the old boy a nod of respect whenever you pass his house.

[joie]

couple more:
- having Canada to the south, at least Windsor from Detroit
- being able to take a bridge or tunnel to a foreign country
- Vernor's with milk - they even used to sell it that way @ the factory on Woodward
- knowing what a "frozen Lindy" is [[Kool-aid frozen in a Dixie cup for about $.02 a shot when I was a kid)
- being able to properly pronounce streets like Gratiot, Campau, etc. without stumbling and chuckling @ national media who get them wrong.
- Paczki Day!
- the Freedom Festival on the river front, sharing national celebrations between 2 countries.
- having two small towns within the city limits.
- knowing who Milky the Clown was and the "magic words"

[SammyS]

Home ownership was, and maybe still is, a sacred rite in these parts. Mortgage burning parties were joyous occasions. Don't forget that Frank J. Hecker more or less made it possible for working and middle-class people to buy homes....unheard of at the time. It was here in Detroit that he organized The Union Trust, one of the first major banks to offer the average worker the opportunity to purchase a home. They offered conventional mortgages or newly developed [[1890s) land contracts. Before that, you had to save the entire amount and then buy the house....can you imagine that? Now you know why so many Detroit-area people just aren't the "loft" kind of folk. It's something New York-based developers just can't understand. Make sure you give the old boy a nod of respect whenever you pass his house.

Kathy,
always appreciate your comments.
Do you think this trend is finally coming in line with other larger cities and one which may be influenced by peoples desire for proximity to walkable/bike-able destinations? From my experience, and I have lived and visited many large cities around the world, the term "desirable location" is typically gauged by it's vicinity to the city center. A loft, apartment or townhouse in and around the immediate city center may just be where the next generation of home owners/renters choose to reside. Just a thought.

PS. I was always under the impression that the Colonel Hecker House was relocated to its current location. Not the case.

[jcole]

How is this weird?

Detroit is/was known for having houses with yards as opposed to most cities having brownstones, apartments, etc.

[Onthe405]

12. Believing there are only two places in the USA to vacation and/or retire:

A.) "Up North"

B.) Florida

[preserve]

just now learning what Detroit neighborhoods are called - always referred to the neighborhoods by the Catholic schools folks attended.

[p69rrh51]

I will never accept number 7, but the rest are on the money.
I was at a wedding a few years ago on Cape Cod and the band was from Boston. It was the first time I heard Motown as wedding standards outside of Detroit. The women there loved it as I danced with many of them to all the Motown songs the band played that evening while many of the male attendees sat in the "corner."

[EastsideAl]

When I lived in NYC for several years, one of the things my friends there found strange was that I had been a homeowner - of an actual house - in my 20s, before I left Detroit. Unless one inherits a house, or comes from a lot of family money, that is unheard of there [[and in most other cities on the east and west coasts). Even buying an apartment in the NYC area is generally reserved for people in their 30s and older who have worked for many years and made a fair amount of money. The majority of people are renters, often for their entire adult lives.

I rarely had the heart to tell people there what I paid for my far east side house in the mid-80s - or the even more pitiful amount I sold it for.

[MicrosoftFan]

A few additions...

-Thinking $300,000 is a lot for a house when it's entry level on the coasts.
-Walking is for poor people.
-Treating 60 degrees as warm weather.
-A hatred of the state government and Lansing itself
-The tradition of "going up north" becoming almost a religion
-If you're from the west or south sides [[or suburbs) rarely if ever visiting Macomb County, the Eastern Suburbs or East Side.
-A universal loathing of I-94

Any more?

[ggores]

Every time I hear an ice cream truck blasting "Pop Goes The Weasal", I get an irresistible urge to run out into the street while wrestling a buck or two from my blue jeans pocket, screaming, "wait! wait! stop! stop!"

[Hermod]

Every time I hear an ice cream truck blasting "Pop Goes The Weasal", I get an irresistible urge to run out into the street while wrestling a buck or two from my blue jeans pocket, screaming, "wait! wait! stop! stop!"

Used to be a dime.

[ct_alum]

A few additions...

-Thinking $300,000 is a lot for a house when it's entry level on the coasts.
-Walking is for poor people.
-Treating 60 degrees as warm weather.
-A hatred of the state government and Lansing itself
-The tradition of "going up north" becoming almost a religion
-If you're from the west or south sides [[or suburbs) rarely if ever visiting Macomb County, the Eastern Suburbs or East Side.
-A universal loathing of I-94

Any more?

Where, pray tell is the "south side"? There is the east side, the west side and downriver. The only "south side" I know of is Windsor.

[MicrosoftFan]

Where, pray tell is the "south side"? There is the east side, the west side and downriver. The only "south side" I know of is Windsor.

The often-forgettable Downriver

[313WX]

-If you're from the west or south sides [[or suburbs) rarely if ever visiting Macomb County, the Eastern Suburbs or East Side.

The reverse is true also.

Eastsiders I know rarely have a reason to venture Downriver, unless they're driving through to go to Toledo.

I can count on one hand how many times I'm in that part of town during the year.