Thinking back, 80 years ago................

**Ray1936** · December-26-21, 06:49 PM

Well, few of you were here then, but for some reason I got to thinking about Christmas and New Years back in 1941. Yup, I was there.

Dad had a camera shop in Grand Rapids, and specialized in Agfa films and cameras. With the commencement in WW II, his German contacts ended all commercial business. So the camera shop folded, and we moved back to Detroit where I had been born five years earlier.

Had to move in with my maternal grandparents on Sorrento just south of Foley [[look it up!), where I started Kindergarten at the Parker School. I still have a few memories of those days. I remember at about the third week of school, the little girl sitting next to me suddenly threw up. Well, horse hockey, though I, and started sitting on the other side of the room. A week later, the little girl next to me [[a different one) did the same upchucking. That was Kindergarten. I never liked school since those two days.

Pop landed a job in the Camera Department of Monkey Wards in Dearborn then, so we ended up in an upper flat on Neckel near Ford Road. From then on, life progressed normally, but 1941 and 1942 were years I'll not forget, nor the war years to follow. I became a newspaper junky in those years following the war all over, and never recovered. I just can't imagine a day without my daily paper, even today.

The good news, in case you've not heard, is that we won the war. Well, THAT one, any way; I'm not too sure about some of the Mickey Mouse ones we've had since.

The good: Subsequent years have been wonderful.

The bad: I always fear any girl sitting next to me to toss her beans.

**stromberg2** · December-27-21, 03:09 AM

Love this memory! Thanks Ray.

Stromberg2

**DetroiterOnTheWestCoast** · December-27-21, 11:45 AM

Where in Grand Rapids was the camera shop?

**Ray1936** · December-27-21, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by DetroiterOnTheWestCoast

Where in Grand Rapids was the camera shop?

On Monroe Street. It's not recognizable today due to urban renewal.

**DetroiterOnTheWestCoast** · December-27-21, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

On Monroe Street. It's not recognizable today due to urban renewal.

I lived in GR as a child and loved when my grandmother took me to the “big” department stores on Monroe at holiday time - Steketees, Wurzbergs and Herpolsheimers. That stretch is still somewhat recognizable.

**Henry Whalley** · December-28-21, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

The bad: I always fear any girl sitting next to me to toss her beans.

Ditto. Girls always puke when I sit by them, ask them to dance, ask them on a date, etc.

**Zacha341** · December-28-21, 04:32 PM

'Women are wicked [men too] when you're unwanted...'

Jim Morrison...

...

**jcole** · December-28-21, 04:37 PM

"No remembers your name
When you're strange"

Originally Posted by Zacha341

'Women are wicked [men too] when you're unwanted...'

Jim Morrison...

...

**Honky Tonk** · December-28-21, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

"No remembers your name
When you're strange"

Faces come out of the rain....

**Honky Tonk** · December-28-21, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by Henry Whalley

Ditto. Girls always puke when I sit by them, ask them to dance, ask them on a date, etc.

They reply in loud, choppy sentences.

"ARE. YOU. TALKING. TO. ME. SIR?"

**Squirtle** · January-01-22, 07:52 AM

Been lurking this forum since the mid-2000s and I recognized your name: I'm glad to see you're still posting Ray! Thank you for your decades of service to the city and I wish you a happy 2022.

**Ray1936** · January-01-22, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Squirtle

Been lurking this forum since the mid-2000s and I recognized your name: I'm glad to see you're still posting Ray! Thank you for your decades of service to the city and I wish you a happy 2022.

Ah, and I thank YOU! And Happy Happy right back. Hey, I'm doing really okay with zero health problems at age 85. Thinkin' I might hit the century mark after all!

**old guy** · March-02-22, 12:49 AM

You know Ray, I was reading through some threads and in this one I saw the word upchucking, and it dawned on me that I hadn’t seen that word in quite some time but it was a word that was used frequently when I was a kid, and I’m old but not old like you. But yeah, when I was a kid that was an everyday term used by everyone. Sounds peculiar now, but that’s just the way it is/was you might just chuck something up. Hey, what are you gonna do. These days people would probably run away if you even uttered the word and you couldn’t blame them.