Growing up in Detroit

[Maxine1958]

Wouldn't Conner and Gratiot be St. Davids - Outer Drive and Gratiot

Not sure what your asking or referring to, WKL.

St. David's Church and school is/was on Outer Drive just east of Gratiot. Conner is just south of that.

My parents owned the store right on the corner of Gratiot and Conner. That's where I grew up. Went to St. David's for 8 years too.

[DetroitPlanner]

I grew up in the shadows of Cody High School. I went to Everett [[which was a wing in Cody High) for Kindegarten and took a summer school class and Driver's Ed at Cody. I was born at Mt Carmel. I only live about 1.5 miles from the houses I grew up in, I have only lived in three zip codes in my life, all contiguous.

[grumpyoldlady]

Sounds like there's more eastsiders than westsiders so far.

Gbran...I'd love to talk Carleton with you..is there some way we can message privately? Haven't figured that out yet.

[EMG]

Sounds like there's more eastsiders than westsiders so far.

Gbran...I'd love to talk Carleton with you..is there some way we can message privately? Haven't figured that out yet.

If it's Carleton - which BTW was my own elementary school - you're interested in, I've got pics of that too! These are from 2001.

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[EMG]

OK, the above were the outdoor pictures of Carleton. Now here are the indoor ones. All were taken in early 2002. Knowing I was going to be leaving the state, I got permission to tour the inside - with a faculty escort - for the first time since I finished fifth grade there in the '70s. Enjoy!

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[SMRJim]

I grew up in the shadows of Cody High School. I went to Everett [[which was a wing in Cody High) for Kindegarten and took a summer school class and Driver's Ed at Cody. I was born at Mt Carmel. I only live about 1.5 miles from the houses I grew up in, I have only lived in three zip codes in my life, all contiguous.

I have known many Cody grads over the years. 2 ex-girlfriends, one of my current band-mates and his brother and many of their friends, a good college friend and some of his friends as well. From the classes of 73 thru 80 or so [[I was Saint Marys of Redford 78). I took drivers ed at Cody in the summer of 76 with Mr. Morger. Used to hitchhike there and back quite a bit with my buddy who was also in the class. I still remember standing over near the fire station and gas station [[if I remember right) by Southfield and Joy with the thumb out [[now that I think of it the fire station was probably on the other side of the street). And I remember listening to the AM radio in the Dodge Dart I was driving on that crappy little track, hearing 'Fooled Around and Fell In Love' and 'Go Now' all the time. We were standing outside one day, on the 'island' in the middle of the street across from the 'trailer' we had the class in and my buddy tossed a match onto the dried up grass. There was a lot of cottonwood crap on the grass and the lawn went up in flames. We were frantically running around stomping out the flames. Another day we were sitting in class and this kid came running in, stumbling up the steps, frantically yelling 'they're trying to steal my flute!' over and over - a group of kids had chased him and were just outside the classroom. The kid stayed in our room until the would-be thiefs took off.

[sheryl]

I graduated from cody in '76. Actually I was walking distance to mckenzie, but my neighborhood was pretty rough for a white girl! So I transferred to Cody for high school. I lived on Ohio between Grand River and Plymouth, just a couple blocks from Oakman.

[turkeycall]

Consider this:

1950s. Far east-side Detroit - around the Mack and E. Warren intersect. A week day or Saturday in the summertime.

Six or seven - sometimes more - neighbor kids - all within two or three years in age of each other - gather together around 8 AM. All have a brown-bag lunch. As a group, they head for Balduck Park [[not the wooded side, the sledding hill side).

There are no adults with them to oversee the day's activities because adults are just not necessary. Neighbor kids become brothers and sisters for the day. The older kids watch out for the younger ones.

A scrub softball game materializes. "I'm Al Kaline" is shouted out by one and another shouts, "And I'm Rocky Collavito." The tennis court fence functions as back-stop. A ball hit over the archery range fence is a home run. Funny thing about it, the score isn't kept nor is it remembered. The game is played for the fun of it.

The game comes to a conclusion - who knows why? The gang heads for the picnic tables near the tennis courts. The little swarm of friends sits and eats their brown-bag lunches.

Now the swings, the slide, and the monkey bars beckon.

The sheets of waxed paper that wrapped the sandwiches now serve another purpose. They are used to sit on while descending the slide. The waxed paper makes the slide more slippery.

Now, understand, not one of those kids is wearing a wrist watch. They really don't know what time it is. They just know that it's time to head for home.

All that day, mothers have had no special concern for their children. It was a reasonable assumption that all was well; their children were safe in the company of friends. And, that's the way it was growing up in Detroit in the 50s.

[Ben]

Those were the days. I grew up in Morningside and have many a memory of playing for hours all over the neighborhood without my mom worrying at all.