Eastwood Memories

[7andkelly]

Dino......

That's what I remember.

[kellyroad]

Does anyone know if the Sinclair dinosaur had a name?

Dino?????? At least that's what my dad called it. Wasn't that Fred Flinstone's pet's name? Which came first Hanna-Barbera's dino or Sinclair's dino? Inquiring minds want to know. Discuss....

[jcole]

From the Sinclair Oil website:

A series of advertisements in 104 newspapers and five national magazines feature a dozen of the strange dinosaurs, from hideous-fanged tyrannosaurus rex and three-horned triceratops, to the unaggressive, vegetarian apatosaurus [[brontosaurus), a 40-ton lizard with neck and tail each 30 feet long. The campaign -- confined entirely to Wellsville oils -- was a great success. The curiosity value of it was tremendous.

But there was a significant and unexpected windfall. One of the dinosaurs generated a remarkable popular appeal, in fact was a real glamour boy: peace-loving but massive apatosaurus. The public equated him with power, endurance and stamina, the prime qualities of Sinclair products.

Without any particular promotion, the public accepted the apatosaurus affectionately as Sinclair's "Dino." He's been Dino ever since.

http://www.sinclairoil.com/history/historys_p1.htm

[Tsomyak]

I always appreciated the fact that the family name in the TV series Dinosaurs was Sinclair.

[kellyroad]

Thanks JC, I know have enough material for my gas station/ stone age cartooon pet name thesis.

[jcole]

You can even do a contrast and compare feature in that thesis.

[zitro]

Dino......

That's what I was thinking but that's the same name as the Flintstones pet so I wasn't sure

[7andkelly]

More Milt's plus Dunn's Inn, at the SE corner of 7 and Kelly:

[7andkelly]

Inside Candlelite Lounge...still going strong:

[7andkelly]

Looking west down the now closed alley servicing Eastwood and Fordham between Redmond and the alley servicing Kelly Rd. [[looks like I would need my old fence hopping skills for that):

[7andkelly]

This is the back of what used to be my favorite store, George's Party Time, a.k.a., the beer store. I have a better picture of the front of the store somewhere, and I believe it may still be open. I used to walk over here through that now closed alley all the time for 10 cent packs of Topps Baseball Cards, hand fulls of Bazooka Joe Bubblegum, Hershey Bars, and Mr. Freezes [[frozen Koolaid in a clear plastic tube).

[7andkelly]

Does anyone know what the status of the Credit Union building is? Also, I know when they turned into the Northeast Catholic Credit Union they had a branch on Crocker in Harrison Twp. Is that branch still there or did the credit union combined into another and know is no longer associated with St. Jude?

I believe the building at the corner of 7 Mile Rd. and Redmond is now vacant. Northeast Catholic Credit Union is now Christian Financial Credit Union, and some of their employees and board members are from the old St. Jude CU office.

[zitro]

I believe the building at the corner of 7 Mile Rd. and Redmond is now vacant. Northeast Catholic Credit Union is now Christian Financial Credit Union, and some of their employees and board members are from the old St. Jude CU office.

Thanks 7. Since I was a northsider and would only frequent Georges on occasion I never felt priveligged enough to go through the back door. Of course if Franks on Boulder had a back door I'm sure I would have used it

[7andkelly]

I never felt priveligged enough to go through the back door.

I don't know that he actually "let" me in through the back door.

[7andkelly]

Eastwood [[east of Hayes) doesn't look half bad in this home video from 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ud8YhjSwaU

[Detroitej72]

I remember the corner part of Milt's used to be Kelly Paint, in the 80's until Milt bought the property several years back.

I used to love the fish and chips at Jay's Paper Station. Then Jay took over Aldo's and opened Patrick Jays. I believe he was partners with the owner[[Patrick?) of the old Pirate's Cove on Mack.

I had my daughter's communion party at PJ's, I always thought the food was good, wonder why they closed?

[7andkelly]

This next video is more than a little disturbing, and not just because I shot it with an Olympus 100 pocket camera instead of my Sony digital video cam.

It starts out going west, I believe, on Fordham, west of Hayes, toward Gratiot, then 7 Mile east to Chalmers, southbound to Linnhurst, east to Queen, north to Eastwood, east ending at Hayes where you can see the still operational car wash across the street.

There is a smattering of hope in some well kept homes and new construction, but those are few and far between, IMO, in amongst hundreds and hundreds of vacant lots, and tattered, sometimes burnt out homes which are literally shells of their former states. It is eerie ... surreal even. To me, it's like riding through a war zone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfi_kVUPikc

[EMG]

WOW. I watched both videos, and even from 2001 I remember "west of Hayes" being bad, but now it's even far worse than I remember it being then.

Glad to see though that the East of Hayes area still actually looks relatively unchanged from the way I remember it.

[EMG]

I remember the corner part of Milt's used to be Kelly Paint, in the 80's until Milt bought the property several years back.

I used to love the fish and chips at Jay's Paper Station. Then Jay took over Aldo's and opened Patrick Jays. I believe he was partners with the owner[[Patrick?) of the old Pirate's Cove on Mack.

I had my daughter's communion party at PJ's, I always thought the food was good, wonder why they closed?

My favorite fish and chips place used to be Milroy's on Kelly between Whittier and Yorkshire, right across Kelly from Guardian Angels. My grandfather would bring home carryout for lunch for us every Friday, and sometimes I'd go with him to pick it up. That place used to really draw a crowd! This was back in the late 60's and early 70's. Friday meat for Catholics had already been "legalized" by then, but many Catholics still followed the old teachings and made a point of having fish on Fridays. Same at our house - if it wasn't fish it was potato pierogies [[POLISH Catholic family I came from!). And actually I preferred those Friday items to most things we had on the other days of the week!

By the '80s Milroys had closed down and was replaced with a Detroit Police Mini-Station. Then I think it just went abandoned.

Obviously Catholic population had a lot to do with keeping those fish and chip places in business.

[EMG]

This is the back of what used to be my favorite store, George's Party Time, a.k.a., the beer store. I have a better picture of the front of the store somewhere, and I believe it may still be open. I used to walk over here through that now closed alley all the time for 10 cent packs of Topps Baseball Cards, hand fulls of Bazooka Joe Bubblegum, Hershey Bars, and Mr. Freezes [[frozen Koolaid in a clear plastic tube).

So exactly where was that building? My guess is somewhere along the east side of Hayes, within a few blocks south of 7 mile, from the looks of it. Am I right?

[EMG]

Dino......

This reminds me of another favorite place, Dino's Pizza, which was located in a strip mall right next to Lawson's party store along the south side of Whittier between Laing and Duchess.

I guess the pizza wasn't anything that special relative to other pizzas - just basic cheese and pepperoni, but it was the first and only pizza I regularly had as a young child so it sticks out in my memory.

[EMG]

Kool pics JC. We have a Sinclair in Ames, I'll have to check it out if they have anything other than the sign.

When I was growing up in the mid-60s there used to be a Sinclair station at the southeast corner of Lakepoint and Morang. Later it became replaced [[like all Detroit Sinclair stations) by Arco.

In the early 80's, long after Sinclair had vanished from the Detroit scene, I once found an old, abandoned Sinclair station with the sign still intact, in the itty-bitty town of Lamb, Michigan, located in the Thumb. You'd have to have Google Earth and/or a GPS to find it.

I did learn later that there are indeed still Sinclair stations in western states. As of 1999 when I took the trip, I found one along I-94 in Bismark, North Dakota, and I also a couple of years ago filled up at one in [[I believe) Henderson, Nevada [[near Las Vegas). So they are still around.

[Detroitej72]

This reminds me of another favorite place, Dino's Pizza, which was located in a strip mall right next to Lawson's party store along the south side of Whittier between Laing and Duchess.

I guess the pizza wasn't anything that special relative to other pizzas - just basic cheese and pepperoni, but it was the first and only pizza I regularly had as a young child so it sticks out in my memory.

I used to love their pizza back in the day. Uncle Paul's, on Mack in Grosse Pointe Woods reminds me of Dino's, and I try to get one every now and then when I'm in the area visiting relatives.

[EMG]

I used to love their pizza back in the day. Uncle Paul's, on Mack in Grosse Pointe Woods reminds me of Dino's, and I try to get one every now and then when I'm in the area visiting relatives.

Wow! I actually lived right around the corner and within about 5 or 6 houses of Uncle Paul's for TWELVE YEARS from '90 to '02 and if I tried their pizza at all - and I'm sure I must have at least once - it was only once. I became a devoted fan of Hungry Howie's right next door.

Since we're now on the subject of favorite old restaurants, another couple favorites of mine were two hamburger places on Harper between Morang and Cadieux: Daly's and Genevas. Dalyburgers had a wonderful special sauce, and Geneva's was famous for the 5 sliders for $1.98 [[or later $2.98). Though come to think of it it's a good thing I got out of that habit well before I was out of my 20's.

Here's a picture of the site as of 2001: Genevas was [[maybe still is) there; and the site that used to be Daly's [[which afterwards temporarily became a Greek restaurant) was [[maybe still is) Tubby's.

Attachment 1444

Several years after Daly's from Harper closed down, I learned that there was still a Daly's or two operating on the west side - I believe one was on Plymouth Road and my wife and I used to go there once in a while. The Dalyburgers were just like I remembered them.

[Fury13]

7 and Kelly, thanks for that video. It shows the vacant lot on the corner of Eastwood and Queen, which is where the house that my mom grew up in once stood. What a bombed-out area, and dangerous as hell now.