The little shack on Medbury and Elmwood is burning!

[hogz]

Django: ... I'm intrigued. Did you have a laptop in there to post on detroityes? Was there even electricity?

Anyway, good for you for living life on your own terms. You sound very interesting. How about a link to that old thread you mentioned?

Merry X-mas to you and all!!!

[Thomcat52]

Sorry for your loss, used to walk by their daily on my way to Greusel in the 60s. Seems like there are attempts to improve a lot of the homes in the area. Long way to go.

[adamjab19]

Yeah, keep posting stories django! For everytime someone has driven by a house and said I can't believe someone lives there and we have someone on this forum that has lived in one of those houses!

[ja!mz]

Sorry for your loss

[hogz]

seriously django were you keeping a computer in there?

[Django]

We had electric, gas, water, cable/internet as well as TV laptop stereo, the basics. I am pretty amazed we didnt get broken into the couple of years I lived there. The guy who lived there before me had all the toys also. We figured they just though of us as some crazy ass white boys who obviously had guns, probably not the best house to fuck with.

It was funny because when I called AT&T to get my internet turned on the tech came out, took one look at the house and drove off. I called, bitched and moaned then wrote the BBB. AT&T was on it then, just asked me what I wanted to retract my complaint from the BBB. I told them a $200 credit, they said DONE! I didnt pay for internet for over a year, I moved out before the credit was used up. I guess the techs that came out looked at the house and figured theres no way someone lives there, anyone who would have internet anyway. But yeah I posted on the old Dyes from there. I cant find the old archives though to find that thread, I think there may have been two threads about the same incident or maybe it was just about that neighborhood. I do remember making a bit of an ass of myself on either one but most likely both of those threads. Asshat I believe was the term I was given LOL. It was a pretty good thread[[s)though. Ahh the good ol days.

RaumVogel, I sent you a PM.

Oh yeah, that dude who threatened me, his car mysteriously burned some time later. He was most likely put in jail for that gun. Seems as soon as he got it he had it out anytime something didnt go his way. Hed be throwing shots down the block in the middle of the day.

[Pam]

We had electric, gas, water, cable/internet as well as TV laptop stereo, the basics

Cable is a frill. Windows are basic. Did you drill some air/peep holes in the plywood?

[Django]

The place was pretty drafty as it was Pam. We had a couple of peep holes and relied on cable tv to give us any info we needed on the outside so we really didnt need any windows. Figured if we did put any windows in the kids would break them out anyway. They loved to walk by in groups and start throwin rocks as they were almost out of throwing distance. You could never figure out which one it was. Like I said that mostly ended after they heard the 12 gauge. Living where I am now is paradise compared to the shack but I do miss the privacy, not much happens on my new block either.

[Django]

The shack was actually one of the coolest places Ive stayed. My ex used to kick we out on a pretty regular basis and Id wind up sleeping in my truck in the Packard or the Grand Trunk. Had a cool garage which I called the Doghouse because when I stayed there I was in the Doghouse with my girl. That place is all fixed up now on the corner of 2nd and Brainard. I remember one night in the Packard Ive got a nice fire going with all the pallets left behind. The cops come rolling in and my dog Farnsworth is goin nuts, the cops are threatening to shoot him. I finally get him in the truck and they tell me I gotta put out the fire. What a waste of my time. Cops were pretty much shaking having to go in there at 3am. The whole building is concrete and steel, nothing to catch on fire.
Another time I was exploring the Packard way late with a flashlight, I came across this huge wooden box with a door on it. I open it up and theres a pair of legs, then the guy attached to them starts screaming at me. I about crapped. I met the guy a few days later and he was homeless but working at the last remaining business there across the street, the one that just closed down this year. For the most part you dont run into many homeless in those buildings, I think its because there are so many better places to stay like all the abandoned houses. The houses will often have water, gas, sometimes even electric and its easier to keep one small closed off room in a house than a warehouse. I currently know this one old one eyed lady who lives with her teenage son in an abandoned house near Elmwood and Mack, addicts both of them, I go to check on them and they can keep it amazingly warm in there just with their bodyheat and candles.

[Pingu]

Wow, Django, this is like one of those movies that starts out with the end of the story, then dissolves back in time and tells what happened in the past to lead up to the ending. It makes me wonder about the house and all the things it's seen since it was built.

[grumpyoldlady]

Django....you definitely are one of the most interesting posters. Glad to see you again recounting stories of your experiences. Please continue! I wonder what happened to that guy with the gun across the street from you. Hope he's in jail or a mental health facility, if he isn't dead.

Best wishes to all for a safe, happy, healthy 2011.

[Zacha341]

LOL! Yes-I'm hip the thought of guns and folks not afraid to use them can be a deterrent... for those looking for an easy 'mark'.... And yes while ATT is high they can work with people when they want to. A couple of complaint for some problems I had a few years ago got me two visa gift cards as an incentive for me to keep them as my service provider.

....I am pretty amazed we didnt get broken into the couple of years I lived there. The guy who lived there before me had all the toys also. We figured they just though of us as some crazy ass white boys who obviously had guns, probably not the best house to fuck with.

It was funny because when I called AT&T to get my internet turned on the tech came out, took one look at the house and drove off. I called, bitched and moaned then wrote the BBB. AT&T was on it then, just asked me what I wanted to retract my complaint from the BBB. I told them a $200 credit, they said DONE! I didnt pay for internet for over a year.

[Zacha341]

Indeed, keep us updated....

Django....you definitely are one of the most interesting posters. Glad to see you again recounting stories of your experiences. Please continue! I wonder what happened to that guy with the gun across the street from you. Hope he's in jail or a mental health facility, if he isn't dead.

Best wishes to all for a safe, happy, healthy 2011.

[Django]

Hope everyone had a great holiday. Ive noticed many ppl Ive met known and overheard saying what a great Christmas they've had this year. I myself have had a few of the worst these past few years but this year was especially good for me also [[with much of it due to our own Sumas and her man). Gnome and Gannon also brightened my Christmas Eves Eve with good beer, good spirits [[Crown Royal, thank you Gnome)and their company. Ive just been surprised how many folks had a great holiday this year. Mauser, Im sorry yours was a bust, you should have stopped by the new "shack"
Thank you all for the kind words, especially you Grumpy, where have you been

Please dont get me wrong, Im not a gun type person. I grew up hunting but couldnt tell you the first thing about how to even turn the safety on a street gun. I do know long guns though. Blowing off a couple of rounds into the ground just seemed to be the best way to get those kids off my back, and it worked. Guns are a sick problem in this country, I find no need for street guns [[hand guns) and wish them all melted down. I also feel better safe than sorry having a shotgun around but I was taught from an early age how to handle one. Looking back blowing off those rounds could have put me in danger or worse, prison. I do not endorse having or carrying a gun unless you have been well taught to respect them. I just wanted to say that, thanks for reading.

[Django]

You asked for it.

I beams are worth cash money bitch.
In the deep fall of 2006 I was pretty heavy into scrapping metal. The prices were at an all time high, Detroit had a glut of abandoned burned out usless buildings with steel I beams ripe to be cut and taken to the scrapyard. I had met John, a brother with an old tan van and a newly aquired knowledge of cutting steel using oxy acytelene torches. I had been cutting for a while and scrapping even longer so we hit it off. John was unlike most of the brothers I had met in the scrapyards. John didnt drink or use drugs, he had a family but didnt have a job so he was learning the ways of scrapping metals. He had an air about him I could relate to, no slang, never using the word nigger, and he saw me as an equal and someone he could trust and learn from and I knew he was the same for me and Id like to think he knew that. I was the outsider, John had grown up in the city but you would never know it from the way he spoke in his proper English. At first I thought he was putting me on, what kind of brother whos scrappin doesnt have some ghetto slang in them and so he was a mystery for a while to me. In the month that followed I figured it out that he just must have been raised in a strict household with a solid mother and father. With most people in the hood you just keep a constant guard up unless you know them, with John it only took a few days to realize he was for real, John wasnt looking to get over on me, he just wanted to work a good day and bring home some money.
I hadnt had my truck working in a while but I had torches and tanks to cut with, John had the van and another set of smaller torches. We started in on a few smaller buildings, cutting out old water tank props and small overhead cranes. John had been exploring a building near Eastern Market and said its worth a check. We walked the entire place with flashlights from basement to roof and soon decided that the second floor had the biggest and best I beams, 3/4 of an inch thick, 20 foot and there were about a dozen of them, we figured about two grand current price at the scrap. The first day went great, I cut them off the ceiling. When your cutting down I beams of that size you cut one end almost all the way through leaving just enough to let it hang in the place its been for the past 75 years, then you go to the other end and cut it just right from bottom to top at an angle so as not to get caught on itself. You want one end to fall and the other end to break from the fall of the other end. They were all falling beautifully and once they were down on the ground John would cut them into smaller pieces so we could move them easily. One 20 foot I beam most likely weighed a half ton so being up on the ladder cutting these down was a bit nerve racking, espically that last inch of cutting because you knew how much force was behind it, it being a 1000 pound beam swinging down past you and your ladder till it hit the ground where the impact of that one end hitting the ground would cause the break on the other end of the I beam so it came down hitting and breaking concrete and jumping back and forth like you dropped a chopstick on a tile floor. The sound was deafening and I eventually took a break and climbed down off the ladder. John was busy cutting and like I usually do when a bit stressed I went for a stroll. I walked into the next room where we had never explored. The sun was shining bright in the room we were in and I walked through a little door into a harsh shadow where I couldnt see much. I took a few steps and I was falling straight down. By the time I realized what was happening I said to myself "damn, Im falling a long way" I think I bounced a little when I hit the floor almost two stories down and realized I couldnt breathe, the wind had been knocked out of me. My head hit the floor pretty hard but didnt knock me out. I couldnt move my mouth very well when I tried to suck in oxygen, I gasped for air and it eventually came and I tried to understand what had just happened. I had walked into a dark room with a huge hole in the floor and fell a story and a half. I tried to get up but it wasnt going to happen, my leg was messed up bad in some way. I reached for my leg and my wrist limped like a fag. I figured it was time to start screamingf for help. John found me and called the EMS, they came right in the building to get me. I spent a few days in Receiving getting several operations wiring my jaw, putting pins in my wrist and placing a titanium rod within almost the entire lenght of my femur [[thats the big leg bone attached to your hip). It took me six months to realize that those doctors did me a big favor and pulled out some rotten molars that had been causing me hell. That all happened on Thanksgiving weekend, and exactly one year later I lost my vision scrapping metal. Seems I had just gotten out of that damn wheelchair.

I know I'm gonna catch some shit for that story but it is what it is. I don't have any regrets about scrappin those old buildings back then, I feel I just helped them along to where there going. They weren't about to turn up into shit. If I saw a worthy abandoned I passed it by.

[Zacha341]

Well, I knew this kind of thing could be very dangerous. Indeed you've confirmed that.

A friend of mine was in the process of cleaning out [[not scrapping) an abandoned wood frame house of a close relative. They left and a week later the whole thing collapsed into the first floor.

They would have been surely killed had they been in there when it caved in. They never knew the danger they were in but the support beams in the basement were rotted thru due to flooding. Ugh.

The scrappers are taking several chances not to mention what they are inhaling in their lungs. Yeck... just another can to kick down the road -- until you are out of road...

....I took a few steps and I was falling straight down. By the time I realized what was happening I said to myself "damn, Im falling a long way" I think I bounced a little when I hit the floor almost two stories down and realized I couldnt breathe, the wind had been knocked out of me. My head hit the floor pretty hard but didnt knock me out. I couldnt move my mouth very well when I tried to suck in oxygen, I gasped for air and it eventually came and I tried to understand what had just happened. I had walked into a dark room with a huge hole in the floor and fell a story and a half. I tried to get up but it wasnt going to happen, my leg was messed up bad in some way. I reached for my leg and my wrist limped like a fag. I figured it was time to start screamingf for help. John found me and called the EMS, they came right in the building to get me. I spent a few days in Receiving getting several operations wiring my jaw, putting pins in my wrist and placing a titanium rod within almost the entire lenght of my femur [[thats the big leg bone attached to your hip). It took me six months to realize that those doctors did me a big favor and pulled out some rotten molars that had been causing me hell. That all happened on Thanksgiving weekend, and exactly one year later I lost my vision scrapping metal. Seems I had just gotten out of that damn wheelchair....

[Zacha341]

More women are opting [[without apology - social or political) for the shot gun option in the home against home invasions and attack. At least with a shot gun you can opt to load with the less lethal bird shot [[not an option with a hand gun), and even do a 'warning' ceiling shot first which may scare away a threat to your person in your home when so confronted.

The rack sound of a pump may deterred some. Of course some just opt for the double XX load [[without the lighter bird shot preamble) which is the ultimate peace maker for the truly determined intruder not deterred by the more subtle response.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. Ive noticed many ppl Ive met known and overheard saying what a great Christmas they've had this year. I myself have had a few of the worst these past few years but this year was especially good for me also [[with much of it due to our own Sumas and her man). Gnome and Gannon also brightened my Christmas Eves Eve with good beer, good spirits [[Crown Royal, thank you Gnome)and their company. Ive just been surprised how many folks had a great holiday this year. Mauser, Im sorry yours was a bust, you should have stopped by the new "shack"
Thank you all for the kind words, especially you Grumpy, where have you been

Please dont get me wrong, Im not a gun type person. I grew up hunting but couldnt tell you the first thing about how to even turn the safety on a street gun. I do know long guns though. Blowing off a couple of rounds into the ground just seemed to be the best way to get those kids off my back, and it worked. Guns are a sick problem in this country, I find no need for street guns [[hand guns) and wish them all melted down. I also feel better safe than sorry having a shotgun around but I was taught from an early age how to handle one. Looking back blowing off those rounds could have put me in danger or worse, prison. I do not endorse having or carrying a gun unless you have been well taught to respect them. I just wanted to say that, thanks for reading.

[Django]

Just found an old pic of The Shack.