Quote Originally Posted by jcole View Post
Terry, I lived on the corner of Fernhill and Bauman in '83/'84 in less than savory circumstances, too. Even then, it was a horrible area to live in. I shared that house with several other people and we didn't leave it alone even during the day. I saw more than one car on fire outside my side door where they had been dumped and torched. One night, I heard someone banging on the back door screaming and went to answer it; one of my roommates stopped me, telling me it was the hooker from next door trying to get away from her pimp, again. The various ethnicities in the area didn't always get along, so there were nights that we turned the lights off and sat in the dark while they shot it out in the street in front of the house. The party store was there then, too, and it was definitely unsafe to go in there without someone with you. We had a Doberman and a sawed off shotgun for protection, and even then, I wasn't too comfortable.
Thank God I was only there for about 6 months before I was able to get a decent job and get out.
A friend of mine lived in the John R just north of 7 area. He had lived in a home with his parents and grandparents so he knew of the history of that neighborhood since its inception. It was during the early and mid 70s that the neighborhood changed seemingly overnight. Many of the stories you reported were similar to his. BTW, It was at that time that I discovered the East-West divider in the city is John R starting at 6 Mile going north