  Funjon1 Member Username: Funjon1 Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2008 |
Does anyone have any memories of hanging out at Balduck Park in the early 70's? A huge stoner, hippie,semi-free love gathering every night. It was a virtual buffet of drugs there! I remember the picnic tables between the hill and the skating building were inhabited by the heroin users. I also remember the night the DPD pulled up by the busloads on Canyon St., which runs along side of the park. They marched across the field and started arresting drug dealers that they had under surveillance all summer. That was the summer of 1972, I think. | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 619 Registered: 07-2006 |
LOL! - Welcome to the forum FunJon1! As frickin funny as you second post is, I have actually hung out in Balduck many times in my youth. It was not as resilient a place as when you were there, but still a haven and gathering area to many in my heyday. Party on.... | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 2537 Registered: 11-2007 |
I had been to Balduck Park, Memorial Park, and that park in downtown Caseville, and my favorite, Carroll Park in Bay City, many many times during 69,70,71. I will not trade those times for any other in my life.  | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3693 Registered: 10-2003 |
https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/89914/123887.html | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 630 Registered: 08-2007 |
No wonder why i never heard about this place, too eastside. Going back to the old forum you ge Bulletmagnets 1st post. They got rid of a lot of the sled hills out here in western wayne county. Allmost makes me want snow. | ||
Scooter2k7 Member Username: Scooter2k7 Post Number: 147 Registered: 10-2007 |
Nice to know of its history, I'll remember this when I take my kids sledding there this winter! | ||
Detroitchef Member Username: Detroitchef Post Number: 5 Registered: 09-2008 |
One of my older friends graduated from old Austin High School in the late 70's.... and he so enjoyed his skip days at the park that his Folk group was named The Balduck Mountain Ramblers in later years. As far as I know, they're still playing locally. | ||
Miketeevee Member Username: Miketeevee Post Number: 60 Registered: 07-2005 |
I grew up down the street in the 70s and 80s. As a kid, my friends and I would run around behind the hill. That's where we used to find National Lampoon and Playboy magazines scattered.. along with lots of empty liquor and beer bottle. I also found plenty of those little papers in the package with the bearded smoking guy. Never realized what Zig Zags were used for back then. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 4048 Registered: 04-2005 |
Detroitchef, did you go to Austin or know them from somewhere else? I knew the Ramblers very well. I knew three of them all through high school. One of them all the way back to 1st grade | ||
Pgn421 Member Username: Pgn421 Post Number: 862 Registered: 02-2005 |
Had some great times there, skating, sleddingetc | ||
Gibran Member Username: Gibran Post Number: 4038 Registered: 02-2007 |
life was so much simpler...riding-over to Balduck in the summer to ride our Schwinn down the hill, climbing the fence into the "nature preserve" to make out with our girlfriends, running our cross country meets at the hill and then having to run back to Denby afterwards...as a matter of fact we had to run there to begin with..some of the "other" schools guys would hide behind the hill for a turn and then pop out for the last leg...mostly basketball players getting in shape... baseball games and of course winter...ahhh the skating, the hot chocolate, the toboggan runs, wiping out friends walking back up the hill: that didn't use the sides...we grew up there and when we reached teenage years winter activities continued...with skating and sliding on winter nights became a date night activity...along with a slice of Mr C's Pizza. friends meeting | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 126 Registered: 07-2008 |
Balduck Park, Memorial Park in Royal Oak, Hines Park and others all had that phenomenon then. Most started as young people simply congregating and maybe trading some pot. Pretty harmless. Soon, the drugs became more varied and serious, and became the principal reason for meeting. Then, with the Mexican Brown heroin and injected speed came more nastiness. The progression from psychedelics to heroin and speed was remarkably fast, and was also responsible for the destruction of the potentially successful "Detroit Sound" of hard edged rock and roll music that flourished then. | ||
Rj_spangler Member Username: Rj_spangler Post Number: 15 Registered: 10-2008 |
The Balduck Mountain Ramblers still appear around town on occasion. Joel, John, etc.are old friends from my old days at the Brook Bar. All that partying was a bit before my time (I graduated from HS in 75 - it was all cleaned up by then). I have very fond memories of tobogganing and sledding on Balduck Hill as a boy. Not so fond memories of trying to learn how to ice skate there. I lived two blocks away for 17 years more recently, until my crib burned down the night of the big black-out. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 4054 Registered: 04-2005 |
RJ, I used to drink at the Brook bar with them back in the seventies, too. Probably ran across each other. Joel, Kevin, Mike and I graduated in '74. I went to Regina, tho. | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 127 Registered: 07-2008 |
Hey, Rj!! Been a fan for years. Recently found out that the "kid" down the street, whose guitar playing I often noticed while driving or walking down the street past his mom's place often plays with you. (We haven't been getting out much lately.) Thanks for keeping the music alive..... | ||
Turkeycall Member Username: Turkeycall Post Number: 37 Registered: 09-2008 |
The Turkey grew up on Farmbrook in the 50's next door to Bulletmagnet. The old ice skating warming sheds appeared to be made of the same kind of lumber as the "park" picnic tables. They were also used for the Parks and Recreation crafts in the summers. The sheds were replaced with a really beautiful brick building, around 1962 or '63 if I remember correctly. Great big space for the same activities the sheds were used for and a huge picture window for looking out over the ice pond. Within a couple of years the vandals got to it, though. Graffiti on the brickwork and plywood had to be used to cover the picture windows. Bathroom fixtures were ruined, too. Haven't even been near the place in about ten years, now. Balduck Park was a gem! | ||
Macknwarren Member Username: Macknwarren Post Number: 72 Registered: 10-2007 |
I spent many days at Balduck during its "revolutionary" period of 69-71, and I have extremely fond memories of many of the things already mentioned in this thread. I get sad thinking of Balduck, too, because if you grew up near there, and paid attention through the 1970s, you could chart the downward spiral of city services by watching the park. In the late '60s, Balduck offered a huge skating rink that was simply water from a fire hydrant emptied into a large depression in the earth. It had a couple of elaborate toboggan slides, archery, well groomed baseball and softball diamonds, neatly trimmed grass, tennis courts, crafts, and lots of city rec department employees. Gradually, virtually all of those things deteriorated and disappeared as the city's population and business flight drained the treasury. It always amazed me that at one point the city even stopped performing the simple task of opening the hydrant to create the skating rink. In the mid-70s, the grass was so high at times it became ridiculous to play softball there. It was always interesting to cross Mack Avenue and play ball on the lush carpet of Kirby Field. No budget problems in Grosse Pointe! | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 4059 Registered: 04-2005 |
Does anyone remember the Nature Trails on Balduck? They were kept locked at night, but we used to jump the fence to get in and wander around the trails. | ||
Maof2 Member Username: Maof2 Post Number: 891 Registered: 06-2008 |
jcole - i remember the trails too but i was "chicken" to go through at night. a little bit of partying in the mid-70's. not much though, a little beer and such. cops came once and were really nice. they just made us poor out the beer and leave. when i was a kid, i too remember riding my bike down the hill and of course, skating and tobagganing (sp). we used to have family picnics across the street. very fond memories  | ||
Rj_spangler Member Username: Rj_spangler Post Number: 18 Registered: 10-2008 |
Jcole, we must have bumped into each other 'back in the day' as they say. I was a regular at the Brook Bar well into the 80's. The Tap Room as well. The Nature Trails are still there at Balduck as far as I know. Bobl, do you live in St Clair Shores? If so, the guitar would be Ralph. If you live by Chandler Pk Dr it would be Paul. Macknwarren, I played plenty of little league at Kirby field. It nice back then, but things are WAY better now. All the parks in GP are much more pimped out compared to when I was a boy. Flags, banners, dug-outs...really quite nice. Balduck is in okay shape these days. I was there with-in the last two weeks. It is not over-grown and people are out there playing lots of ball. | ||
Vivadetroit Member Username: Vivadetroit Post Number: 69 Registered: 04-2008 |
balduck is great! I cant say I have the same memories from the 70s as all of you - mine involve sledding and snowball fights. Fast forward 15 yrs and the memories change to drinking on top of the hill, getting chased by the cops and then "trying" to sled again, but got too big to fly down the hill like I used to! good times. viva balduck! | ||
Snoringbeagle Member Username: Snoringbeagle Post Number: 47 Registered: 02-2008 |
Yeah I was there it was just one of the party spots. The cops and kids all running and the parking lots blocked off. Running like hell and couldn't stop laughing. The we would go to the foot of Alter Road or the foot of Connor down behind the school next to the river. Belle Isle was always good place to go. Once in a while we would sneak into a old mansion further out I think it was something called Garwood. To da wine sto, to da wine sto. Now you go, I go, everybody go to da wine sto. St. Anthony/ East Catholic basketball chant. Then we would go over to da wine sto on Forest just south of VanDyke and but Ripple Red and White and Boones Farm Apple wine and head out partying. | ||
Elimarr Member Username: Elimarr Post Number: 88 Registered: 09-2007 |
Yeah, I remember Balduck's early 70's party years, and it was one of many parks that were hippie-magnets back in the day. The cops were well aware of these gatherings and would regularly clear the parks out. We partied a lot at Belle Isle, which also got cleared by the cops occasionally when the smoke got too thick. | ||
Sumas Member Username: Sumas Post Number: 304 Registered: 01-2008 |
Many of my friends would hang out at Balduck. The drug scene got crazy busy. Mostly I would just cruise the park looking for my friends. Did't much get into pot but I do remember drinking some Ripple laced with something there once. Lsd was big in the early 70's. On one police raid, a friend was hauled in the paddy wagon with many other. The News ran his picture, presumably his mug shot. The caption read " looked high on pot". Still have the clipping. Someone might want to call Parks & Rec, they do have info on city parks. | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 133 Registered: 07-2008 |
Rj: Yep. It's Ralph. We've seen him play with you (last time at Your Place) several times, but had no idea it was him. We know Paul, too. Have some pics of you and Paul at Thorn's wedding! Was really impressed hearing Ralph play while walking in the neighborhood and wanted to introduce myself several times, but didn't want to intrude. Small metropolitan area! Best to Alberta, who we love.... | ||
Sludgedaddy Member Username: Sludgedaddy Post Number: 182 Registered: 01-2008 |
"Every town must have a place where phoney Hippies meet. Psychedelic Dungeons popping up on every street." The Mothers of Invention. | ||
Rj_spangler Member Username: Rj_spangler Post Number: 20 Registered: 10-2008 |
Bobl, please say hello next time we are in the same joint. Ralph is a wonderful young player. He is doing quite well at MSU currently and I am very proud to have him in my organ trio. I now live in SCS as well. I want to see those pix from Thorn's wedding. I had her on tour with my review in Paris when James popped the question! I will play an art gallery in Amherstburg on Sunday with Alberta, a wonderful soul indeed. | ||
Rj_spangler Member Username: Rj_spangler Post Number: 21 Registered: 10-2008 |
I should also mention that Ralph (RT) will be playing at Baker's tomorrow night witha group of young players from MSU. |
