  Warriorfan Member Username: Warriorfan Post Number: 288 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 141.217.84.86 |
What is the weirdest or strangest thing you have ever seen in the city? It can be anything, good or bad or just plain old strange. Today I was driving on Trumball near I-94 across from the Wayne State football field when I saw a man ripping open several trash bags and spreading garbage ALL OVER a vacant lot. He was a man on a mission, and that mission was to fill this lot with trash. Why would someone do something like that? We aren't talking a little littering here, he had like 3 or 4 trash bags full of garbage that he was intent on spreading around. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 74 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 209.220.229.254 |
So I was driving down Woodward in Bloomfield Hills...and this shitty rusty car is driving super slow in the left lane, so I go to pass him and I look over to give him a big dirty look right? And I'll be damned if the driver wasn't this dude in full clown makeup. Yes, makeup, hair, red ball nose, everything. Driving down the street. Are you kidding me? I don't know if you've ever seen a clown with a normal face, but with permanent clown-smile still painted on? It's f-ing hysterical. | ||
Crew Member Username: Crew Post Number: 895 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 146.9.52.113 |
I was crossing over I-94, just East of Woodward to get on the entrance ramps heading East when I saw four teen aged boys walking across the bridge with their shorts pulled down to their knees. They were flashing the cars on the freeway. I saw them there and just started laughing. They saw me, pulled their shorts up and ran. crazy kids. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2265 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245 |
Focus', now we know who stole paulj's sweeet sweeet ride ... (Message edited by rustic on March 27, 2006) | ||
Mikefive Member Username: Mikefive Post Number: 4 Registered: 11-2005 Posted From: 209.69.165.10 |
I remember a time in the summer of 2001 we were leaving x/s or bleu driving down woodward and we were stopped at the light at larned. We looked up and we saw a man walking butt naked down larned holding his clothes. He looked at us in the car and asked us if we had a light like nothing was wrong. That was the weirdest thing i ever saw in Detroit | ||
Miss_cleo Member Username: Miss_cleo Post Number: 136 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 69.47.85.139 |
one time, about 20 years ago...a gilrfriend and I went downtown with her new boyfriend. It was late, we were drunk. A car pulled next to us at a light and words were exchanged (i dont know why) and the next thing I know we are racing eachother down the street throwing beer bottles at eachother. The boyfriend was yelling at my friend telling her to finish her beer so he could throw it. The other people were in a van and had the sliding door opened and were standing there just whipping bottles at us! LOL, I was freaked out to say the least. This was down around Belle Isle | ||
Ilovedetroit Member Username: Ilovedetroit Post Number: 2170 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.40.225.75 |
Mine was recent and I posted it here that day. I was driving down Mack (near Indian Village area)...when I saw one of the "working girls" blow the biggest wad of snot out of her nose onto the sidewalk ala finger pressed to the side of her nose and she blew...I was so grossed out and I was staring at her (with a look of horror) when she yelled at me "hey you want to party?" I yelled back "uhhhh no thanks" and drove on. She could use some Marketing 101 classes I think. My all time favorite. About three years ago driving down Jefferson near Indian Village again (fun place) I saw an old lady breezing down the sidewalk in a wheel chair with the BIGGEST smile on her face you ever say (and a red wig)...Her dress was blown all up in the air and to my surprise she was wearing NO undies. Thus the big smile  I love Detroit! These are things you would never see in the burbs. | ||
Ilovedetroit Member Username: Ilovedetroit Post Number: 2171 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.40.225.75 |
PS - The lady in the wheelchair might have been itsjeff? | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 79 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 69.220.142.7 |
It was around 3 in the morning, I got off I375 at Lafayette and went to turn left on Lafayette, there was a minivan in a blaze of fire and not a soul around. I just drove by and went home to Lafayette Towers like it was nothin. I've seen alot of cars on fire in Detroit actually, like 6 or 7 for no apparent reason. It's like cars spontaneously combust in Detroit. | ||
Gwhobbies Member Username: Gwhobbies Post Number: 59 Registered: 10-2005 Posted From: 66.208.225.165 |
Downtown Detroit. Clean. But that was about 7 or 8 weeks ago. It was really weird though. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1344 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.238.170.39 |
The unusual sighting in Detroit that has stuck in my mind over the years happened while reglazing and repainting the windows of a family friend's house about 8 years ago. While glazing the windows at the house on Schoenherr between 7 and State Fair an El Camino was driving down the street and stopped at a traffic light that happened to be in front of a bar. The driver and a guy walking out of the bar exchanged words and a fight ensued. The El Camino stayed parked in the middle of the street while the two guys rolled around in the street for about 15 minutes (yes, literally rolled around in the middle of traffic). Cars drove by during the fight and no one so much as honked, they just drove around the brawling men. During the fight the "bar guy" jumped into the back of a pickup truck passing by. The pickup truck driver slammed on his brakes and started pounding the hell out of the "bar guy". The "El Camino guy", who was just until a few seconds ago beating the hell out of the "bar guy", jumped in and now started defending the "bar guy" by beating up the "pickup truck" guy. So now there were three men rolling around in the street, cars passing by and no one honking. While this second brawl went on for about 15-20 more minutes, numerous folks came out and sat on their porches to watch the scrap. What really made the even surreal was this guy driving around on a junky red Spree moped the whole time. He had been driving around the neighborhood all day, but criss-crossed the streets that the guys were fighting on very frequently during the brawl. He drove up and down Schoenherr and weaved in between the fighters several times unscathed and seemingly unseen by the brawlers. It was almost like the butterflies in "The Thin Red Line". After weaving in and out of the fight and up and down the streets with that annoying little whinny engine that Sprees have, he stopped to take a piss on the side street, just 10 feet from the house I was outside working on. He proceeded to whip it out and take a leak right there on the street with me in plain sight. He zipped it up and kept buzzing around the street for the rest of the day. There are lots and lots of other events that are coming to mind as "only in Detroit" events, but that's the one at the top of the mind and the clearest right now. | ||
Track75 Member Username: Track75 Post Number: 2268 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 12.75.20.117 |
OK, so what's the wierd part???? | ||
Jimelnino Member Username: Jimelnino Post Number: 376 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 68.252.69.252 |
Just last Thursday, I was driving down Michigan Ave. from school in Dearborn to MGM, and there was a dude riding a unicycle coming back the other way. I was like...hmm.....people actually ride those....outside of the circus?? I was unaware the the unicycle was considered a mode of transportation. | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 951 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 198.208.159.20 |
Jimelnino, I've seen people ridding them on mountain bike trails! still trying to think of my wierdest experience | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 571 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.60.177.56 |
Walking up to the Book Building one day, a guy standing in front of the beauty shop window taking a piss. I turned to walk the other way and came face to face with another street guy singing "Young At Heart" at the top of his lungs. It wasn't the Black Sinatra though, I haven't seen him in years. I saw a naked guy by bleu about six months ago. He really. really. really. needed a bath. | ||
Spartacus Member Username: Spartacus Post Number: 104 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 209.114.251.65 |
About 20 years ago I was in a van near Belle Isle. This car with two women and a man pulled up next to us. Next thing I know they are trying to race us and throwing beer bottles at us. We showed them, we opened up our sliding door and threw some bottles at them. | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 80 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 69.220.142.7 |
You know burning cars in Detroit isn't really wierd. hmmm... sorry. | ||
Hamtramck_steve Member Username: Hamtramck_steve Post Number: 2838 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 136.181.195.65 |
Gassing up the car one night at the BP on Conant and Commor, about 11:30 or midnight. A guy walking along Conant, pushing a fullsize fridge on a dolly. I had to look twice, because I thought he had it plugged in still. | ||
Eric_c Member Username: Eric_c Post Number: 682 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 68.21.62.206 |
...once saw a homeless guy kicking the windows out of a bus shelter on Jefferson. I called the cops, but didn't stick around to see what happened. | ||
Quinn Member Username: Quinn Post Number: 686 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.139.64.80 |
well...an unfortunate thing (but funny) was when I was a teenager (early 90's) and in college. My mom and I brought my aunt down to eat at greektown and, while waiting in an alley to get a parking spot, I was explaining to both how great the city and how it was getting cleaner, a bum emptied out a trash bag and peed on a wall right behind me. We did laugh... however it took years for me to live it down. ;P | ||
Eastsidedog Member Username: Eastsidedog Post Number: 81 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 69.220.142.7 |
The Belle Isle deer we're really wierd. Very inbred, we called them deer-goats. My wife and I used to feed them every Sunday. They would eat carrots right out of our hands and ooze orange drool all over the place. | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 952 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 198.208.159.20 |
hmm, car driving down forest ave with a very broken tie-rod (imagine driving with the front wheels pointing in opposite directions)...the loudest tire howl imaginable seeing a dude peeing on the pegasus in greektown just under the window behind which the food is cooked, the people watching the cooks from the inside must've only seen his head woman taking a dump in the old entry-way on the woodward side of the rite-aid (forest and woodward) old dodge pickup so overloaded with (what were likely stolen) loose bricks that both rear tires were flat at russel and milwaukee streets crappy old van pushing even crappier old pickup down I-75 at about 60 mph | ||
Cheddar_bob Member Username: Cheddar_bob Post Number: 530 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.74.205 |
Eveybody that saw some guy taking a piss on a building.....that was Patrick. Another time I was walking around Woodward and Larned and some guys were stopped at the light. I asked them for a light and they just stared at me like I was naked or something. | ||
Cklwbig8 Member Username: Cklwbig8 Post Number: 53 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 70.48.208.237 |
saw an old man takin a pee while sitting in his wheel chair. waiting for the light to turn to cross the street on michigan ave .. all us guys in the car were roaring. | ||
Supersport Member Username: Supersport Post Number: 9964 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.37.236 |
You must be new here eh? I become concerned if I don't see a man ripping open bags and spreading trash among vacant lots, as I know if he's not doing that, then he must be up to no good. | ||
Super_d Member Username: Super_d Post Number: 793 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 69.245.78.143 |
During 'Super Bowl' Weekend, the Dexter and Grandriver Bus line both full to capacity with all white people! Now that's wierd!__ 'y-t' on the Iron Pimp! super d(motordetroit) | ||
Motorcitymayor2026 Member Username: Motorcitymayor2026 Post Number: 635 Registered: 10-2005 Posted From: 24.231.189.137 |
what is wrong with you? | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 3323 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 70.234.79.189 |
Oh shit, I got a pretty funny one. This was about two, maybe three years ago. On Woodward near the DIA stuck in some kind of construction traffic. It was summer, hot as hell and around 2 in the morning. So I am in the front passenger side and I see this homeless man limping on the side walk mumbling all sorts of shit. I listened closer and all he kept repeating was “white men and whiskeyyyyyy” in some sort of coked out R& B effort. Then, he just stops suddenly. Turns around and faces our car (we were about 20 feet away) and starts pissing in our direction. I don’t think it was at us. He just wanted to relieve himself I am sure. All the time he kept rambling on about his white men and his whisky. | ||
Matt_the_deuce Member Username: Matt_the_deuce Post Number: 616 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.14.248.252 |
This thread should be titled "Thank You John Engler" | ||
Ilovedetroit Member Username: Ilovedetroit Post Number: 2172 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.40.225.75 |
Matt-the-deuce - VERY good observation lets hope that it is not DeVos or it will be worse! | ||
Soulhawk Member Username: Soulhawk Post Number: 266 Registered: 04-2004 Posted From: 68.61.97.142 |
I have two that I can't decide between. Three years ago I was driving south on Third street near the homeless shelters. It was well after dark, I was astounded to see a man crawling backwards across the street as fast as he possibly could while howling at the moon. Now that was weird! The other, which at the time when it happened, was recounted on this forum, went down in Greektown. I was standing outside of Astoria when I saw a large group of about 20 VERY large mafioso suit wearing men walking down the street in formation. I noticed that they all had ear pieces and were all being very attentive to the surroundings. I then noticed that there were also men on the balcony of the Greek town casino communicating via headset with this group. I noticed that they were surrounding a small middle aged women carrying a briefcase. They blocked traffic, crossed the street and then backed the women against the building and continued to surround her while watching in every direction. When they realized that the womens back was to a window they hurriedly yet controllably moved her and the group so that their backs were to a brick wall. After some more conversation on their headsets they quickly ducked into the casino. I've always wondered what was in that briefcase. | ||
Tetsua Member Username: Tetsua Post Number: 557 Registered: 01-2004 Posted From: 69.246.0.197 |
Last year (about this time coincidently) I was on Hart Plaza by the river when i see this guy feeding sea gulls. When enough birds got close to where he was throwing bread, he ran toward them (yelling "MOTHA FUCKA") with all his might, and tried to step on them. I got the feeling that he had been there trying this for a while. | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 3012 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 70.234.78.9 |
I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. | ||
Sailor_rick Member Username: Sailor_rick Post Number: 121 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 12.2.192.223 |
I was stopped at the light on Woodward at Mack one morning, there were a pair of very large rats that waited for the walk signal, they looked both ways and ambled across the street between the pedestrian lines. No shit. Also the Forbidden Wheels M.C. on their bikes then Councilman Clyde Cleveland waving from an Eldorado, preceeding the Redford HS Marching Band down Fenkell (The Avenue of Fashion)at the Brightmoor Labor Day parade, 25 years ago. That's "Unity In the Community". | ||
Jasoncw Member Username: Jasoncw Post Number: 142 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 148.61.248.170 |
Almost all of these have to do with cars! lol. and crazy people! So this one time I was driving and this crazy guy... | ||
Iddude313 Member Username: Iddude313 Post Number: 17 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 69.212.49.203 |
I once was walking in front of the DIA and saw a cracked out lady in nothing but bra and panties taking a dump in the fountain while suburban moms screamed and gathered their kids. another time i went to the laundromat in Highland Park and asked the manager if he had change for a 20. He told me to follow him to a small back room that he unlocked, turned on the light and went in. He carefully crossed over an hole in the ground about 3 feet wide. To my suprise a mans head popped up from the hole, dumped a shovel of dirt on the floor, looked at me and went back underground. Last summer on the Larned overpass to 375, I saw a guy pissing down on all the traffic going back to the burbs laughing to his hearts delight. Ahhh...the small things in life make it special! | ||
Jasoncw Member Username: Jasoncw Post Number: 144 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 148.61.248.170 |
^ and the black urban moms did something different? | ||
Hooha Member Username: Hooha Post Number: 96 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.81.52.28 |
A guy riding a bike with no handle bars tried to sell me some shrooms. | ||
Sailor_rick Member Username: Sailor_rick Post Number: 122 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 12.2.192.223 |
It's the Motor City! | ||
Wabashrr1 Member Username: Wabashrr1 Post Number: 21 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
Probably not all that unusual but it was certainly strange looking to me.. Driving back towards WSU down Cass from Lafyette Coney Island after a night of light drinking at the Old Miami, saw a bum taking a dump on the sidewalk. I can understand them not having a normal place to 'go' and needing to duck into an alley, but to drop trou right there on the street corner and let er rip. I'm sure he was so stewed that he thought nothing of it. That was 15 or more years ago but it's still an image of Detroit that sticks in my mind. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 152 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 24.208.234.52 |
Dave's Disneyland in Detroit off of I-94. | ||
Boshna Member Username: Boshna Post Number: 126 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 141.213.217.188 |
I was driving on Ford Road coming into Detroit on the west side about a year ago when this rusty old Taurus in front of me began to swerve. About 10 seconds later, a grey curly wig came flying out the driver's window. | ||
Jerome81 Member Username: Jerome81 Post Number: 950 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 64.142.86.133 |
Butt Ass Naked guy just east of Belle Isle on Jefferson. He appeared to be waiting for the bus or something, flagging it down with his mighty schlong. | ||
Waynestudent82 Member Username: Waynestudent82 Post Number: 3 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 68.40.126.181 |
At a gas station at Conner and Mack a few years ago, saw a dead body sitting on top of a trash can next to the pumps | ||
Erobtheone Member Username: Erobtheone Post Number: 16 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 12.146.72.169 |
I was showing my now wife then girlfriend the beautiful Belle Isle. She is from Chicago, and it was her first visit to the D. Around the back of the park she noticed some deer. She was pretty impressed to see wildlife in the middle of the city. As we approached the deer, we both noticed that one was eating a Church's Chicken box and looking at us like wtf???? Erob Chicago by way of Detroit (Message edited by erobtheone on March 28, 2006) | ||
Kahnman Member Username: Kahnman Post Number: 17 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.112.221.94 |
A little over 20 years ago, my wife and I went to see Bauhaus at St. Andrews hall (dating myself, I know). We stopped early in the afternoon at a fleabag motel on Woodward in Ferndale to secure a room for the night after the show. The place had a diner attached to the end of the L - shaped complex right next to our room. We only needed the room for a few hours of sleep so our tolerance for a 1 star motel was accepted. After the show and in an "enhanced" state of mind courtesy of Peter Murphy and company, a belly full of gut grenades and cheap beer, we rolled into the motel at about 3 AM. We both noticed a rather strange vehicle in the parking lot - a mid '80's white Excalibur replicar with quad airhorns pimped to the max carrying Florida plates. "Hmm,not the usual place you see one of those",I said to my wife. We opened the door to our room,flicked on the lights and cockroaches skidded across the floor in the direction of the diner. Well, it took a little longer than normal to get to sleep and just a few hours later we were both startled awake by bright flashes of light outside our window and the sound of a handgun being discharged. We stayed stuck to that bed and didn't move until morning. No cops ever came and when we did venture over to the window at daylight, there was no sign of the Excalibur anywhere. And no, we didn't have breakfast in the diner. | ||
Crash_nyc Member Username: Crash_nyc Post Number: 567 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 24.193.163.82 |
Rivertown, circa 1989: A fully decked-out drag queen sitting on the trunk of a moving limousine, with his (her?) legs wrapped around the limo's TV antenna, yelling "whooo-whooo-whooo! who wants a piece of my hoo-hoo?", while swinging a huge pink boa in circles over his head. Apparently a Grace Jones concert had just let out at Club Taboo. | ||
Leoqueen Member Username: Leoqueen Post Number: 1194 Registered: 07-2004 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
I had to take a break while reading this thread....laughing WAY too hard! "Life is a Cabaret, old chum" "All the world's a stage......" | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 141 Registered: 11-2005 Posted From: 67.107.47.65 |
Hey I was at that show! If so many of you have a story about people using the street for a toilet, can it really be considered weird? | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 5645 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 68.198.208.208 |
It would be weird if we could flush it. Let's just hope it doesn't become common enough for us to call it normal. | ||
Iseries840 Member Username: Iseries840 Post Number: 171 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 12.31.43.194 |
This has to be the weirdest Detroit story ever. I was riding the westbound Puritan bus. As it passed Livernois, this man stood up and yelled “Let me off this M*ther f***!!”. He ran to the front of the still moving bus. He then crashed through the front door before the bus driver was able to stop. He was not seriously injured, but when the man was helped up he just stood there in a daze. While the passengers were waiting for another bus (because of the broken door), we are able to see what happened to the man. First, EMS showed up and they briefly spoke to the man and he declined any medical attention. Several minutes after that, a patrol car arrived and they asked him a few questions and let him walk away. | ||
Bob Member Username: Bob Post Number: 876 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 64.12.116.204 |
A drunk guy on the People Mover with a bottle in a paper bag being warned by a transit cop that you can't have that on the train, then him bolting and being run down and tackled by the transit cop. Very interesting. (Message edited by bob on March 28, 2006) | ||
Ilovedetroit Member Username: Ilovedetroit Post Number: 2173 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 63.149.5.130 |
My personal favorite is the lady taking he dump in the fountain with the suburban moms running in terror! hahahahaha | ||
Gravitymachine Member Username: Gravitymachine Post Number: 953 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 198.208.159.20 |
"won't someone please think of the children!" :D | ||
Supersport Member Username: Supersport Post Number: 9965 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 64.118.137.226 |
I don't know if this qualifies as strange or not. Super Bowl weekend while taking the Grand River bus downtown with a friend some guy in a seat towards the front began spewing racist shit about white people. That went on for a bit, then we moved to the back of the bus as more people got on. The driver jumped on the brakes once, pulled over, got in the guy's face and told him something to the effect of "You're disturbing my fuckin' riders, either cut this shit out, or get of the bus." His next victims were some teenage kids who got on at our stop. He went off on them, telling them he was gonna fuck them up. Then told them "If you touch me, I will fuck you up." Of course, one of the kids poked him and the guy stood up. The driver got on the brakes again and pulled over. The driver slammed the guy back down in his seat and a fight followed, the driver and a few passengers started pounding the guy good. Other passengers swarmed to the back of the bus. An old guy near us broke the emergency glass to open the doors and all the passengers began exiting the bus. It was the first time I had been in a situation where I actually felt VERY uncomfortable and wanted out fast. Not really a strange event, but a seriously fucked up situation just the same. As for strange stuff, after a few years your qualifications for "strange" pretty much get thrown out the window. I saw a guy and a woman get in a brawl a few summers ago on Rosa Parks. The guy hit the woman, I was about to call the police when the woman began pounding the guy something fierce. I was cracking up as I drove away, as that's some shit you don't see every day. Yesterday I saw a couple that were staggering down the sidewalk. Neighbors just caught them getting their freak on in their car. This was around 6 pm, plain as day. Apparantly they took their action outside the car as well. The cops showed up, got the whole story, said they would keep and eye on them. While the cops were there, some scrapper was making a getaway down a back alley with a wheel barrow full of aluminum. The cops were in hot pursuit and went after the guy. Strange you say? I don't know, seems more like the norm anymore. Never a dull moment, that's for sure. | ||
Island Member Username: Island Post Number: 14 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.91.212.254 |
I swear I've seen Santa Claus riding on a giant sleigh being pulled by a tractor down Woodward. | ||
Quinn Member Username: Quinn Post Number: 687 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.139.64.80 |
Supersquirt...it was 1991. I knew it...you can't really read can you...idiot. For the record, I've lived in the city proper (not some suburb like you) for 15 years now. | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 3019 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 70.236.185.26 |
Island, you should stop with the cheap drugs. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2266 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245 |
OKAY let me veer away from the oddly overlapping themes of violence, scatology, vagrancy and public transportation and mention a G rated weird one. Not the weirdest but a subtle weird one ... Back in the late 70's early 80's the woodward shopping strip still had lots of apparently functioning retail. These were stretching all the way up to the FOX and even a bit north of there on the other side of the freeway. These stores were merely Potemkin storefronts tho. I'm talking name brand stores (the same as in the malls (Winkleman's, Sibley's, Hudsons, ...) with beautiful interiors and elaborate window displays but VIRTUALLY NO stock in the stores themselves. You couldn't actually buy much of anything in the stores themselves. It was the weirdest damn thing -- a big impressive sibley shoe store up near the Fox with essentially it's entire stock in the window display. There were limited hours and one or maybe two bored salesclerks and that was it, if yer size wasn't the one in the window they didn't have it in the store. Now that I think about it these sorta stores stretched sporadically all the way up to new center. Essentially it was like the decontenting of cars over time: the stores would stock less and less stuff but unlike the neighborhood shopping, the woodward strip for at least a while kept up a facade of retail and even lit their signs at night. It felt like a movie set, but unlike the CBD later on it didn't feel like an abandoned movie set, back then it was even weirder imagine ZERO vandalism and extras paid to walk around and act like clerks etc. ... weird weird shit ... this was for a good 3-4 years or so. Literally on top of this you had office buildings clearing out neutron bomb style overnight, if ya got off on the wrong floor going to a dentist appointment or something, you'd think there had been a plague. Many of the now well-urban-spelunked CBD skyscraper ruins cleared out at this time floor by floor and you could often just wander in get in the elevator and roam around -- many emptied out offices were left unlocked yet these were not ruins yet nor had they been stripped or vandalized, that came much much later these were merely freshly abandoned. This was a lot weireder right when it was happening than later on after the scrappers, taggers and misguided adventurers tromped through the husks. Very, very strange ... and a very weird Detroit thing and it shifted my perceptions and warped how I look at things ... Yay Detroit! | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 3324 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 65.222.10.3 |
Or when at the forum picnic, there was this special young man doing a mean air bowling routine. Now that was some weird shit. | ||
Supersport Member Username: Supersport Post Number: 9966 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 64.118.137.226 |
Ok, I have a new one. I find it weird that Quinn's dumbass hasn't realized I live in the city yet. | ||
Reetz12 Member Username: Reetz12 Post Number: 38 Registered: 09-2005 Posted From: 216.144.213.130 |
Driving the davison, west of the lodge...I see a small person pushing a grocery cart across the street with somethig standing in it, as I get closer I realize that the man is on his stubs with his prosthetic legs standing in the cart......Oh how I wish camera phones were invented earlier! | ||
Crew Member Username: Crew Post Number: 899 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 146.9.52.33 |
...the meeting I just had was pretty weird but I'll spare you the details of corporate bullshit. | ||
Island Member Username: Island Post Number: 15 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.91.212.254 |
I swear I once saw an empty train looping counterclockwise around downtown on an elavated track. | ||
Peanut757 Member Username: Peanut757 Post Number: 265 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 152.121.17.9 |
I saw a Ice cream truck last summer that whas rugged as hell with spinners on the rims, and it had a rusty fencing over the window with a small whole cut out for the exchange of money and ice cream... To me that was a bit wierd.... My mother was here visiting me and she had to take a picture of that because she was like, "Are you kidding me".... | ||
Ilovedetroit Member Username: Ilovedetroit Post Number: 2174 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 63.149.5.130 |
Sport - Quinn and I are friends - I will tell him. Quinn - Sport lives in Woodbridge...there was a siting of one republican sign for Bush in that area...it has to be Sport Just kidding Sport. | ||
Bongman Member Username: Bongman Post Number: 977 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 198.111.56.128 |
Nothing beat coming out of Jacoby's one night. We walked up to my truck that was street parked trying to figure what the guy was doing to my passenger front tire. We thought he was stealing it. Oh NO....he was taking a dump on my tire and rim ! My buddy had the hard part...he had to interrupt him to get in the passenger side of the truck ! We were gagging so bad we didn't speak for 5 miles up I-94. Nothing worse than getting your picture taken by a human. | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 56 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 66.167.58.14 |
While on a date at a gallery opening in Royal Oak during the mid 90's we saw more than just a few paintings on the wall. Toward the end of the night two costumed clad performance artists waltz in to the center of a crowded 2nd story space. The gallery contained about 150 people at the time. We witnessed a consentual public 'fisting' presented as performance art. Don't ask me...google your questions. My first thought was 'is this legal?' Then 'are we going to get raided and end up in ROak jail?' Just when I thought it was safe to go north of 8 mile this is what the suburbs delivered. I never told any one about this but my date and I had some interesting dinner conversation and nervous laughter afterwards. The two performers seemed to enjoy the event. | ||
Rusty Member Username: Rusty Post Number: 385 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 71.201.177.57 |
A few years ago I witnessed an old 80's style Cadillac filled with people turning onto 375 S from Lafayette when the back right wheel came completely off. The wheel kept up with the car and rolled down the ramp quite a ways. The car didn't stop or slow down much at all and it continued down the ramp with sparks flying all over the place. This continued for at least 30 seconds until it was well out of range. I'm not sure if/where that car stopped. I guess wherever they were going was pretty important. | ||
Philm Member Username: Philm Post Number: 17 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 66.77.102.10 |
...one year, at band camp.... | ||
Awfavre Member Username: Awfavre Post Number: 37 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 69.3.206.177 |
Last summer, I was on Woodward near 94. There was a fellow in a late-80s Buick next to me. The car was full to the top of the seats of all kinds of interesting stuff: newspapers, empty fast-food bags, clothes, electronics, etc. The driver was yelling & I mean YELLING!! at a little bobble-head dog statue he held in his hand. We kept pace for about 15 minutes, & the driver was yelling the whole time. The dog just kept nodding . . . . | ||
Catman_dude Member Username: Catman_dude Post Number: 8 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 198.252.245.194 |
This is my brother's story..... Back in the 80's, he was driving into Detroit from Westland, taking Joy Road. The further he went into Detroit, the more he saw the abandoned buildings that were crumbling. There were people up in the upper floors with rooms wide open to the outside. There was even a person using a toilet in plain view up there! Further still, gradually more people were out in the street to the point where they were basically just crowding his car in the middle of the road!!! He is white and the crowd was black and some were shouting racist stuff at him. Somehow he got out of that situation. It had to be very bad in Detroit if people just mill about in the road blocking cars because they got nothing else to do. | ||
Blessyouboys Member Username: Blessyouboys Post Number: 340 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 69.209.184.64 |
i think your brother is a liar | ||
Catman_dude Member Username: Catman_dude Post Number: 10 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 198.252.245.194 |
I believe him from what I've seen myself. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1345 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.238.170.33 |
Catman, I think you're full of it. | ||
Catman_dude Member Username: Catman_dude Post Number: 11 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 198.252.245.194 |
Nope. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 2 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 68.43.107.72 |
While Driving on I-94 east bound around the Outer DRIVE EXIT this guy in a truck was driving insanely while leaning with his head practically outside of the passenger window. After flying through traffic whizing around cars very dangerously, he gets up onto the I-75 on ramp that goes over 94, stops and gives everyone on I 94 the finger. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 7092 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 198.208.159.20 |
ONe time back in the 80's, a guy was on Joy Road. The further he went into Detroit, the more he saw my neighborhoos. There were people up in the upper floors with rooms wide open to the outside. There was even a person using a toilet in plain view up there! Further still, gradually more people were out in the street to the point where we were basically just crowding his car in the middle of the road!!! He was white and we were black (except me) and we were shouting racist stuff at him. Somehow he got out of that situation before we could get him. Good times. | ||
Southwestmap Member Username: Southwestmap Post Number: 437 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.79.90.206 |
I am pretty sure this is true. I dated a Detroit cop who was a rookie in the early 1970's - when phone booths still dotted the landscape. The cop and his partner got a run to an acident on Grand River or Joy Road - somewhere in the old 6th Precinct. When they got there, they saw a badly damaged car that appeared to have hit a billboard foundation. The billboard was laying on the ground - a huge broken billboard. A crowd had gathered. When the cops went toward the car the crowd got agitated and pointed to the billboard. Finally the cops abandoned the people in the car and returned to the billboard. At the urging of the crowd, they lifted the billboard and there they saw a perfect little smashed guy about two inches thick in a perfect little smashed (vertically)telephone booth. The phone was still in his ear. Obviously, he never knew what hit him. The cops were reduced to hysterical and totally inappropriate laughter as they contemplated how to report this and what to do next, which further angered the crowd. | ||
Tetsua Member Username: Tetsua Post Number: 560 Registered: 01-2004 Posted From: 69.246.0.197 |
I was there too JT1, those were the days | ||
Nanners Member Username: Nanners Post Number: 5 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 68.249.44.14 |
Several years ago we had that giant snowstorm that shut everything down for a couple of days, and none of the roads were going to get plowed; somehow a couple of us made it into work and it kept snowing even more that day; suffice it to say hardly anyone or anything was moving...except for the guy in the electric wheelchair who was zooming down West Vernor at easily 20 miles an hour. Guess his was the only vehicle that could make it through! | ||
Catman_dude Member Username: Catman_dude Post Number: 12 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 198.252.245.194 |
Hey, I just relayed a weird situation as my brother told me at the time. I have no reason to doubt him. I don't know what is the problem that some of you have with it. This was a real life event that happened to my brother. It was not my intention to offend anybody. My mentioning that racist comments made to my brother was in no way justifying one race over another....it was just what really happened. I have no further comments to make regading my post. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 7093 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 198.208.159.20 |
It just sounds so over the top. Not to say that it didn't happen. I was just having some cheap fun. | ||
Border5150 Member Username: Border5150 Post Number: 131 Registered: 03-2004 Posted From: 207.232.204.254 |
Rusty, I think that was a friend of mine who lost his wheel! It was 9 or 10 years ago and they were on their way to meet me & a whole group of people at a bar in Windsor. When it happened, they got out, put on the spare, and continued to Windsor. That tells you about how old I am, and what kind of lushes my friends & I are... | ||
Blessyouboys Member Username: Blessyouboys Post Number: 341 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 69.209.184.64 |
catman, it just sounds like tired and typified white suburban horror story, which, unfortunately I'm familiar with. i was kidding, for the most part | ||
Skamour14 Member Username: Skamour14 Post Number: 38 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 67.185.180.156 |
"I hear lots of gunshots in the ghettohoods in Detroit all of my life."- quote from Danny | ||
Skamour14 Member Username: Skamour14 Post Number: 39 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 67.185.180.156 |
did miss_cleo know that that was spartacus throwing beer bottles @ her and her friend... with his sliding door open???? hmm.... I got nothing here | ||
Quinn Member Username: Quinn Post Number: 689 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.139.64.80 |
Squirt...maybe because I don't spend every minute of the day reading your lame posts. Yes...I still hate you from the campaign. I don't care if you live dead-center of the city...you're still a dumbass. Ilove...yes I remember squirt and remember where he lives now. Thanks for the remind. | ||
Jjw Member Username: Jjw Post Number: 65 Registered: 10-2005 Posted From: 68.33.56.156 |
does participating in an orgy with 20 midgets in the middle of rouge park count?? | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 236 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.55.51 |
Years ago I was downtown waiting for a bus in front of Kinsel's. The biggest cockroach I have ever seen in my life crawled up a woman's bare leg and disappeared under her skirt. The woman didn't flinch. Twenty minutes later the bus arrived, woman and roach borded, and they lived happily ever after. | ||
Bibs Member Username: Bibs Post Number: 476 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 152.163.100.8 |
Car Incident 1: I'm driving NB on I-75 at 11 pm on Sunday on the Rouge river bridge. There is a brand new Cavalier in the center lane about 20 car lengths in front of me. A semi tractor trail is in the far right lane and slightly behind the Cavalier. There is hardly a car on the road. In the middle of the bridge, the Cavalier turns sharply to left, hits the median wall, bounces off the retailing wall and ends up in the left lane. I stopped dead in the middle lane. The trucker pulls off on the right shoulder and started to get out of his cab. I start to look in my rear view mirror because I'm afraid of getting hit from behind. Suddenly, the car backs up and starts driving down the freeway. The car is not drivable and starts on fire. I decide to move forward to avoid getting hit. I finally get up enough courage to pass the burning vehicle. I ask my passenger if he can see who the hell is in the car. He thinks he sees a woman driving but can't tell due to the smoke. Seconds late the car exits the freeway still on fire. Car Indicent 2: Again on I-75 NB in downtown Detroit near the Trumble exit in the middle lane in a Suburban. My father is driving and he screams,"Hang On!" I look behind us and there is two brand new Lincoln Continentals chasing each other and rapidly changing lanes. I think they were going between 120 to 130 mph. We are going 65 mph and an exit is coming up. One car choses the left lane and the other the right lane and the exit is coming up. The driver in the left lane realizes that the second car is going to take the exit. He is about three car lengths in front of us and he hits the brakes hard, litterally slides sideways across all three lanes in front of our trunk, smoke is coming off the tires, hit the curb at the beginning of the ramp and manages to get behind the second Lincoln Continental. There was dead silence in the truck. The time it took for him to go from the left lane to the ramp was less than a second! It still seems surreal to me today and I can hardly believe what I saw. A car sliding almost pendicular to the direction he was travling in. Unbelievable | ||
Thnk2mch Member Username: Thnk2mch Post Number: 94 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.65.11.152 |
I was driving south down Woodward, and seen a giant rat in front of the Vinton building out the passenger side of the car. There were guys all over the place fighting over wheel barrows and who was more qualified to take out the trash! | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 220 Registered: 09-2004 Posted From: 24.247.221.241 |
I followed a guy going down the EB ramp to 94 from Wyoming who was shaving while driving. And i'm not talking electric shaver but razor blade/shaving cream/the whole works. He had all his mirrors tilted so he could see himself. Amazing this guy didn't get ina wreck. We got ahead of him fast and then just watched in our rear view mirrors. Unbelieveable. | ||
Busterwmu Member Username: Busterwmu Post Number: 221 Registered: 09-2004 Posted From: 24.247.221.241 |
Actually, I take mine back. The weirdest thing I ever saw in detroit was a sort of crime deterrent (not a Sprint phone though, I love that ad). These prevented scrappers from taking prescious metal pieces which would then dim a spot in the city, eventually making great swaths of blackness during the nighttime hours. It was a uniquely shaped piece of brittle plastic. They grew in large numbers, always clustering at the base of a street lamp post. They cost taxpayers money to install, and probably money to remove. In the same court as Dr. Martin, Nike, and Timberland, they're known as boots. WTF Detroit? | ||
1honey Member Username: 1honey Post Number: 120 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 64.12.116.204 |
Driving up Woodward Ave back in the day and there was a man and a woman walking. The woman pulled her shorts down to her ankles and took a pist on the sidewalk. The guy was just laughing at her. | ||
Mod Member Username: Mod Post Number: 37 Registered: 07-2004 Posted From: 192.85.50.2 |
As me and my wife walked by, a gaunt looking homeless woman standing on the grassy area in front of the Greektown parking garage proceeded to drop her pants, turn her ass towards us, and pee in our direction. Who has time to squat? | ||
Northend Member Username: Northend Post Number: 825 Registered: 10-2005 Posted From: 69.212.51.105 |
the weirdest thing..??.... over the past couple years, some non-ghetto people have been spotted around... | ||
Super_d Member Username: Super_d Post Number: 803 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 69.246.109.156 |
'Northend' stated....
'non-ghetto'__What you talk'n bout' Willis? super d(motordetroit) | ||
Unclefrank Member Username: Unclefrank Post Number: 24 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 192.85.50.2 |
Coming out of the Old Detroit Bar, many years ago, and three young guys standing around an old beat up car. They told me they would go in it because there was a rat inside. | ||
Crew Member Username: Crew Post Number: 909 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 146.9.52.33 |
Unclefrank, Well? Would you get in a car if it had a rat inside? | ||
1953 Member Username: 1953 Post Number: 747 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 209.104.146.146 |
I think the weirdest thing happened by me today. I was walking down Woodward at Congress, when I spotted a man in a suit. The man was carrying a briefcase, but he appeared to me as any other homeless drifter. Sure enough, he approached looking for change. It seems his car had been towed and he needed bus fair. When I told him I had to change on me, he asked for dollars. When I told him I was penniless (yeah, right), he wandered on down the street. His clothes may have said businessman, but everything else about him said homeless drifter. | ||
Harsensis Member Username: Harsensis Post Number: 39 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 71.227.102.82 |
First, what is with that guy who blows a whistle while riding his bike around the Wayne State campus? Second, I remember about 15 years ago a Detroit cop telling us how two guys got in a fight and one got the claws of a hammer stuck into his head. The guy wouldn't let the ambulance take him, instead he walked to the hospital with the ambulance following along behind him. He wouldn't tell the cops who hit him with the hammer either, he said he would take care of it himself. Nuts! | ||
Jltyler Member Username: Jltyler Post Number: 276 Registered: 03-2005 Posted From: 69.212.213.40 |
There was a women that came into our store, she looked around for a minute then asked to use the resetroom. Told her there wasn't a public bathroom available. She proceeded to drop her drawers and pissed on the floor in my store. Good thing we dont have carpet here. | ||
Cheyenne Member Username: Cheyenne Post Number: 18 Registered: 05-2004 Posted From: 213.78.142.202 |
When I was visiting the D a few years back... I was driving thru Greektown and saw a guy sat on a park bench dressed in full combat geer, helmet, chest rig, 2 pistols, knives ammo bags... I was stopped at a junction and he knocked on my rental car window, I openned it very slightly and he asked me if I wanted to 'come to his shooting range' ... I made a swift exit... | ||
Northend Member Username: Northend Post Number: 830 Registered: 10-2005 Posted From: 70.236.191.86 |
super_d...exactly my point...thank you for not disappointing | ||
Unclefrank Member Username: Unclefrank Post Number: 28 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 192.85.50.2 |
"Unclefrank, Well? Would you get in a car if it had a rat inside?" I did try to help, but I was fairly loaded at the time. I suggested that we open one side of the car, and bang on the other. No rat was produced. | ||
Observant2art Member Username: Observant2art Post Number: 203 Registered: 11-2005 Posted From: 209.104.139.161 |
The guy that dresses up like Cab Callaway and takes pictures with strangers at Hart Plaza. (Message edited by observant2art on March 31, 2006) | ||
Phil313 Member Username: Phil313 Post Number: 1 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 68.84.176.51 |
I had just moved down to the Park Shelton from Sterling Whites, and my parents were down to visit. We were about to head out to dinner, so I asked them to wait for me out front while I pulled my car out from the garage. Just as I turned the corner, I caught a homeless guy pulling his pants down across the street in front of my mom and take a big, runny shit right on the corner. If they weren't already freaked out about me moving to Tha D before that, I'm sure this didn't help. (Message edited by phil313 on April 05, 2006) | ||
Dan Member Username: Dan Post Number: 1198 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.47.194.247 |
I was in an unnamed building, whose windows still had the blinds down, but had been boarded up. I came to a room that had something stuck in the blinds. Low and behold there was a blender stuck in the blinds that had been thrown through the glass window and got stuck in the blinds. The men who boarded the building then decided just to board over it without investigating what had caused the window to break. I like to try and come up with back stories as to how the blender got there. I picture someone drunk with some sort of frozen fruity drink made in the blender walking down the street, who then became angry at the building and taught it who is boss. To this day the blender still hangs in the blinds. Not that crazy, just sort of funny. | ||
Warriorfan Member Username: Warriorfan Post Number: 296 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 68.43.81.191 |
"First, what is with that guy who blows a whistle while riding his bike around the Wayne State campus?" I haven't seen that guy around for a while, maybe he will make an appearance now that the weather is better. I think he blows the whistle to let people ahead of him know to get out of the way. Or maybe he's just nuts. Probably a combination of both. I saw a homeless man having a boxing match with an invisible man once, that was pretty interesting. I mean, this guy was throwing down with an opponent that only he could see. He was spinning around and throwing left hooks and right hooks, I feel bad for the invisible guy who got his ass kicked. | ||
Livedog2 Member Username: Livedog2 Post Number: 41 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 24.223.133.177 |
The weirdest and probably one of the saddest things I ever saw happened in April of 1954 which makes that almost exactly 52 years ago this month. I was going to Davison Elementary School at the corner of Davison Ave. and Jos. Campau on the eastside of Detroit. The incident that happened was two guys got in a fight after school one day over a cigarette. Now, if you don’t know the way these things take place, I’ll set the stage for you. Whenever there was a fight getting ready to start or already in progress everybody starts yelling, “fight” and then a herd of people head in the direction of the fight and form a moving circle around the combatants. The noise level becomes deafening because the bloodlust is rising dangerously and everybody starts egging the combatants onto even greater acts of violence. Now, you have to remember that this action is all taking part over one cigarette. And, after the moving circle moved the combatants and the circle some four blocks away from the schoolyard it ended up on the corner of Davison Ave. between Arlington and Goddard Sts. right in front of a Fire Department Station. The reason the moving circle stopped was because the fight turned serious and the combatants had gone from playing the dozens, “selling wolf tickets” and “signifying” to serious combat. This was the day of straight razors, do-rags, pointed shoes with the tips shined to a fairtheewell and gold front teeth with a star in them. I can even remember one of the combatant’s last names was Windhom. I couldn’t tell you his first name if my life depended upon it. And, the other combatants name is lost in the ether. The reason I remember Windom is because there were nine Windom brother and I went to school with three of them. Of the nine only three made it to their 20s but I digress. At some point the straight razors came out and they carved each other up like a Christmas goose. But, the problem with razor wounds is that you don’t know you have them until you start to move and the flesh separates. The unnamed combatant had the cigarette but the viciousness of the fight left him on the ground bleeding and dying. So, Windom bent over, grabbed the cigarette, started laughing and started running away with the cigarette in his hand. He got about a block away, collapsed and was bleeding to death from his guts that were pouring out of his wounds. So, there you are with two dead young men dead over a cigarette. Talk about disrespecting someone nowadays “ain't shit” because back in those days you could get killed as easy as you can today. Disrespecting people is a serious thing and people need to remember that fact. Out on the mean streets many a badass has been kicked-to-the-curb for real and forever for disrespecting someone! It’s important to remember that fact!!  They were both dead before the police ever got there. This was back in the days before EMTs or Paramedics. Police would come to the site of an emergency with a station wagon with a stretcher in the back. When the police got there the School Principle had gotten there and was crying over their bodies. This was the first time I had ever seen a dead person and I saw two!!! It would not be the last time I would see this kind of violence and death. Livedog2 | ||
Rayraydetroit Member Username: Rayraydetroit Post Number: 10 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 67.72.98.45 |
How about a bit of irony instead of blood & guts. A few years ago on E. Jefferson at the foot of St Aubin, I saw one of those one person white mail trucks that tried to drive over a heavy duty blue stationary mail box. The box was tipped over and the truck half way up the side. | ||
Xphillipjrx Member Username: Xphillipjrx Post Number: 118 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 68.75.240.133 |
I once exited Legends to see a mint '64 Impala with hydraulics surrounded by a crowd of people. It's going side to side, on three wheels and it's bouncing 2-3 feet off the ground. I looked inside and there's none other than Cecil Fielder with a big grin on his face and holding a box of switches. I saw Jack Kevorkian at Belle Tire on Orchard Lake and Maple trying to buy a tire for his VW bus. Not so much weird as surreal... I once saw Gordie Howe, Bob Seger and Chuck Daly all within 20 minutes as I walked through Metro Airport. Best airport celebrity sighting trifecta ever. I was downtown when the Wings won the cup in 1997. It was a warm Saturday night and all the bros were out cruising. All of a sudden the streets flood with everybody from the Joe and the bars and it's one big party. People black and white hugging strangers and just partying. There was a crowd around a guy in a convertible in the tunnel underneath the Millender Center. He had a bunch of subwoofers in his car and when he played Biggie the reverbs made it sound like a concert hall. | ||
Coneyisland Member Username: Coneyisland Post Number: 1 Registered: 04-2006 Posted From: 128.103.173.82 |
On a recent Thursday night, just off Woodward somewhere north of Downtown, sometime past midnite....a big black man *driving* a white horse-drawn carriage. He greeted us kindly as he passed. This was my first night in the city. It was like a scene from a movie. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 7160 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 4.229.99.172 |
Hopefully you have more great moments like that. Welcome to the forum and the city CI. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 926 Registered: 06-2004 Posted From: 64.12.116.204 |
panhandler on Shelby kissed my hand Sunday after I gave him two bucks | ||
Ventura67 Member Username: Ventura67 Post Number: 25 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 69.245.93.12 |
Well, since there has been so much talk of public urination on this thread I thought I'd tap the brilliant minds of this forum on this one. Those of you with your Detroit Then and Now books, turn to page 111. Apparently the editors missed this: the guy at bottom right, apparaently a brick worker, appears to be taking a leak into the vacant lot from the Woodward Ave sidewalk. This is Detroit class available only at a fine establishment such as Orchestra Hall. Forever in print! Anyone else see it? | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 5683 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 69.209.159.29 |
After a nasty rear-end collision on Telegraph Road in 1982, I always keep a good look at traffic behind me...and this has saved me from more than a few really bad situations. Driving south on I-75 late one night in the late-80s/early 90s, on that straight stretch between Maple and 11 Mile Rd, I noticed a pair of headlights weaving and jerking without any regard to traffic...right around 14 Mile Road. The car was mis-behaving so radically that I'm not sure how they missed the medium density collection of cars. I got the hell out of the way and let them pass me...but noticed that the driver had a little boy on her lap, and he was the only one steering. His slightly older sister (I assume) was in hysterics in the passenger seat...I think the car was a mid-80s Cadillac or similar GM vehicle. I tried to keep up with them at a safe distance for a few miles, but the car calmed down a bit so I felt comfortable and curious. I caught up with it at Ten Mile Road and realized WHY the little boy was steering. His mom was out cold. His sister continued her hysterics, and I realized with the 8 Mile curve coming up things were going to get VERY interesting. I was sure the boy was not going to be able to navigate it. Sure enough, they went straight into the wall...barely missing the front end of a small car in the right lane...bounced back two lanes into traffic, RIGHT AROUND THIS SMALL CAR WITHOUT TOUCHING IT, but only barely, by less than a few feet from my vantage point about six-eigth car lengths behind. They spun once, and the momentum carried the car back into the wall and around this curve with it's front end scraping and screeching...sparks flying off its chrome bumper for about fifteen or twenty feet behind. I came to a stop on the left shoulder...they and the little car on the right. All the flowing traffic stopped behind, no pileups or anything. We checked to see if the kids were alright, and they were VERY shook up but fine. The driver of the little car was a frantic young woman, and I realized she was from out-of-state. Since she wasn't involved in the accident, and many of us witnessed the whole thing...I told her to go on her way, and to remember her Detroit story...but to never forget how lucky we ALL were that it didn't end up worse. I cannot remember what was wrong with the mother, but I think she was passed out drunk or on some heavy drug. It was a mess, the car was totalled, but EVERYONE survived. That was the weirdest thing I can remember tonight. | ||
Bushay Member Username: Bushay Post Number: 1 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 68.61.167.97 |
First time poster here. Figured this was as good as any to jump in. Was on my way to work around 3:30am heading downtown from the eastside on westbound I-94 when I noticed an accident on the other side of the freeway [weastbound]. Some of the debree from the accident had found its way onto my side of the road. I was traveling in the middle lane and there was a smaller sportscar about 2-3 car links ahead of me in the fast lane. Well, he ran over some debree from the accident and it spit out from underneath his right back tire and proceded to fly thru my front windshield creating a softball size hole in the middle of my dashboard. It then whizzed by my ear, hit the roof of my interior then precedded to exit out the back window. It completely blew out the rear window. Glass was in my eyes, ears and mouth and I managed to pull over and the other driver in front of me did as well as it blew out his tire. Anyways, except being extreamly shaken up we called the DPD and waited about 45 minutes for one to stop but none did. 3 passed us by on the shoulder as we waived for them. I proceded to head on in to work as I was not physically harmed. This happened around Moross or Outer Drive I believe. I needed to get to the Livernois exit but before I made it to the I-75 interchange I was pulled over by 3 police cars with sirens blowing and their guns drawn. I got out of the car and they frisked me down looking for a weapon. I asked them why the hell they were pulling me over and they told me they thought I was driving a stolen car with the back window out. After explaining what just happened to me , the idiots just told me to go on my way and dont drive that car with my window in that condition anymore. Our finest at work!! | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2464 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.167.210.27 |
Several years ago I was hanging with some friends and a sculptor friend showed up. He proceeded to take his shirt off revaaling a long, continuouse, pencil-width bruise that started at palm of his left hand, ran the full length of the inside his arm and continued across his chest. The weirdest bruise I had ever seen. As it turned out, he had gotten in a road rage incident with some guy. When the other guy sped up to pass him, and being passing, my friend [a hot head] flipped the guy off, giving him the finger. Next thing happened, the guy fired a shot at him with a small caliber pistol. The slug passed through the tip of his pinky finder, then trapped under his shirt traveled the path of the bruise never breaking his skin. The luck of fools! | ||
Frank_c Member Username: Frank_c Post Number: 465 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 207.200.116.139 |
This thread has really gotten me depressed, How about some funny weird stuff, that does not involve shit, piss, snot, guns, and or fisting, beatings etc. The clown one was pretty good, then I thought of Steven King............ | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 230 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.242.218.76 |
About 15 years ago, I was attending Easter Brunch at the Summit atop Ren Cen. While in line at one of the food stations, about a 12 year old boy asked me, "Mister, do you think that's real?" while pointing to a bright red lobster that was sitting atop the table's decor. When I replied, "yes," he said "cool," and then picked it up and put it right on his plate. As I noticed him over the next hour, he ate the whole thing with great interest and gusto. I'm guessing that he had a better time than anyone else at the Summit that day. | ||
Outoftowner Member Username: Outoftowner Post Number: 119 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.223.214.2 |
This is a great thread. But I think the one that will hang with me the longest is Dan's story about the blender in the blinds. I always appreciate weird things like that... and no one got killed (except a window and maybe a good blender)... | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2331 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 130.132.177.245 |
Frank_c, I agree. NOTE: drunks, vagrants and crazies have bodily functions everywhere and yahoos get belligerant everywhere. I got another g-rated one (Okay maybe PG for drug references). (Actually it isn't a Detroit story but it is close enough.) Frank-c's Stephen king comment reminded me (I think I told it before on this forum years ago) ... Back when I was in high school when I got my drivers license I enjoyed exploring a suddenly much larger city and metro area than I had previously known. Well one summer evening I went with a friend to see a movie at the Punch and Judy theater in some place waaay beyond the even the east side called Grosse Pointe. (In spite of what you might think given the French-Canadian name and terrible distance from any signs of western civilization it is NOT in Canada, it was actually a collection of relatively nice eastside suburbs kinda like Palmer Woods cum Sherwood Forest but even more over the top, if you can imagine that. I _think_ now it's mostly condos but I understand it still provides a nice buffer between EEV and the cold lakefront.) Anyway, I had been to movies there before fairly regularly but never in the summer. In case you don't know, back then movies at the P&J were the sort that were commonly enjoyed with one's sensory functions chemically altered. As we drove into GP well-prepared to enjoy some quality flick (like Eraserhead, or Desperate Living or DOA or some BS cartoon from Europe whatever ...) we noticed that a streetlight appered to be smouldering black smoke. So did the next one and the next one and the next one, kinda weird. We stopped at a streetlight. Now as an unrelated aside, a common effect of strong pot is to experience time lag - a period of intensly focussed observation which seems to pass very slowly but infact passes briefly. Okay back to my story ... while stopped at this light I noticed a very odd looking bug, on my sideview mirror, it looked kinda like a dragonfly that had just been liberated from a concentration camp. Then I noticed another and another and more on my windsheild. I looked beyond the windshield there were hundreds, even thousands swarming around the streetlights, everywhere so numerous they looked like smoke! Then it was as if someone was standing on the roof of my car pouring a bucket full of these vermin onto the windshield, they even came through the windows! Note: this was about the time of one of Stephen Kings books (and the Amityville Horror) where the evil menace appeared as a swarm of horrible black flies. My companion and I screamed in genuine terror. We had never ever seen anything like that before. We had no idea what was happening ... was the world ending? Were we becoming posessed? Note: we were also at that impressionable age when one first reads Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Could we be having Raoul Duke/Dr. Gonzo savage hallucinations? We had to make a decison ... and FAST. We decided of course to immediately get to civilization ... but which way? Straight west would take us through the breadth of Detroit's eastside, never a good idea but in the event of either apocalypse, mass demonic posession or a drug haze a big NO. So we made an immediate U turn and in a moment of lucidity decided the ideal place to go: Zug Island (or more accurately a gravel lot on the other side of the trench overlooking the isle). We figured IF the bugs were of this world, the fumes would kill them, if they were something else, the isolation of the place would be the safest place to ride out whatever storm we faced (pretty smart, eh?). As we got nearer to downtown the bugs disappeared and the terror passed. Oddly hungry, we picked up burgers on the way (maybe Motts? can't recall) and continued toward Zug. When we got there a STRONG feeling of paranoia hit us even though we knew we were safe. Eventually that passed, we went to a Hubbard-Richard coney island (still hungry, I guess we were growing boys). I dropped my friend off at his home and I drove home through a beautiful July night. ... the next morning ... on my car ... DEAD evil vermin ... it WAS real! ... ahhhhhhh! I went to the Cass City Cinema for the rest of that summer avoiding the P&J until well after the first frost ... | ||
Livedog2 Member Username: Livedog2 Post Number: 106 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 71.10.61.35 |
Maybe someone should start a thread titled, "Funny weird stuff, that does not involve shit, piss, snot, guns, and or fisting, beatings etc." Livedog2 | ||
Tetsua Member Username: Tetsua Post Number: 575 Registered: 01-2004 Posted From: 68.42.79.209 |
Yesterday me and my girlfriend (visiting from Queens, NY) were walking back to my loft on Woodward when we noticed a hobo laying on the sidewalk, with a pleased look on his face. As we got closer we noticed this guy was beating his dick like it owed him money ... SCARRING the both of us for life (not really). But it did weird us out a little bit. | ||
Super_d Member Username: Super_d Post Number: 841 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 69.213.81.13 |
Tetsua stated....
Funny as hell !!!!! super d(motordetroit) | ||
Paulj Member Username: Paulj Post Number: 352 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 68.249.244.223 |
i dunno about wierdest, but here's recent: 2 days ago I walked out of the AT&T building and saw a man carefully putting eyedrops into all 5 holes of a manhole cover. "I'll take cities without a mental health infrastructure for $100, Alex" |
