 
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 5560
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 5:00 pm: |    |
The Northlawn Bus started at Cunninghams, Oakman and Grand River and turned right to Northlawn, then North to Schoolcraft, West to Wyoming, north to Intervale, East to Ohio, and South back down to Oakman and Grand River or some slight variation on that route.
It was a wonderful little feeder bus to downtown from our neighborhood.
The Wyoming bus was a trooper. It carried the socialist hoardes of Fords workers from the Rouge to W. 8 Mile Rd. If you rode it North at Quiting Time, you could wheeze in the smell of metal shavings on those guys. Each had a black lunch bucket with thermos inside.
Imagine the Grand River Electrics running like clockwork, run by unifromed dispatchers along the route with heavy topcoats and white gloves.
Loaded with shoppers, office workers, students, everybody. They would park at Olympia for each direction after the games, wires down, so the line could still run. Then when the Red Wings were out, you could catch the first bus and off she flew into the dark Detroit winter. Our Northlawn was done so we walked from Grand River and that was damn cold.
jjaba was as cold as Ray1936 on his Westside beat, and there was no donut shop for hot coffee on his way home.
jjaba, Westside Bar Mitzvah Bukkor, Cass Tech. Grad on the Grand River Bus. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2060
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 5:50 pm: | |
The Schoolcraft bus had a strange route once it got up to Wyoming. Can't remember the exact route, although I remember it being on Ewald Circle clearly, and it ended up near the Sears store in Highland Park. Worked good for me since I took piano lessons in Highland park just up 2nd street.
Yeah, I remember cold. I didn't like cold. I don't like cold. I don't DO cold. |
Jrvass
Member
Username: Jrvass
Post Number: 246
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 6:49 pm: | |
My Great-Grandparents lived on Lowell, Grand parents on 7 mile and prior to that Warrington.
My Grandfather (Mom's side) didn't know who was blasting a ham-radio signal prior to and during WWII and knocking out his radio programs. Turns out it was my Great-Uncle on Dad's side.
All he could hear was "W8QDU, W8QDU".
"Who the Hell is this 'W-8-Cutie-You'???••••• Mom later remembered in 1989 after seeing Fred's personalized license plate sitting on his car that he didn't drive since the 1960's(?)
It had suicide doors in the back.
James |
Philm
Member
Username: Philm
Post Number: 35
Registered: 03-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 7:06 pm: | |
I lived on Ilene, between Pilgrim and Puritan. I remember well the Restrick Lumber fire, as a bunch of us kids were hanging out on that summer night and could see the flames in the sky all the way from there! |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 5563
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 2:08 pm: | |
Was that the lumber fire on Lyndon?
Funny you mention shortwave. We had a ham radio operator next door.
W8FQE. "Doubleya Eight, Frank Queen Edwards."
jjaba would sit at Mr. Warren's knee for hrs. and listen to calls from all the world. Amazing.
He had cards sent from all over the world posted in the basement.
When we got our new Olympic Tv, Mr. Warren could be heard through it. We were never able to isolate him away from Howdy Doody or the Eddy Solomon Show.
jjaba. |
Birwood
Member
Username: Birwood
Post Number: 26
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 3:48 pm: | |
Jjaba, I remember the Restrick lumber burning, but can't remember the year or date, likewise the evening when D & W Oil on Wyoming burned, but I think it was around Halloween. The Norwest Plumbing on Meyer was a boomer too, with a lot of welding tanks rocketing upward. The Wrigley Market on Fenkell & Birwood burned the night before I left for the USAF in July 68 |
Jrvass
Member
Username: Jrvass
Post Number: 254
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 10:35 pm: | |
Jjaba,
Yup. Call letter cards, maps, etc. He had radio tubes in the garage as big as gallon milk bottles. Dad sold it all as we had to liquidate his estate and give the coins to various charities. MI Humane Society, cancer society, DSO, etc., per his will. The guy had business smarts and did OK for 95 years or so.
The cleaning ladies also did OK in his Palmer Woods home. We caught one trying to open the front door while doing an inventory with the appraiser (Frank Boos... that guy from Blmfld. Hills that had the bow-tie on the "Antiques Roadshow" on PBS.)
Copping silver and other family heirlooms from the early 1800's. Lots of pieces missing.
I bought a few things from the estate. Not sure what I like better. An 8'x6'x2' mahogony bookcase... or a 6 seat, drop-table, buffet, server, mirror, and shelf unit... in "Chinese Chinosoire (sp?)"
Basically, "CC" is little Chinese "fairies" hand-painted on 1920's era green breakfast room furniture.
Kinda weird looking. But my G-Grandmother bought it for the new house.
It's at least doubled in value (after a few years). I haven't checked lately!
The mahogany bookcase??? I can't lift it anymore! I'm too old and know better! |
Jrvass
Member
Username: Jrvass
Post Number: 255
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 11:03 pm: | |
Jjaba,
Yup. Call letter cards, maps, etc. He had radio tubes in the garage as big as gallon milk bottles. Dad sold it all as we had to liquidate his estate and give the coins to various charities. MI Humane Society, cancer society, DSO, etc., per his will. The guy had business smarts and did OK for 95 years or so.
The cleaning ladies also did OK in his Palmer Woods home. We caught one trying to open the front door while doing an inventory with the appraiser (Frank Boos... that guy from Blmfld. Hills that had the bow-tie on the "Antiques Roadshow" on PBS.)
Copping silver and other family heirlooms from the early 1800's. Lots of pieces missing.
I bought a few things from the estate. Not sure what I like better. An 8'x6'x2' mahogony bookcase... or a 6 seat, drop-table, buffet, server, mirror, and shelf unit... in "Chinese Chinosoire (sp?)"
Basically, "CC" is little Chinese "fairies" hand-painted on 1920's era green breakfast room furniture.
Kinda weird looking. But my G-Grandmother bought it for the new house.
It's at least doubled in value (after a few years). I haven't checked lately!
The mahogany bookcase??? I can't lift it anymore! I'm too old and know better! |
Jrvass
Member
Username: Jrvass
Post Number: 257
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 11:46 pm: | |
Phooey. I tried deleting one post. Lowell?
It seemed like it worked. Must be a "feature" of Windoze 7.0! 
James |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 23
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 3:26 am: | |
i heard of some big fires down that way, by the way does anyone remember hollywood speedshop? i got a picture of it someware. |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 5564
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 2:42 pm: | |
Good stuff. Thanks.
jjaba, on the Far Westside. |
Birwood
Member
Username: Birwood
Post Number: 31
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 4:26 pm: | |
Did anybody hold any jobs in the neighborhood while living there ?
I delivered the Detroit News, 5 Star Final Edition, out of the sub-station at Sorrento and Grand River. My route was Birwood (Lucky Me, Go Figure) from Buena Vista to Intervale. I had like 70 Dailys, 9 Sat Bulldogs and 105 Sundays. Sophmore and Junior Year at MHS, somehow I ended up with later classes, so I got up at 4am and worked Twin Pines milk route as a jumper. The route driver paid me $40.00 per week cash, no taxes. His route was Grand River to Intervale, Wyoming to Meyers on Mon and Wed, then Plymouth to Grand River, Schaefer to Meyers on Tue and Thurs. On Saturdays we did both routes but only certain customers. Interesting work |
9936sussex
Member
Username: 9936sussex
Post Number: 23
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 7:16 pm: | |
Well, stretching the neighborhood to Plymouth and Greenfield, I used to work at Adrian Cleaners which was located on Greenfield between Plymouth and West Chicago. I worked there tagging clothes, brushing coats and sweaters on Tuesdays & Thursdays 3-6 pm and on Saturdays 8-6. The family that owned the place were wonderful to me, and I have very fond memories of working there--even though it was tough work. |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 5565
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 1:36 am: | |
jjaba worked at several Wrigley's Stores but his principal store was W. Davidson and Greenlawn. The bldg. is extant, vacant. 60 cents/hr. for bagboy, then 80 cents/hr. for stockboy and cashier. He did this whenever he could after school at Cass Tech. and on weekends.
Summers home from college, jjaba worked at either the Wrigley's on Greenfield and Grand River or Big Bears down on Joy Rd. and Linwood.
jjaba also was a locker room manager at Brennan Pools in Rouge Park, 1962-63 era. If you forgot to shower, and you were about nine yrs. old, you got reminded with a towel snap to the ass.
jjaba, Proudly Westside. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6669
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 9:22 am: | |
My mother's friend used to live at the 14200 block of Cherrylawn St. near intervale St. east of Meyers in the late 1980s. The ghettohood is is now black since the mid 1970s beautiful and well kept up until the low-income folks, crackheads and street gangs torn the ghettohood apart. Today some the homes are well kept up, others are either blighted fill with vacant or abandon buildings. The ghettohood is never the same. Give it about 50 years the ghettohood would be on the gentrification list. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6670
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 9:27 am: | |
9936sussex,
You problably remember the Old Atlas Theatre on Plymouth Rd. and Rutherford St. The building is long gone. |
Jrvass
Member
Username: Jrvass
Post Number: 262
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 10:23 am: | |
Just an observation here on my part, inspired by the "ghettohood" remark.
A couple years ago I was a 'foster family' for a siamese cat rescue league. Siamese cats don't typically do well in shelters. FWIW.
An elderly black woman that lived near Joy & Wyoming wanted to adopt a cat. She was more or less housebound and her husband and daughter worked all day and were unable to take her to check out the cat at my house.
"Fine. I'll bring him to you." So I'm driving E. on Joy from Telegraph and wondering 'why the hell did I offer to come to this "ghettohood"'? Joy Rd. looked like "little Beirut"!
So I turn on to her street and drive to her house... I am shocked! It looked like residential areas similar to Royal Oak or Birmingham. Well kept homes. Real nice.
Long story short... she was the nicest lady. Had new cat toys and bonded with the cat right away. Signed the papers and paid the fee. (Spay/neuter, shots, 1-yr pet insurance, etc.)
Detroit could go one hell of a long way in image by cleaning up it's main thoroughfares. Look at Woodward today as opposed to 25 years ago. It is truly more inviting now than then. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2090
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 - 12:51 pm: | |
Well, it's been a few years since I really wandered through the city, but I'll be there starting Wednesday for a week and plan on giving it a good look. |
9936sussex
Member
Username: 9936sussex
Post Number: 24
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 15, 2007 - 10:35 am: | |
Moderators (or whomever)....I had posted a message here about the Atlas theatre and it's no longer here.... what happened to it? |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2097
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Monday, October 15, 2007 - 12:20 pm: | |
Was probably on a different thread, sussex....I do that all the time: post a note on one thread and think it's on a different one. Anyway, Danny mentioned it above and no, I don't remember it much. |
The_ed
Member
Username: The_ed
Post Number: 57
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 15, 2007 - 2:01 pm: | |
Hey Chuckjav, are you in Dayton? I was born there. Used to live on Stewart Street which is now Clegg (i think). Went to St. James grade school then lived on Dayton-Liberty Road. I still have family there. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 245
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Monday, October 15, 2007 - 6:37 pm: | |
The_ed....My family lives in Beavercreek, I work in Kettering; wife works in Dayton.
Did you go to high school down here?
In many ways, Dayton reminds me of Detroit. |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 5568
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 2:26 pm: | |
Danny, Ghettoman on Cherrylawn is just behind jjaba on Northlawn, same block.
jjaba, Proudly Westside, waiting for the Northlawn bus on Northlawn and Intervale. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 264
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 3:12 pm: | |
Jjaba....
Did you ever take the plunge off 10-meter platform at Brennan Pools?
My brother Darius and I once walked from Grand River and Meyers to Lafayette Radio (Electronics?) Store - downtown. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 818
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 3:37 pm: | |
I'm glad to finally learn where the Northlawn bus went. It wouldn't have done me any good as I lived near W. Chicago and Schaefer. I ended up walking home from work most of the time. I worked at Sears in the catalog order department. Before that, I worked at a little drugstore on Wyoming near Cherrylawn, I think it was. Family owned, nice people, can't remember the names, though. |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 2112
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 3:55 pm: | |
Did you ever take the plunge off 10-meter platform at Brennan Pools?
I did that. Once. It seemed like I was in mid air for an hour, all the while of which I was thinking the jump was unsurvivable. It was, but the survival was enough to satisfy me from ever wanting to do it again. |
Birwood
Member
Username: Birwood
Post Number: 34
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 7:51 pm: | |
Gaz, you must have worked at Safier Drug on the NE corner of Wyoming & Schoolcraft.
Do you remember the Kowalski butcher shop just a few doors north from the drug store. My mother would send me up there and buy the bologna and the ham butts, bring them home and grind them up into to a bologna/ham sandwich spread for lunches.
Did you even go to Hill-Bills Soda Shoppe next to Vio's Pizzera and buy a Vanilla Phosphate (Creme Soda) soda for 6 cents
Across Schoolcraft to the south, was the building that had apartments above the stores and one of our after school stops was Eagle Dairy where we could buy Chocolate shake for a 20 cents. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 821
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:08 pm: | |
I wasn't up there on Schoolcraft until after I started driving. This little drug store was just a few blocks north of W. Chicago, on the east side of Wyoming. The streets went east-west on that side so the blocks were short. |
Donut
Member
Username: Donut
Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9:49 pm: | |
Does anybody remember the huge scrap pile as I remember on the east side of Mackenzie in 1942-3?
I remember a rather large canon shell (perhaps 75mm)that had a fuse with clockwork type gears that time when the charge would explode. During the day I decided I needed that trophy at home far more than the scrap drive & lo & behold when I went to retrieve it after school, somebody else had beat me to it. Life just isn't fair. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 267
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 6:39 am: | |
Donut....Were you attending Mackenzie during the 1940s? |