  Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 268 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray1936.....How's your Detroit visit and photo-shoot going? | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 6695 Registered: 02-2004 |
9936sussex, The Atlas Theater on Plymouth Rd. and Rutherford St. was a one theater movie palace showing any movie by schedule time dates and matinees. It's was closed by the early 1970s only to be replaced by a black church called Temple of Deliverence. After the congregation moved on. There were several retail strips next to the theater. A Chaldean man owned a ghetto mart (Party Store). The building was abandon for years until some Arab Muslim bought the building and tried to turn in into a several retail strips but didn't work so the Arab Muslim owner torn part of the building down exposing the brick wall of the theater part only to transformed to a two retail strips, a black owned laundromat and a Arab owned Dollar Store. The Dollar Store is still there, but the black owned laundromat was closed down and building once again is abandoned. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2113 Registered: 01-2005 |
Trip is excellent, weather is good. Bad storms last night in Michigan, but they seemed to dodge the Metro Detroit area pretty good. Met a lot of the DetroitYes gang last night at a git-together at the Detroit Beer Factory on Broadway. Just a super bunch of folks -- but that's no surprise. I'll comment on all that when I get home. Downtown at night looked beautiful; clean as a pin. In about 10 minutes I'm heading in to town with the camera to do the photos. Won't be able to post them until I return home, of course, because my camera driver is on my home computer. Little breezy this morning, and I'm watching the leaves fall from a poplar tree just now. Sure am glad I don't have to rake them up..........  | ||
9936sussex Member Username: 9936sussex Post Number: 34 Registered: 10-2007 |
Danny: Thanks for the update on the Atlas Theatre...It was THE place to be on Saturdays (especially in the summer/fall). A bunch of us would walk up there together and for 35 cents get 2 movies and cartoons. For another dime you could get a box of popcorn. The theatre would be jam-packed with kids. It was a lot of fun, and I saw a lot of great movies! | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 270 Registered: 09-2007 |
Good to hear from Ray1936. Pretty much the same weather pattern in SW Ohio as SE Michigan; clear as a bell (10:27a EDST). Many, many DetroitYes people waiting with great anticipation for posting of your travelogue | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5569 Registered: 11-2003 |
Ray1936, good to see you on tour. 14032 Northlawn would make a great shot. Birwood, yes, Wyoming and Schoolcraft was the place. A&P Store, CF Smiths Store, Hi-Valu Five and Dime, Eagle Dairy, St. Brigits Church (with Parducci sculpture-1950), St. Brigits School and Parsonage on Ohio Street, Dunlevey's Bar. Up at Fenkell along Wyoming was Tower Bowl, Westown Theater, Kresges, and Sanders. Northlawn and Intervale is Dieters Confectionery, Belians Market, and a cleaners, with upstairs apts. At that corner jjaba would be there early every weekday in summer for a pickup baseball game. As for Brennan Pools, jjaba wasn't much of a swimmer. He worked in the locker room snapping towels are nine yr. old boys who "forgot" to fucking shower. (1960-63.) jjaba, Westside Memories. | ||
Dds Member Username: Dds Post Number: 410 Registered: 10-2006 |
quote: This is like the 4th time you've mentioned that. I'm starting to think you are the one with the "forgetting" problem. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2117 Registered: 01-2005 |
One mystery solved. Went by the little cemetery on Meyers at Lyndon today and discovered its name to be "Forest Hill" Cemetery. Looks to be well maintained. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 271 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray1936....My brother and I took a walk through the cemetery back in 2002; we saw relatively few older graves and many new ones. My brother worked at the Butzel Pool concession stand back in '69; he would walk past the cemetery every day; transfixed by the gravestone of a girl named Phoebe who died at the age of 16 in 1887. Gives me the creeps thinking about it; even creepier that I still remember the details. (Message edited by chuckjav on October 19, 2007) | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 272 Registered: 09-2007 |
Jjaba....Years ago - forty to be precise - the Fresh Air Society sent members of my family to Camp Tamarack near Brighton; back when that town was "way out in the country". Anyhoo......... Friends that I met at camp always talked about going out to eat at Darby's; their stories sounded really cool. Jjaba...did Darby's burn down during, or shortly after the 1967 Riot? | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5570 Registered: 11-2003 |
Yes, Darby's burned down. They were on W. Seven Mile and Wyoming I believe. In it's prime, Darby's was THE place. jjaba. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 835 Registered: 08-2007 |
Darby's burned down in 1968 I think. My husband and I went there for our first date in November, 1967. I had never had corned beef or cheesecake before, can you believe that? The twotop tables were really close together and the place was packed, I think it was about 11 at night, too. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 273 Registered: 09-2007 |
Jjaba and Gaz....thanks for the info; pieces now fitting together. Between "tours of duty" in Detroit, my family lived in Oak Park (late '67 to early '69). I recall teen terrorists coming into our OP neighborhood in 1968; they would administer unprovoked random beat-downs on school kids at or near Lessenger Elementary and Frost Junior High...stole bicycles too. Anyhoo........ When we watched the band of invading hoodlums leave the area; they would head in the direction of (Scotia) Meyers, to Wyoming and Eight Mile, walking south from there. Recalling now that - as OP public safety officers, parents and older kids observed the Detroiters' retreat - I heard someone say "expletive deleted...they probably burned down Darby's too". Good old American History; the chapters never mentioned in school. (Message edited by chuckjav on October 21, 2007) | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2121 Registered: 01-2005 |
Found this on the cemetery: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi- bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=539&CS cn=forest+hill&CScntry=4&CSst= 24& | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 274 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray...I wonder, as did my brother, if at some point the cemetary was renamed? During our visit in 2002, we both agreed that Forest Hill did not seem familiar. Who really knows? | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5572 Registered: 11-2003 |
Yes, Darby's was late in coming to the NW side but when they did, they had a huge following for delicatessen. jjaba loved the Jackie Gleason, pastrami and corned beef with swiss cheese, piled high, with Russian Dressing and a Vernors. A side of Henny Youngman's cold slaw was devine, and then top it off with a slice, Molly Picon's cherry cheesecake. Now that's fressen! jjaba, Westside Bar Mitzvah Bukkor. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2122 Registered: 01-2005 |
Forest Hill didn't strike me as familiar, either, Chuck, and it's interesting that 13 of the 14 posted interments there are recent. Always seemed to me like it was an old cemetery and that was back around 1950 or so. But I'm busy enough with the cemeteries holding my ancestors and family, so I'll just let that drop. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 275 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray1936....Precisely. Back in the day, the cemetery looked as though it was sorely neglected or abandoned all together. My guess would be that someone reopened, expanded & renamed the cemetery during the early 1980s. Ray, did you see the small shops and factories in and around the area of Fenkell and Meyers, heading west toward Schaefer and beyond? Five years ago the area appeared to be thriving. | ||
Jrvass Member Username: Jrvass Post Number: 275 Registered: 01-2007 |
jjaba... fressen? I think I have a clue. But I'm not sure. You find us a place that serves that, and I'll meet you there and buy! Yum! James | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 276 Registered: 09-2007 |
Jjaba & Jrvass....I am totally jones-ing for the Gleason and Vernors; just about any deli sandwich and Vernors would be outstanding. Way beyond nosh! | ||
Birwood Member Username: Birwood Post Number: 36 Registered: 10-2007 |
Chuckjav & Ray1936, One of my recollections of that little cemetary at Meyers & Lyndon was that on the Lyndon street side,near the fence I noticed a tiny grave marker of what was a Baby Lamb and the lettering on the marker was Baby Myrtle, nothing else. I remember asking my parents about it, because at the time I thought only old people died and were buried, not babies and children. I think I was about 7 or 8 at the time, a reality check. I'd walk by there coming home from the pool sometimes and would always stop and wonder about who was buried there and why they died so young. I still wonder to this day | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2128 Registered: 01-2005 |
Funny how life and death suddenly can get kids thinking, isn't it, Birwood? Unfortunately, on the Findagrave website, there's only 14 listings of the several hundred that must be there. I wish I could spend a day there and inventory the whole place, but wish in one hand and.....well, you know. There's still a host of small buildings that seem to be doing business at that intersection and the area. No idea what kind of business, as few of them had signs of any substance visible from the street. Got a few photos of the area and I'll post them Wednesday when I get back home. Ah, tomorrow night I'll sleep in my own bed...... | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 1484 Registered: 01-2006 |
Jjaba may have meant "frisson," which refers to a shudder of excitement similar to a shiver induced by coldness. | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 305 Registered: 04-2006 |
I figured it was Yiddish, probably related to the German word "fressen," which loosely means "to eat." | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 277 Registered: 09-2007 |
That old cemetery would get me thinking why it was that I never met anyone in Detroit with real roots in old, old Detroit...or Greenfield Township for that matter. I am referring specifically to people who stayed in the area; for example, I think it was Gaz that mentioned an old couple living in a farmhouse near Fullerton and Schaefer during the 1960s; I would imagine their roots went way, way back. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2129 Registered: 01-2005 |
Home. I'll try to write a trip report with photos tomorrow. For right now, though, it's zzzzzz time. | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 29 Registered: 08-2007 |
my grandpa talked about the wood sidewalks, but he was born in 1908. he showed us grandkids all kinds of cool places in detroit. i don,t think he wanted to leave. as for old old detroit,i,ve never even heard alot except in books. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2134 Registered: 01-2005 |
Hey, Birwood.....this look familiar?  | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2135 Registered: 01-2005 |
The old Al Pisa pharmacy at Schoolcraft and Meyers. I see they still use the name. Only they didn't have razor wire all around the perimeter of the roof.  | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 284 Registered: 09-2007 |
Ray1936....Looking good & the trees are amazingly green for late October! |
