  Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 7697 Registered: 11-2003 |
Never heard of no Lower Eastside of Detroit. Jes like there never been no Southside of Detroit. What's zat all about? jjaba, Proudly Westside. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5481 Registered: 04-2005 |
Lower east side of Detroit would be down there around Jefferson/St. Jean area, wouldn't it? | ||
Dtowncitylover Member Username: Dtowncitylover Post Number: 437 Registered: 02-2008 |
And don't forget about the Northern Cities Shift that has been evolving in the major urban centers of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N orthern_Cities_Shift http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp /Northeast/ncshift/ncshift.htm l | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 1409 Registered: 09-2007 |
Lower East Side = by & large extincted neighborhoods. That which remains: Lafayette Park...Campau Park...Duffield Elementary School...Miller High School...Elmwood Cemetery...MLK jr. High School. (Message edited by chuckjav on January 10, 2009) | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 1410 Registered: 09-2007 |
Jjaba....Lower East Side = Land of the Purple Gangster. chuckjav....his JewPride is showing | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 372 Registered: 07-2008 |
Re: Big Four In the 1960s the "Big Four", or "Tac Squad" policemen would patrol the streets looking for bars to raid and hookers to arrest. Four to a car, they had a reputation for a mean disposition and were given a lot of latitude in how or where they would patrol. They would often stop youths or hookers who they considered to be in the "wrong" area, sometimes dispensing their brand of street justice on the spot, leaving behind injured and furious victims. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 1412 Registered: 09-2007 |
Bobl....Oh Yes A young black male - walking the sidewalks, west of Meyers Road - prior to the mid-1960s...would likely draw the (negative) attention of DPD. Era-specific, east side equivalent = east of...Van Dyke? | ||
Gsgeorge Member Username: Gsgeorge Post Number: 661 Registered: 08-2006 |
How about this: "I'm going down to Canada tonight." or alternately, if you're from Windsor: "I'm going up to Detroit for the game." Detroit is the only place in the US where Canada is "down there". | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 2996 Registered: 01-2006 |
Blksoul_x, I gotta tell ya, your response to my post was written so oddly that I cannot tell if you are agreeing with me, disagreeing with me, or neither. What the hell are you saying? Seriously. I don't automatically hit the dump button on your posts like some folks may, but you don't make it any easier to understand them when you try to sound all professorial & shit. Actually, maybe you could take a stab at explaining the derivation of "ofay." I won't take any explanation you offer as hard fact, but I would be interested; no one else has ventured a guess. Pig Latin for the "Fo," perhaps? I dunno. | ||
Hubbardfarmer Member Username: Hubbardfarmer Post Number: 23 Registered: 10-2008 |
"I guess I heard that!" was a common refrain among the legal secretaries I worked with downtown in the 1990s. Usually it was a response to an insult or clever retort. | ||
Kennyd Member Username: Kennyd Post Number: 83 Registered: 04-2008 |
When we were kids on the lower East side, we'd go to a friend's house to call them out to play. We wouldn't knock or ring the bell, we'd yell Tom-my! Tom-myy! Or Kel-vin! Kel-vinn! Telling that got me a few odd looks over the years. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5485 Registered: 04-2005 |
KennyD, we always did the same thing. I lived on the upper East Side, I guess, 7 and Kelly area. Knocking or ringing the bell was for grown-ups. Kids got yelled at for doing it, because your friends parents would think it was something important. | ||
Mackenzie68 Member Username: Mackenzie68 Post Number: 62 Registered: 03-2008 |
Ofay was explained as pig latin for foe, which translates to opponent. I learned that in high school, I think from a teacher. It was marginally acceptable in class but on the street it usually proceeded "mo-fo." Did anybody else yell "Wait up!" When they saw their friends "up the block" on the way to the Dairy Freeze? And when we yelled for Tommy and Kevin on the west side, their names turned into three syllables. And along with the "deuces" in the parking lot, some Mack kids got to drive the family Ell-dee. Those not in the know called them Cadillac El Dorados. | ||
Townonenorth Member Username: Townonenorth Post Number: 679 Registered: 10-2007 |
Nothing like the unison of those voices outside calling you out to play. Good times. Nowdays they just use the cell I guess. And they don't play much outside either come to think of it, unless organized. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 1421 Registered: 09-2007 |
Heard only in Detroit: "...and shit" (as a ubiquitous end to a statement, or sentence). | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 2075 Registered: 02-2006 |
quote: Added to the list of things not at all unique to Detroit. | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 1308 Registered: 05-2008 |
Windsor ballet | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 1423 Registered: 09-2007 |
Focusonthed...good point. Please add: "...and shit" (as a ubiquitous end to a statement, or sentence) to the list things made famous in Detroit | ||
Firstandten Member Username: Firstandten Post Number: 588 Registered: 05-2006 |
Was "party store" mentioned ? | ||
Savannah Member Username: Savannah Post Number: 101 Registered: 02-2008 |
Kennyd, We did that in Oak Park as well. I've lived in a few other places since, and never heard kids doing it. I guess it;s a Detroit(metro)thang. | ||
Ggores Member Username: Ggores Post Number: 528 Registered: 10-2007 |
wow, you guys are right. I didn't start knocking on doors until about age ten. good call. | ||
Single_malt Member Username: Single_malt Post Number: 65 Registered: 02-2008 |
How about playing "curb ball". That is only in Detroit, gotta be eastside. Also, going to the "show" rather than to a movie. Not sure if it's a generational thing or what, but only heard it here in the D. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 1429 Registered: 09-2007 |
Single_malt....sweet memories! Let's go play some strike-out; another Detroit ball-to-wall favorite | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 2998 Registered: 01-2006 |
I don't buy "ofay" as being Pig Latin for anything, despite having raised the suggestion myself. I checked Wikipedia-- a source in which I have zero confidence-- and its guesses (one of them matching the one from Mack68's teacher) didn't elicit anything like an "ah-ha!" from me, either. I'm beginning to think it's one of those expressions which works its way into language without most of its users even knowing what the hell it's supposed to mean. I'm still curious to see if Blksoul_x has an opinion on it, but other than that, screw it. Now, I don't know if this is a Detroitism, but a big favorite of mine, even though I don't use it, is the use of the term, "for (or in) a minute." The hilarious aspect of that one is the fact that it doesn't provide any clue about how long a time period was, or is, involved. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4045 Registered: 10-2003 |
That's the actual device of the term, though, Ravine. "for/in a minute" is meant denote a length of time that you're not able to remember. Think of it as a shorter-termed version of "time immemorial".  | ||
Bpm Member Username: Bpm Post Number: 1 Registered: 01-2009 |
http://strangemaps.files.wordp ress.com/2008/08/popvssodamap. gif | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 5526 Registered: 04-2005 |
BPM, that's very cool. I wonder if the 'Other' category includes Phosphate. I've heard that's still used on the east coast in some spots. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 2854 Registered: 08-2007 |
Hmm, my sister moved to Seward and now she says "Soda." Seward, AK is in the "Pop" range on the map. Maybe because her husband is from Texas, which is in the "Soda" range. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 6344 Registered: 12-2005 |
Welcome to the forum, Bpm. That's a very interesting web site. The home page has some interesting maps with unusual Michigan and Canada information. Check out the map showing Winnemac. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 6345 Registered: 12-2005 |
At the end of the Winnemac article it says to click on the map for a larger image but that doesn't work. I found this larger image in the web page's source code: http://strangemaps.files.wordp ress.com/2008/12/sinclairlewis .jpg. |
