You Know You're From
Detroit If...
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* * * * * LATEST ADDITIONS * * * * *
You could find anything you needed at Michigan & Schaefer:
Federal's, S.S. Kresge, Revco, Marianne's, Great Scott!,
Sanders, "Monkey" Wards, Winkelmann's, Frank's and Peach's Records.
You went roller skating at Motor City Roller Rink at 9 Mile & Van Dyke on Friday nights.
You remember reading Edgar A. Guest poems in the Detroit Free Press.
You went to the big dances hosted by Tom Clay at the Light Guard Armory.
Or to Father Bryson's Friday night sock hops at Notre Dame HS hosted by Dave Prince
where you saw Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and the Last Heard and the Rationals.
You listened to Tom Shannon ("The sun never sets on the Shannon Empire")
and his nightly show on CKLW radio called "Bear Skin Rug."
You danced at The Mump at Northland Shopping Center.
When the Brown's or Wayne Creamery milkman delivered glass
bottles of milk in his horse-drawn wagon, and a small sign in your
window let him know how many quarts you needed.
Or when the Ice Man, who wore a big leather apron and a leather cover on this shoulder, delivered big blocks of ice using a huge pair of tongs from a straw-filled wooden wagon.
You watched WKBD TV 50 and remember their song "In Detroit, The Kids' Choice Is TV 50."
You went to Cobo Hall as a little girl and stood in a very long line to try on a glass slipper to see if it fit (just like Cinderella). Prince Charming assisted. If it didn't fit, you got a beautiful princess doll in a plastic case, shaped like a bell, with a handle.
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You remember Knock-Knock street.
You listened to music at Baker's Keyboard Lounge.
You know what red pop really is.
You spent many Saturdays shopping at Five Points.
You remember the Seven Sisters smoke stacks on St. Jean off Jefferson.
You went to the rodeo at the Olympia to see Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
And in 1956, you went there to see Elvis Presley.
You drank hot Vernor's when you were ill, on cold days after a walk
home from school, or at outdoor events in wintertime.
You saw Ricky Nelson and Elvis at the State Fair. Or the Rock& Roll Revival there in
'71 when Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter and Marshall Tucker and others turned the place upside down.
You rode the bus to Cobo Hall to attend the Auto Show using a discount coupon clipped from the Detroit News, and you always bought the great smoked sausage they sold there.
You know the correct pronunciation of Sanders (not "Sahnders") and remember the kids’ silver tray they'd hook to the top of the counter.
You remember calling Chandler Park’s small swimming pool 'Toenail Beach'
You remember walking on the cobblestone streets in the Children's Museum in the basement of the Detroit Historical Museum.
You remember local bands like SRC, the Rationals, Red, White and Blues, Third Power, Brownsville Station, Frigid Pink, MC5 and Savage Grace.
You cruised: 8 mile and ended up at Daly's drive-in on Groesbeck, or
Woodward from the Totem Pole to Ted's in Bloomfield,
or Hines Park in Dearborn, or Rip‘s or Jack’s Drive-In
Or you had a Detroit Egg Cream made with chocolate syrup, milk and Vernor's.
You bought Vernor's in a cardboard carton shaped like a megaphone with the little green gnome printed on it.
JINGLES you can still recite from memory:
"Robert Hall this season will show you the reason, low overhead."
"School bells ring and children sing "It's back to Robert Hall again!" Mother knows
for family clothes it's back to Robert Hall again."
"K-R-E-S-G-E, just the place for a shopping spree. Values high, prices low. Your
Kresge store is the place to go. Why go traipsing round the town when the best of
bargains can be found at K-R-E-S-G-E. Go to, go to, go to Kresge!"
"You can have worry-free home delivery…call Twin Pines!"
Daly's Drive-In radio jingle "It's round, it's ground, it's a quarter-pound, it's a
Daaaaaay-lee Burger!"
"WKNR AM & FM Dearborn. With offices in the Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel, Detroit”
"Speedway's going steady with Ethyl. The Ethyl emblem you'll always find, at the
sign of Speedway 79."
And you remember WKNR disc jockey Scott Regen.
You heard The Don Large Chorus singing on WJR's "Make Way for Youth" and all over town.
You remember news anchor Vic Caputo.
And Terry Murphy, the 'foxiest' news lady of the ‘70’s.
Newscaster Carl Cederberg
Channel 2's two-time lead anchor Joe Glover and Detroit's first African-American female news anchor, Bev Payne.
Or that Edward R. Phelps' weather forecasts were more accurate than today's technology.
Or when WXYZ 's Johnny Slagle, Larry McCann and Johnny Scat Davis were all hosts of local shows broadcast from the Macabbees Building on Woodward Ave. in downtown Detroit.
Or Fred Foy, the announcer for Lone Ranger radio show sponsored by Silvercup Bread.
"Kokaine Karma Show" with MC5's Dennis Frawley and Bob Rudnick on alternative radio WABX, the station that glows in the dark.
WJLB-AM's Donnie Simpson, "The Luv Bug."
"Music Man" Jim DeLand performed live on Saturday afternoons on WWJ radio from a glass booth at the new Eastland Shopping Center.
Bob Reynolds and Charlie Sanders broadcasting the Detroit Lions games.
Or how about Detroit Tigers TV broadcasters Ty Tyson, Harry Heilmann, Paul Williams, Dizzy Trout, Mel Ott, George Kell, Ernie Harwell, Bob Scheffing, Larry Osterman,
Don Kremer, Al Kaline, Joe Pelligreno and Mike Barry.
Or Detroit sports greats Gordie Howe, Al Kaline, Willie Horton, Dave Bing, Bob Lanier and Alex Delvecchio.
What about one-armed Bud Lynch broadcasting the Detroit Red Wings (managed by
Sid Abel) hockey games from Olympia Stadium. Later, during the lean 70's, listening and watching Budd with Bruce Martyn.
Also in Utica, Algonac/Marine City, Grosse Isle, Riverview/Wyandotte, Carleton/Newport, Romulus/Dearborn, Rouge Park, Franklin/Bingham, Commerce/Union Lake, Auburn Hts,
and at Selfridge AFB in Mt. Clemens.
You attended a Goodfellows game between the Catholic League and the Public School Champions.
You were a member of the Hudson’s Batboy Club.
You remember the North & South American boats that took passengers on an overnight cruise to Mackinac Island.
You also recall the short-lived Aquarama, originally commissioned as the USS Marine Star, that was revamped into a passenger cruise-ferry ship between Detroit and Cleveland (late '50s/ early '60s). You remember when it rammed the sea wall of (now) Windsor's Dieppe Gardens, crashed into the Detroit News dock, bumped into a U.S. Navy cruiser near Cleveland, and threw such a gigantic wake that swamped two small fishing boats and nearly drowned a two-year-old girl at an Amherstburg beach.
You remember Miss DSR pictures on the side of the buses.
You remember Popsicle Pete, the man who came around the Parkside Projects with the best homemade popsicles in his little cart.
Or you had Mr. Softee, the soft-serve ice cream truck that played a tune.
Or a fruit and vegetable truck and the man yelling, "Strawberries, three quarts for a dollar!"
Or a man who'd come around to sharpen your scissors and knives.
You filled up at the Sinclair gas station and got a dinosaur-shaped soap with a prize inside.
You remember Motor City Speedway on 8 Mile and Schoenherr, later replaced by Arlan's
and Al Long Ford.
You remember the 59ers as they departed from the Town Drive-In on their move to Alaska.
At a ball game in Tiger Stadium, you hear "Fat Bob" Taylor, the Singing Plumber,
belting out the National Anthem on Opening Day and other sporting events. He also sang the Star Spangled Banner and Michigan Christmas.
You remember listening to the “Traveler’s Weather Forecast” every morning on WWJ-950, sponsored by Northwest Orient (sound of a Japanese gong) airlines.
You remember the monkeys in the glass enclosure on the lower level of Eastland Mall.
You were horrified to hear that Clyde Beattie from Barnum & Bailey Circus, while performing in Detroit in the early '60s, got mauled by Caesar, a 250 lb. Siberian tiger.
USS Piper (SS-409) 1967-1970, as well as a surface ship, the patrol craft escort and rescue
On hot days you tried to “swim” in the giant wading pool at Stoepel Park.
You remember Reddy Kilowatt saying "Live Better Electrically."
You remember four bowling alleys within a mile of one another on Schaefer between Paul
and Tireman: Holiday Bowl, Dearborn Lanes, Mercury Lanes and Schaefer Lanes.
You remember the Mason's Root Beer sign near Vernor and Dix.
You remember Irving Nussbaum of New York Carpet World, "The Better Carpet People."
You know what a Boston Cooler is and that it's not named after the city back east.
You heard of Paint-By-Numbers inventor, Detroiter Dan Robbins.
You remember Mort Neff, the host of Michigan Outdoors.
You remember buying hamburgers 8 for $1.00 at Top Hat or White Castle (at 8 Mile Rd.
and Gratiot, they were kitty-corner from one another) or at White Tower.
You bought candy, pop, beer, potato chips and cigarettes, etc. at your local 'party store.'
You remember when Detroit had a Playboy Club.
You rode the wooden escalators at Crowley's downtown store.
You listened to 'Frantic' Ernie Durham, one of Michigan's top rhythm-and-blues DJs, was truly "frantic,” rapping and rhyming his way through every break.You remember him saying, "I'll be right back, Jack, with another stack of shellac for you and doll-face too!"
You remember the window signs: "This family will not be bussed."
You recall January 30, 1962 when the front man for The Flying Wallendas faltered on the wire during the 7-Person Pyramid while performing at the State Fair Coliseum. Three men fell to the ground, two of them didn't survive.
You ordered a Swamp Water (a mixture of Coke and Squirt) at the Raven Gallery.
You remember getting grossed out by all of the fish flies that would swarm the street lights
every June, especially if you live near the water, and how crunchy they sounded when you rode your bike over them...never mind the smell!
You spent summers swimming at the Chandler Park pool.
You remember the Gratiot 'castle' of Mother Waddles Perpetual Mission.
You remember all of the ballrooms of the '50s: Graystone, Walled Lake Casino, Edgewater Park, Jefferson Beach, Grande, Bob-Lo, Eastwood Gardens and Vanity.
You put off doing your chores on Saturday mornings to watch Sealtest Circus.
You always loved seeing the Detroit Mounted Police patrol downtown and the State Fair.
You went to the Minor Key to see the Ramsey Lewis Trio.
You bought your posters, black lights and incense at The Village Green.
You drove all the way out to Jack's Scott's Dance Ranch at 16 Mile and Rochester Rd.
You still know the words to the Detroit Institute of Arts TV campaign "You Gotta Have Art."
(You gotta have art, miles and miles and miles of art, when life gets you down, you ought come on down and get
a start, you gotta have art...)
"Saturday night at Detroit Dragway" (audio) (Sibley at Dix) you watched the legends of racing
like 'Big Daddy' Don Garlitz or 'Dyno' Don Nicholson or saw Packer Pontiac's big
421 Catalinas tearing up the strip...all for a buck.
You remember when the million dollar Batmobile raced at 'beautiful' Motor City Dragway
(audio), three miles east of the Edsel Ford expressway on 26 Mile Rd.
You drove your souped-up street car with glass pack mufflers through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in low gear to hear 'em 'back down.'
You watched The Friendly Giant Friendly Giantand Mr. Dress Up, or Austin Grant's New Home Show on channel 9.
You remember the two tragic fires at Hazel Park Raceway in the late '60s.
You sang along with 70 local teens who were part of WJR's 'Make Way For Youth' chorus directed by Don Large. And you knew that Maureen Bailey, J.L. Hudson's first Christmas Carol, was a regular on the program.
You listened to the Detroit Concert Band conducted by Leonard B. Smith play at Belle Isle while the freighters drowned out the music with their horns, people paddled their canoes in the canals near the bandstand and mounted police controlled the crowds.
You remember Lottie the Body who stripped at the Brass Rail on Grand Circus Park.
You recall Detroiters and future Hall of Famer bowlers, Dick Weber, Don Carter, Ray Bluth,
Tom Hennessy and Pat Paterson set a five-man team record score of 3858.
You remember when the Detroit Polo Club was at Nine Mile and Southfield.
You remember in 1964 that the Grand Marshall of the Hudson's Thanksgiving Day Parade
was Lassie.
You remember Grinnell's "world's largest mass piano concert" with up to 1,200 participants
at the State Fair Colosseum, Olympia Stadium and Cobo Hall. (The 30th concert in 1973
at Cobo Hall, was the last.)
You were around when WSU graduate student John Sinclair led a group of hippies called Trans-Love Energies (which later evolved into the White Panther party) in their first major
Love-In on Belle Isle in 1967. It ended in a drunken brawl with 10 arrests.
You remember the miracles of Father Solanus Casey, a Capuchin friar who spent 23 years
at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit.
You recall two lighted signs on either side of the Woodward as you crossed the bridge over
8 Mile Rd. that flashed giant C batteries and, later, Chesterfield cigarettes.
You still get chills when you think of Shock Theater every Friday night on WXYZ with its scary movies (The Mummy, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein, etc.) and its host,
Mr. X (Tom Dougall, a drama professor at the Detroit Institute of Technology), who opened the show with "Lock your doors...dim your lights...and get ready for SHOCK!"
You heard there were salt mines underneath Detroit and wondered if the stories were true.
You spent many a Friday night at the Hideout.
You used a pillowcase to go begging on Halloween, and you yelled "Help the Poor!"
at every door. ("Help the poor, my pants are tore, I need some money to buy some more.")
You remember what Devil's Night used to be.
You remember the huge elm trees forming lush green tunnels over many Detroit streets in the summertime. Or when they'd come around to spray and tell you to stay in the house.
And the autumn smell of burning leaves when you'd rake huge piles to the curb for burning.
a Jefferson Ave. underpass) at the end of East Grand Blvd -- even though the sign at the entrance read "Don't Sound Horn."
You took a class trip or a moonlight cruise to Bob-Lo with Captain Bob-Lo.
You remember running home from school so you could have Lunch with Soupy.
You rode a bus to Edgewater Amusement Park to ride the wooden roller coaster
(again and again) or the Salt & Pepper Shaker.
You remember "A fantabulous day for the family, at fan-tabulous Edgewater Park.
P.O.P. means 'pay one price'..."
Your mom packed the station wagon with kids, swimsuits, towels and peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches to spend the day at Metropolitan Beach.
You played in the "Big Ditch" as I-94 was being built.
You played tennis on Belle Isle's courts, or golfed at their par 3 course, both lit after dark.
Or went ice-skating, or for a horseback or canoe ride, rode in a pony-drawn carriage,
hand-fed the animals at the zoo, visited the aquarium, remember the teepee, or attended an
event at the Casino.
Or rode the big white roller coaster or found your way out of the Fun House at
Jefferson Beach Amusement Park.
Took a day trip and drove way out to Walled Lake Amusement Park where they had lots of rides, a roller coaster, and to Walled Lake Casino for dancing.
When ice-skating was outdoors and Palmer Park was the place to do it. You also remember
its tennis courts, wading pool, golf, ice-skating, and horse and buggy rides.
And Rouge Park's Brennan Pools.
Or how about the Detroit Firefighters working the crowds at the fireworks, selling tickets to
their Field Day, and giving out firecrackers to the kids.
You rode a streetcar that ran on tracks down the center of Gratiot, Woodward, Jefferson,
Grand River or Michigan Avenue. Or the electric buses on Warren and Grand River.
You remember how all of the lights from the auto dealerships lit up Gratiot and Livernois
-- and that they only sold American-made cars.
You remember when Eastland, Wonderland and Northland Malls were open, not enclosed.
And when Wonderland had animals in circular cages
You know how to pronounce Gratiot, Goethe, Livernois, Lahser, Schoenherr and Cadieux.
If someone tells you it's on Outer Drive, you know to consult a map first.
